Review by Pamela Zoslov
The opening of
LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER tells us the
movie was “Inspired by True Events.” Not “Based on True
Events,” because director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Danny Strong
have taken considerable liberties with the life of Eugene Allen, the
African-American butler who served at the White House through eight
presidential administrations. Allen, who died in 2010 at age 90,
started working at the White House in 1952 as a “pantry man,”
polishing silverware and washing dishes for $2,400 a year. He retired
in 1986, after serving as maitre d' for the President and Nancy
Reagan, who honored him with an invitation to a state dinner, where
he was, for the first time, served champagne rather than pouring it.
A 2008 profile of Allen in
The Washington Post was the
source material for this sprawling film, which stars Forest Whitaker
as the butler, renamed Cecil Gaines.
