The Butler

2013 · 2h12 · Film

Directed by Lee Daniels

Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mariah Carey, Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, Aml Ameen

Ideal when you feel… Sad / low

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

Updated July 22, 2026

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