The film is a kind of Readers’ Digest* summary of the 20th century American civil rights* movement centered on an ordinary person with a not so ordinary perspective*.

    The story of a Southern black man who worked as a White House butler under seven presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan is a middle-of-the-road* movie.

    Long-retired White House maitre d’hotel* Eugene Allen was unknown to the public until Nov. 7, 2008, three days after Barack Obama’s election as president, when an article about his life appeared in The Washington Post. He had been invited back to his longtime workplace to meet the first black president of the United States.

    The film fictionalizes* the leading character by renaming him Cecil Gaines, played by Forest Whitaker as a picture of modesty and honesty.

    As this is not a biopic*, some plots bear no relation to Allen’s actual life.

    As a young man, Cecil gets waiter and bartender* jobs at whites-only venues, and marries Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), who bears two sons. Cecil gets a White House kitchen job in 1957. Then he’s sworn to secrecy* and is advised that, “You hear nothing, you see nothing. You only serve.”

    President Eisenhower (Robin Williams) is then dealing with the issue of forced integration* of schools in Arkansas. When the president sends troops to enforce the order, Cecil returns home and admiringly says that this is “the first time I ever saw a president stick his neck out for us.”

    So begins the march of history through the eyes of a man whose job makes him a largely silent witness* to some high-level crises*, decision-making and tragedy*. With her husband always on call and devoted* to his work, Gloria has too much time on her hands. She has drinking problems.

    Their son Louis, under the influence of his girlfriend Carol, becomes radical*, who refuses to attend the funeral* of his younger brother Charlie. Charlie joins the army, only to be killed in Vietnam*.

    Martin Luther King passes through, and the ‘70s bring the mainstreaming of black culture. Louis runs for Congress and, by the time Gloria finally sets foot in the White House when the Reagans invite her family to be their guests at a state dinner, the couple seem to have repaired their relationship. (SD-Agencies)