The Butler is a solid piece of old-school historical drama. As an alleged non-fiction, it works well enough as to be effective even if its biographical details were mostly fiction (which they somewhat are). It doesn’t offer the viewers the easy comforts of racism overcome, nor does it try to make Mr. Gaines a bigger part of history than he actually was. Like most good historical dramas, it paints a picture of not how far we’ve come but of how little ground we’ve gained. It presents not an uplifting triumph, but a series of token victories of varying importance while emphasizing the human cost of those relative victories. It’s a mostly well-acted drama, with a large and varied cast, anchored by strong turns from Whitaker and Oyelowo.
And most importantly, The Butler is both a solid major studio drama and a major studio release about the African American experience told through their own eyes.
