The Butler is the true story of Cecil Gaines, a butler who worked in the White House through many presidencies.

We first meet Cecil as a child, picking cotton on a plantation with his parents. Although the civil war has won freedom for slaves, you’d never know it by the way the family and the other worker are so terribly abused. Cecil ends up working inside the home, coached by the plantation’s matriarch, and a new career is born.

Cecil as an adult is played by Forest Whitaker, who will surely get nominations for hit performance.  Cecil is a smart man, and he is able to parlay his experience into opportunities, and he ends up employed by the White House.

Oprah Winfrey plays Cecil’s wife Gloria.  She’s a marvelous actress, and we feel her pain as she suffers from loneliness, and struggles with her obligations as wife and mother during the tumultuous civil rights confrontations during this time in history.

Lee Daniels directs.  This is a fabulous movie – filled with rich history told through one remarkable man’s story.  Highly recommended.