Da Rhythm Rebel
All Star
against my better judgement I saw this abomination of a movie...i let ppl convince me that I could not have a 'conversation' about it unless I saw it
I wish I had trusted my instincts
to be fair..its not a straight up "yes boss" butler movie..it's really the story about a black family and how they are moving throughout the various eras of the black struggle in America. But here's where the problem lies: most of the family stuff is completely made up compared to the real man (Eugene Allen) that the movie is based on, and that is a travesty IMO.
Hollywood has a sick fantasy of wanting to see black folks play the roles of slaves, butlers & maids...stereotyped bullsh-t that harkens back to the "good ol days" when blacks knew their place. Let's just say what it is. The fact that in 2013 someone honestly thought making a movie called "The Butler" would be okay is frightening. So how do they sell it to folks? Hollywood decides they are going to tell a story that is based on a real White House butler who served through 8 presidential administrations as he got to witness history. In terms of the main character's family and personal life, it was completely made up: his mother & father did not have the fate befall them in the beginning of the movie, his wife was not struggling w/ the demons that Oprah acted out on screen, and worst of all in real life the man had 1 son, not two and (shocker) the son that was made up for the movie was the son that was a part of all the various civil rights movements (sit-ins, Freedom Riders, Panthers, etc.) -
in one absolutely absurd scene they actually showed the made up son in a hotel room in Memphis with one Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, hours before King was assassinated..
Was this real man's true life story not good enough to just be made a film? There are plenty of REAL stories to draw inspiration from that things did not have to be made up to neatly tell a story about the Black Struggle in America. how many people will see this movie and not know how much of this is made up and think that most (if not all of this) is true?
and ultimately the bigger question is: if the makers were willing to fictionalize so much of the movie, then WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THE TITLE CHARACTER A GOD D_AMN BUTLER?????? Why could he have not been a postal worker? or a librarian? Something else besides a role that for black folks (men in particular) has a connotation of a negative stereotype? No need to base or loosely base the story on this real man's life, but make up more than 1/2 of the movie, so I really have no idea what this man was about.
There's poetic license, and there are telling outright lies....poetic license would be a scene where he's having a convo with a president, while the president is on the toilet taking a dump..if that was made up for the movie and didn't really happen I could understand.....having the butler's mother & father have their respective fates happen to them in the beginning of the movie, in a scene that ultimately set the table for who this character was - outright lie. You're making a movie about this man, tell it as close to accurate as possible, no need to make up ish.
sorry for the rant, this is really just a short list of the issues I had w/ the movie, I could really go on but i won't unless someone asks me to elaborate further. All types of subliminals tho in this movie that I did not appreciate.
so yeah Lee Daniels is the biggest c00n/ UT out there right now
I wish I had trusted my instincts
to be fair..its not a straight up "yes boss" butler movie..it's really the story about a black family and how they are moving throughout the various eras of the black struggle in America. But here's where the problem lies: most of the family stuff is completely made up compared to the real man (Eugene Allen) that the movie is based on, and that is a travesty IMO.
Hollywood has a sick fantasy of wanting to see black folks play the roles of slaves, butlers & maids...stereotyped bullsh-t that harkens back to the "good ol days" when blacks knew their place. Let's just say what it is. The fact that in 2013 someone honestly thought making a movie called "The Butler" would be okay is frightening. So how do they sell it to folks? Hollywood decides they are going to tell a story that is based on a real White House butler who served through 8 presidential administrations as he got to witness history. In terms of the main character's family and personal life, it was completely made up: his mother & father did not have the fate befall them in the beginning of the movie, his wife was not struggling w/ the demons that Oprah acted out on screen, and worst of all in real life the man had 1 son, not two and (shocker) the son that was made up for the movie was the son that was a part of all the various civil rights movements (sit-ins, Freedom Riders, Panthers, etc.) -
in one absolutely absurd scene they actually showed the made up son in a hotel room in Memphis with one Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, hours before King was assassinated..
Was this real man's true life story not good enough to just be made a film? There are plenty of REAL stories to draw inspiration from that things did not have to be made up to neatly tell a story about the Black Struggle in America. how many people will see this movie and not know how much of this is made up and think that most (if not all of this) is true?
and ultimately the bigger question is: if the makers were willing to fictionalize so much of the movie, then WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THE TITLE CHARACTER A GOD D_AMN BUTLER?????? Why could he have not been a postal worker? or a librarian? Something else besides a role that for black folks (men in particular) has a connotation of a negative stereotype? No need to base or loosely base the story on this real man's life, but make up more than 1/2 of the movie, so I really have no idea what this man was about.
There's poetic license, and there are telling outright lies....poetic license would be a scene where he's having a convo with a president, while the president is on the toilet taking a dump..if that was made up for the movie and didn't really happen I could understand.....having the butler's mother & father have their respective fates happen to them in the beginning of the movie, in a scene that ultimately set the table for who this character was - outright lie. You're making a movie about this man, tell it as close to accurate as possible, no need to make up ish.
sorry for the rant, this is really just a short list of the issues I had w/ the movie, I could really go on but i won't unless someone asks me to elaborate further. All types of subliminals tho in this movie that I did not appreciate.
so yeah Lee Daniels is the biggest c00n/ UT out there right now
This that cacs do.
