8 Times Hollywood Got It Wrong (And It Made Films Better)
5. The Butler
The uphill struggle of White House butler Eugene Allen was brought to life superbly by Forest Whitaker, playing a version of the real life attendant Cecil Gaines. And by that I mean that filmmakers used a very basic outline of Allen's life and then added eighteen tons of misery to ensure it was acknowledged by Academy Award voters. So what's real? Well, the White House did employ a black butler during the movie's supposed timeline. And that's about it. Allen had many struggles throughout life, as could be expected of a black man at that time, but his mother was not raped by a white landowner. His father was not murdered by one, either. His youngest son did not die in Vietnam, nor was his eldest son a Black Panther. (In fact, he only had one son.) His wife was not an adulteress, nor was she an alcoholic. Oh, and he (and the rest of the black White House staff, for that matter) was never treated as poorly by Ronald Reagan as the film suggests. In fact, most black employees from his presidency remember him pretty fondly, if a bit aloof. Is the story of a black man struggling throughout most of his life in ways typical of that timeline, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, and eventually earning a job at the White House an inspiring story? Absolutely. Is it quite as good as what turned out to be The Butler? Not so much. The amazing story The Butler was based upon the real-life of White House attendant Eugene Allen. While his life was an uphill struggle, he didnt experience the cavalcade of hardships that were shown in the film. The rape of his mother, the murder of his father, his wifes cuckolding and alcoholism, his youngest sons death in Vietnam, and his eldest son participation in the Black Panther party were all fiction, added to enhance the films story.
