The Butler

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INT. WHITE HOUSE - ENTRANCE HALL - DAY - 2009

CECIL GAINES, 90, kind, elegant and much wiser than he lets

on, sits in the Entrance Hall of the White House. It’s been

many years since he’s been here, but it’s as he remembers.

QUICK CUT TO - an image of two black men HANGING from a pole,

they’ve just been lynched. The American flag waves in the

wind behind their limp bodies.

CUT BACK TO - CECIL IN THE WHITE HOUSE. He is emotionless as

he contemplates his dark past. We hear his voice...

CECIL V.O.

The only thing I ever knew was

cotton.

FADE CUT TO:

EXT. COTTON FARM - DAY - 1926

The sun pounds down on a beautiful cotton field. Brilliant

reds and alabaster whites intermix with green foliage along a

blue river bed. Twenty or so black FIELD WORKERS lace the

cotton field baking in the heat.

CHYRON:
MACON, GEORGIA, 1926

CECIL V.O.

It was hard work. But I didn’t mind

because I got to spend all day with

my daddy.

Cecil Gaines, now 8, sits in the field with his dad, EARL

GAINES, 30, tough, who teaches him how to pick cotton.

EARL:

...and you know the cotton is ready

when the bulb splits, and the bulb

is star shaped, like a big old star

in the sky. Like your big ol’ head.

Earl rubs cotton all over young Cecil’s head as Cecil laughs.

EXT. WESTFALL HOUSE - PORCH - DAY - 1926

THOMAS WESTFALL, 25, an attractive white man with bad skin

sits with his grandmother ANNABETH, 70’s, sharp and stern,

reading on the kitchen porch as he heads to the field. Thomas

looks over his property and his workers. It’s a good day.

EXT. COTTON FARM - DAY - 1926

Cecil’s friend, ABRAHAM, 9, holds a worn old camera as Earl

positions his wife, HATTIE PEARL, 25, beautiful, together

with Cecil.

EARL:

Hurry up and take this picture.

ABRAHAM:

Why don’t everybody smile?

2 The family barely smiles as Abraham snaps the camera. 2

Then - Thomas walks into the field, towards Hattie Pearl.

THOMAS:

Hattie, come on. Come on!

Little Cecil and Abraham both look up with concern to Earl.

Hattie Pearl reluctantly follows Thomas to the shed.

CECIL:

Pa, where is he taking ma?

THOMAS:

Get back to work!

Earl looks frustrated. He goes back to the cotton. His pace

quickens as he picks the cotton. Sweat drops from his lip.

Cecil heads for the shed. Earl snatches him mid-stride.

CECIL:

(Yelling)

Mamma!

EARL:

Look at me boy. Don’t lose your

temper with that man. This is his

world. We just be living in it.

You hear me? Now get on back to

work!

Cecil watches his mother enter the shed. Stares a beat, then

sadly goes back to work with Abraham.

We hear some commotion, then Hattie Pearl’s piercing SCREAM.

The workers don’t look up. Everyone continues picking cotton.

Annabeth stands from the porch. She looks towards the shed.

Thomas stumbles back to the field. None of the workers dare

look up except for Earl.

2.

CECIL:

Pa...What you goin’ do?

Earl turns to Thomas defiantly.

EARL:

Hey! Don’t you ever do that to my

wife.

Thomas pulls his revolver out. Cecil looks terrified, as

everyone watches in silence. Then -

Thomas SHOOTS Earl square in the eye!

CECIL:

Dad!

The WORKERS on the field freeze. Little Cecil stares in

shock at his father’s body twitching against the cotton, a

chunk of his head in the dirt. A fly lands on Cecil’s brow.

Annabeth runs towards the field as Thomas heads back to the

house waving his gun around.

THOMAS:

What are you looking at?! Huh? Who

wants to go next? You get back to

work!

Cecil trembles in utter shock as Annabeth approaches him.

ANNABETH:

Hey you! Men! Get some of the hands

to help dig a hole for his pa.

She points to an area taken over by weeds near the shed. Then

leans down toward Cecil, feels sorry for him.

ANNABETH (CONT’D)

Stop crying.

(Then)

I’ma have you working at the house

now.

She bends down to face him.

ANNABETH (CONT’D)

I’m gonna teach you how to be a

house n*gger.

Little Cecil stares at her in pure sadness.

TITLES:

3.

INT. WESTFALL HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY - 1926

PATTY CAKE, 50’s, heavy, arranges baked chicken on a tray.

Cecil pays close attention. Annabeth enters to oversee.

ANNABETH:

Quiet when you’re serving. I don’t

even want to hear you breathe.

A fearful Cecil nods.

INT. WESTFALL HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT - 1926

Cecil stands behind Patty Cake holding a bowl of potatoes

that she scoops onto Annabeth’s, Thomas’, and her TEENAGE

GRANDSON’S plates. These men appear to be an ungrateful

bunch. Cecil holds his breath, struggling not to make a peep.

CECIL V.O.

It was much nicer working in the

house than in the field.

Thomas grabs Cecil’s arm.

THOMAS:

Give me more.

INT. STUDY - DAY - 1926

Cecil pours iced tea for Annabeth who reads The Adventure of

Sherlock Holmes. Annabeth examines the tea. Satisfied, she

goes back to her book, flicks her hand at him to leave.

INT. WESTFALL HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY - 1926

SEQUENCE - TIME LAPSE: Cecil serving throughout the household

as we dissolve from 8 year old Cecil to 15 year old Cecil.

15 year old Cecil bows his head at his father’s grave.

CECIL V.O.

When I got older, I knew I had to

go before he killed me too.

He then heads up the road walking through the poverty

stricken sharecropper’s houses.

CECIL V.O. (CONT’D)

Part of me was scared to leave, it

was the only world I ever knew.

4.

EXT. SHARECROPPER HOUSE - DAWN - 1933

Hattie Pearl sits in the corner, a shell of a woman. The

years have broken her mind. Cecil goes to his mother, he

holds out an old watch.

CECIL:

Ma, I took pa’s watch.

Hattie doesn’t respond.

CECIL (CONT’D)

Ma, I’m leavin’.

She’s too far gone to even notice him. He hugs her goodbye.

CECIL V.O.

My ma never spoke much after that.

I knew she’d miss me. But I also

knew she wanted me to leave that

place.

EXT. PORCH - NIGHT- LATER - 1933

Annabeth sits in the rocker on her porch as she tucks a book

into Cecil’s shirt.

CECIL V.O.

And even though Miss Annabeth never

said it, I knew she’d miss me too.

EXT. SHARECROPPER HOUSE - DIRT ROAD - 1933

Cecil walks down a lonely dirt road by himself.

CECIL V.O.

I don’t think God meant for people

to not have a family. I yearned for

one.

INT./EXT. CULVERT - NIGHT - 1933

A rainstorm hammers down upon the roof of a small culvert.

Cecil cradles his shivering body. Water drips from the roof

down onto Cecil’s head. DRIP...DRIP...DRIP. With each DRIP of

water, he looks like he’s slowly going mad.

CECIL V.O.

Outside the cotton fields was much

worse than I thought it’d be.

5.

SEQUENCE:
Cecil traveling through the Southern countryside.

He walks through the rain, alone, hungry and desperate.

CECIL V.O. (CONT’D)

No one would give me a job, or

food, or a place to sleep. I was

hungry all the time.

EXT. STREET INTO TOWN - MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT - 1933

Cecil walks into a town and passes by two lynched men hanging

from a pole (the opening of the film). Cecil stares at them,

terrified.

CECIL V.O.

Any white man could kill any of us

at any time and not be punished for

it. The law wasn’t on our side. The

law was against us.

EXT. HOTEL RESTAURANT - MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT - 1933

Cecil creeps down the street through the pouring rain.

Paranoid, he looks over his shoulder. He peers in a window of

the restaurant, sees an elaborate array of succulent pies and

cakes resting on the counter.

CECIL V.O.

And even though I knew the law was

against me...

He gazes in, then suddenly SMASHES the window with his fist!

INT. HOTEL RESTAURANT - NIGHT - 1933

His wrist gashed and spilling blood, Cecil heads toward the

pastry laced counter. He devours a frosted coconut creme

cake. He sees his blood drip into the frosting.

Cecil catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror behind the

counter. The hunger in his eyes, blood mixed with white

frosting against his black skin are a site of the macabre.

CECIL V.O.

...I never knew I could be this

hungry.

Then a VOICE calls out from across the room.

6.

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