Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Name: Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Director: Lee Daniels
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Released: 2013
Duration: 132 min
Rating: 7.2
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard

IMDb7.2 HD 2013 132 min

Biography Drama History

Cecil Gaines grew up on a Georgia cotton farm, watched his father shot dead by the plantation owner, and was taught by the house staff how to serve a room without being seen in it. That skill took him from a Washington hotel to the White House in 1957, where he stayed for 34 years. The Butler is loosely based on Eugene Allen, a real White House butler, and the film uses his career as a way to walk through the civil rights era from inside the building where the decisions were made.

The Story Inside The White House And Outside It

Cecil serves Eisenhower during Little Rock, Kennedy during the March on Washington, Johnson during the Voting Rights Act, Nixon during Watergate and Reagan during apartheid sanctions. At home, his son Louis, played by David Oyelowo, joins the Freedom Riders, sits in at lunch counters, gets arrested with Martin Luther King and later joins the Black Panthers. Father and son do not speak for years. Oprah Winfrey plays Cecil’s wife Gloria, who drinks, has an affair with a neighbour, and holds the house together anyway.

Why It Was A Big Film In 2013

The presidents are played by Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack and Alan Rickman, with Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan. The film opened at number one and made 177 million dollars worldwide. The possessive title came from a legal dispute with Warner Bros over a 1916 short film called The Butler.

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132 minutes in HD above. Free, no registration.

Country: United States
Released: 2013
Duration: 132 min
Director: Lee Daniels
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz
Quality: HD
Updated: 8 Oct 2026