I was a little disappointed to learn that the new movie The Butler wasn't actually based on the life of Eugene Allen. He did serve as a butler in the White House during the course of time portrayed in the movie, but the movie is fiction. One writer stated that "The Butler has virtually nothing in common with its source material, the life of White House butler Gene Allen, except for the fact that the main character of the film and Allen were both black butlers in the White House." I was even more disappointed that Wil Haygood's The Butler: A Witness to History isn't a book based on the movie, but a book loosely related to the story of the inspiration for the movie.
In this book, Wil Haygood describes his search for an African-American who had served at the White House over several administrations, in order to interview him or her during the lead up to Barack Obama's election. He found the perfect candidate in Eugene Allen, and wrote a Washington Post article about him. Lee Daniels (who, for some odd reason, insists that his name be a part of the title of the movie) read the article and decided to make his movie.
I haven't seen the movie, but I'm sure it's terrific. I haven't read the article, but I think it should have been included in this book. The book is quite slime; there would have been plenty of space in which to include the article. This book recalls the friendship that grew between Haygood and Allen, and tells some snippets of Allen's life before, during, and after his service in the White House. Then it goes on to talk about black actors and their changing role in cinema, and briefly discusses race policies and views of several presidents under whom Allen served.
There is some interesting material here, but it's haphazardly put together in what is still a rather short and disappointing volume. This will provide a bit of background to the movie, and to Eugene Allen's story, for the curious, but the movie and Haygood's original article are probably better places to start.
No comments:
Post a Comment