A COUNTRY - AND A MAN COMING OF AGE... WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF "THE BUTLER"

I was surprised as anyone when this film didn’t so much as get a nod for the Oscars®- and this was even before I had seen it. I mean obviously having a star-studded cast is absolutely no guarantee of a successful film but it’s such a wonderful “behind the scenes” story of one of the most important parts of American history that I was sure it would get a nomination at least if not an award or two. Oh well. The Academy works in mysterious ways sometimes. Having watched the film, my admiration for it has only grown. It is a great historical narrative, but at the same time a very sensitive story about how hard it can be to keep up with the changing times and how a person can truly grow at any age.

The Butler is the story of Cecil Gaines who served no less than eight presidents during his tenure there as butler. It was a fascinating time as Gaines had the opportunity to witness presidents making earth shattering, life changing decisions in “real time”. But on the other hand, at home, life is not so simple for an African – American family because racism is still rife and Cecil’s eldest son, Louis, is getting more and more involved in the ever-growing civil rights movements which worries his mother (Oprah Winfrey) and angers his father to the point of causing a serious rift in the family. Cecil is an old-fashioned fellow who can see that things could be a lot better but does not believe in violently bucking the system. He has faith in the system, if they give it a chance, no doubt it will work out for them in the end. The question is, what will it take for Cecil and Louis to reach middle ground?

I can see what one piece of criticism levelled at this film could legitimately be : that it has all been done before. The film touched me to the core of my soul in some bits, but you actually could argue that it is lacking that spark that extra piece of originality that “umph” factor… I mean so many films go over the trope of the older character that is set in his ways and learning from a younger character. The younger character also learns from the older, the two of them eventually meet at a harmonious middle ground. In this film it is no different. (SPOILER ALERT SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH) – Louis, Cecil’s son puts aside the Black Panthers type protesting and actually becomes a politician, changing the system from within. Cecil on the other hand, well into middle age, joins his first ever protest. There is something very “we have seen all this before” about the whole affair, especially if you’re a major Hollywood fan.

But then again, and I have mentioned this before, if you go to a film solely hoping to see something you have never seen before, you’re in for a long series of disappointments. At the end of the day, a “completely” original story is very, very hard to find these days and this should not, in my opinion, be the sole criteria of enjoyment for a film. There are some wonderful juxtapositions in this film that I found particularly touching. I mean, it may be because I work in events myself -  my job isn’t that far removed from that of a butler – so I find it easy to sympathize. One of my favourite such scenes occurs in the first half of the film when Louis joins one of his first protest movements : along with a group of African-American students and others who are anti-segregation they go and pointedly sit at the seats reserved exclusively for white customers and demand service. Reactions range from just cold stares and muttered comments to blows and open abuse but the group bravely stands its ground. At the very same time, Cecil is heading the staff at a VIP event at the White House. Louis is demanding service and risking his life to do so, while Cecil, his old dad, is providing the same service to the highest standard in the country. Juxtaposed, the two images made me choke. Not least because, as I just mentioned, I do what Cecil does. I have stood at the “top table” at Livery events and served guests in complete unison and that, I felt, made it all the more real for me. Not that you need to have worked in service to feel the emotion – it just gave it a bit of an extra edge for me.

And of course the film utilises another trope we know all too well – it is a coming of age film of sorts. It just comes with a reminder that “coming of age” can happen at any physical age. It is, in fact, much harder for the older generation to keep up with the times – not that I am calling anyone fuddy-duddys – simply because as time goes on you have more of an opportunity to make habits. And the more entrenched your habits become, the harder it is to imagine changing them. I am finding this in my own personal life at the relatively young age of 31, I cannot imagine how hard it must have been for someone of Cecil’s age. And even though segregation is now thankfully a thing of the past let us not forget how entrenched and wide spread it once was. Having been brought up on a cotton plantation, telling Cecil that equality was obtainable must have been akin to telling him the sky was green. That said, the film clearly tells us that change is not impossible – just possibly harder to achieve than we might think…

Of course I can’t help but point out Cecil is, in a way a “stock character” too. In films of a certain era or genre we see the typical character of the older African-American staff member who sides more with “the master” than whoever the protagonist might be, despite any amount of injustices. One of the most memorable recent examples being Stephen (played by Samuel L. Jackson) in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. If you look at it closely, Cecil is, in fact, exactly the same character. The only thing is of course Cecil is a) a real person, b) soft spoken and gentle so a tad easier to empathize with. In that sense, The Butler provides a very interesting psychological insight into change and our reaction to it as we grow older. Not to mention a fascinating chronicle of a very important part of American history.

So I can safely say The Butler will provide you with a LOT of food for thought. And if you think you have seen it all before – well look a little closer. Like all good art, if you dig a tiny bit, there is always a gem or two to be found.

THE OPPORTUNITY THAT WAS MISSED BY "THE PAPERBOY"

Well, with Lee Daniels’ The Butler looming on the horizon, no time like the present for a Lee Daniels mini-retrospective! Oh, you know how I love long words. What I really mean is that I got a chance to see The Paperboy recently – and grabbed. I was quite excited to see it too, I loved Precious and this was a true story too. A true crime story to be precise and you all know by now that I have a huge “gory tooth” as far as true crime goes. I checked the imdb score – it wasn’t high – but I didn’t let that trouble me as I have found that my view of a film often doesn’t match up with its review. This time however… Heartbreak and disappointment I’m afraid. The film made its way onto the blog from the sheer amount of potential it holds. And because well, it’s my blog and I want to rant.

Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) is in a very deeply passionate relationship with Hilary Van Wetter (Jon Cusack). This may sound like a normal enough sentence but there is one problem. Mr Van Wetter is on death row for murder and he and Charlotte have barely met face to face. This is by no means Charlotte’s first prison pen-pal, but it is definitely the most passionate affair she has been in. She is determined that it is fate that brought her and Hilary together and that she will find a way to get him out of prison. To this end, she contacts Ward Jensen (Matthew McConaughey), a reporter whom she asks to prove, somehow, that Hilary is innocent. Hilary and his partner Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo) begin to look into the case and there are indeed some technicalities in the story that have been overlooked. Well and even if they lacked motivation, Charlotte is quite a character… So much so that Ward’s younger brother Jack (Zac Effron) is absolutely besotted with her, following her and the investigation around wherever it may lead. One thing is for sure: Charlotte is onto something. It’s just that it may not quite be what she thinks it is…

One thing I can take my hat off to Mr Daniels for is this: He sure knows how to pick a story. Think of his two other “true story” films, Precious and now the up-coming The Butler… And as we all know, the backbone to a good film is a good story. After all, we go to “watch” a film, it is a very visual experience and how the story unrolls is very important, but it is easy to be accused of being all flash and fire and no substance, like a lot of action based films. (Latest example to that being Neil Bomkamp’s Elysium). Now this film has substance. It has tension, it has huge conflict, so we’re all set for a good show, right?

Well… See, you might find it hard to believe with a film of this kind, where there is no CGI, no special effects, no monsters or robots, but what Lee Daniels does here is, sorry to say, exactly the same thing. The visual side of it is… Well  I don’t want to say all wrong but, it’s… It’s too much. It’s totally ok (hey, it might even be considered compulsory) for a director to try new visuals, new editing styles and to insert a little bit of dead time here and there purely for “effect”. When Mr Daniels was adding the dead time though, clearly the lid fell off the jar as it were. The first 10 minutes of the film, aside from the lengthy exposition (the combination of Macy Gray’s accent with rather iffy sound equipment made the narration nigh-on impossible to understand even for us native English speakers) there was a lot of emphasis on how Jack used to be a swimmer, and him “posing”. Clearly Mr Effron’s body made quite an impression as it is masqueraded throughout the film; it even gets its own little spotlight slap bang in the middle of a chase sequence (I mean, if there was any other point of cutting to memories of him swimming in the pool right when he was being chased by a murderer in a swamp do let me know, I am at a loss). But it’s not just that. The whole “superficiality” reduces a lot of emotion that we feel ought to be present in the film to mere surfaces. It is clear that Miss Bless puts more emphasis on her looks than her character for example. Fine, cinematic history is full of characters like that. But that reduces the chemistry that clearly exists between her and Jack to a kind of Barbie-Ken type relationship. This is a tad unfortunate because they are supposed to be the most important characters in the film. And once we fail to empathize with them, the film is pretty much lost.

And another thing. The editing is clearly inspired from 80’s – 90’s tv shows. There are effects in there I haven’t seen on a screen for over a decade. I realised as a I watched, there was a good reason for that. Now, it may be one of two things, either it is meant to further insert us into the period, or, the editing is just doing “all it can” to draw attention to itself.  This is a valid cinematic point, you know, the whole nouvelle vague message of not getting immersed in the film, the conscious viewer and all of that. However, taken in context I find this improbable. When we look at films like Precious or The Butler (for the last one I’m basing myself more on the trailer than anything else of course), while the filming styles are quite different, the aim is very much to tell the story. And Lee Daniels’ The Butler is already being earmarked for the Oscars ® in some circles which definitely says something about how “out there” and philosophical it is. No, if there was a consistent philosophical aim, I’m sure we would have seen it before…  So maybe it’s one of those days where you’re torn between a few different items of jewellery and end up wearing them all… And looking like a Christmas tree.

So I reckon The Paperboy is very much a missed opportunity. And to me, a clear lesson that a story can easily become the victim of the visual. There is a whole philosophical debate in there somewhere on which is the true “heart” of cinema, but I’ll leave that for another post. There are only so many tangents a blog post can take.