'Lee Daniels' The Butler' Review: Reagan's Son Slams Film While Critics Give Mostly Praise
"Lee Daniels' The Butler," a historical drama that tells the story of fictional White House butler Cecil Gaines, has been receiving positive reviews from film critics and has had tremendous box office success. One person who isn't happy with the film is Ronald Reagan's son, Michael Reagan.
Reagan is appalled at how the movie portrays the 40th president, and took to the conservative website Newsmax to voice his opinion.
"There you go again Hollywood. You've taken a great story about a real person and real events and twisted it into a bunch of lies," Reagan wrote.
Cecil Gaines, played by Forest Whitaker, is loosely based off of real-life White House butler Eugene Allen, who worked there from from 1952 to 1986. The younger Reagan knew Allen, and compared his story to the big-screen story in his editorial.
"Guess which one had a happy, quiet life and was married to the same woman for 65 years?" he wrote. "And who had one son who served honorably in Vietnam and never made a peep of protest through the pre- and post-civil rights era?"
Reagan then went on to express his dissapointment with how he feels the movie portrayed his father.
"Portraying Ronald Reagan as a racist because he was in favor of lifting economic sanctions against South Africa is simplistic and dishonest," he wrote. "If you knew my father, you'd know he was the last person on Earth you would call a racist."
While Reagan clearly disapproves of the biopic, many film critics have praised it. A.O. Scott of The New York Times called "The Butler" a "brilliant truthful film on a subject that is usually shrouded in wishful thinking, mythmongering and outright denial."
Steven Boone of RogerEbert.com praised the film's cast, an all-star ensemble that includes Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Robin Williams, James Marsden, Jane Fonda and many more.
"Daniels delights in his actors, all of whom accept the challenge of bringing something true and vibrant to their various sketchily written characters with the enthusiasm of celebrity competition-show contestants," Boone wrote.
In an interview with radio host Tom Joyner, President Obama praised Oprah's acting and said the film made him cry.
"The Butler" has topped the box office for the past two weeks, earning a domestic total of $57 million so far.