Free Republic

In an interview with the Daily Beast, living legend and Oscar-winner Robert Duvall blasted the Civil Rights film "The Butler" as "very inaccurate." The 83 year-old star added, "JFK had one of the worst Civil Rights voting records," and "All the atrocities in the South were committed by the Democratic Party."

Culture: Slavery's stain on American history cannot and should not be whitewashed. But neither should it be portrayed as worse than it was to serve a political agenda. And yet this is what Hollywood is doing with its slate of horror films about slavery and its legacy. "The Butler" — which claims to be "based on a true story" — opens with a stomach-turning scene of white cruelty. A boy picking cotton on a Georgia plantation watches his mother dragged off to a shack where she's raped by a white landowner, who not long after the assault coldly walks up...

<p>Earlier this evening at NewsBusters, Tim Graham noted that the Washington Post gave space, in an item entitled "Reagan Historians to Decry 'Ahistorical Caricature' as Racist in 'The Butler' Movie," to refute the false portrayal of the Gipper in that film.</p>

Four Ronald Reagan historians have slammed the portrayal of former President Reagan in the movie "The Butler," saying that the 40th president's "attitudes toward race" as shown in the movie are inaccurate. They begin the article, "What 'The Butler' gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race," published in The Washington Post, by recounting instances in Reagan's life when he decried racism and took a stand for the African-American community. While serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, for example, "Ronald Reagan called upon the entertainment industry to provide greater employment for black actors." That position was controversial at the...

Four Ronald Reagan historians have slammed the portrayal of former President Reagan in the movie "The Butler," saying that the 40th president's "attitudes toward race" as shown in the movie are inaccurate. They begin the article, "What 'The Butler' gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race," published in The Washington Post, by recounting instances in Reagan's life when he decried racism and took a stand for the African-American community. While serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, for example, "Ronald Reagan called upon the entertainment industry to provide greater employment for black actors." That position was controversial at the...

President Barack Obama teared up watching "Lee Daniels' The Butler," a celluloid depiction of the US civil rights battle as seen by an African-American who served in the White House. "I teared up just thinking about not just the butlers who have worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people who were talented and skilled, but because of Jim Crow, because of discrimination, there was only so far they could go," Obama said in an interview with radio host Tom Joyner. "And yet, with dignity and tenacity, they got up and worked every single day," said...

President Obama said in an interview on Monday that the butlers currently working in the White House are extremely proud of just how far "We've Come!" Mr. Obama was discussing the new movie, The Butler. The President said that, while he was watching the movie, he "teared up just thinking about not just the butlers who have worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people who were talented and skilled, but because of Jim Crow, because of discrimination, there was only so far they could go." The President went on to say: "The butlers who are...

The movie “The Butler” saw its weekend box office receipts plummet by nearly a third, from $24.6 million in its opening week to $17 million last week, after a storm of protest from Republican and veterans groups. The film depicts a White House butler who served eight presidents, and has come under fire for its portrayal of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy as being racially insensitive and for casting Jane Fonda as the first lady. Supporters of President Reagan and veterans groups especially have criticized the film, with some calling for boycotts. …

On a very slow late-August weekend, Lee Daniels' The Butler easily held on to the top spot at the box office. We're the Millers also continued to play well, while all three new nationwide releases opened to less than $10 million. Overall, the Top 12 earned an estimated $91.6 million. That's up 10 percent from the same weekend last year, when The Expendables 2 led with a weak $13.4 million. With good reviews and strong word-of-mouth, The Butler fell 31 percent to an estimated $17 million. In comparison, The Help dropped 23 percent at the same point in its run...

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A central Kentucky theater owner who trained pilots during the Vietnam War is refusing to show the nation's top movie, "The Butler" because one of the stars is Jane Fonda who was an outspoken opponent of the conflict.

While there are always plenty of progressive liberals that seek to undermine our liberty to highlight as Jerk of the Week, it's a nice change of pace to showcase individuals who stand up to do the right thing. We have multiple people selected to be our Hero of the Week and they are Ike Boutwell and three members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins Our first Hero of the Week is Ike Boutwell, who is a theater owner in Kentucky. Boutwell owns the Movie Palace and Showtime Cinemas and refuses to show The Butler, which was number one at the box...

Brannon Howse is host of the daily, live, national radio program “Worldview Weekend Radio” which airs on 50 stations live each day at 1pm CT. The program can also be heard at www.worldviewradio.com. Brannon has been a friend of Mike Reagan’s for almost twenty years. Brannon served as Mike’s education reporter for many years and served as his literary agent for his best-selling book, “Twice Adopted.” Brannon was also the executive producer of a television production that featured Mike speaking about his life story and testimony in front of 2,000 people at one of Brannon's Worldview Weekend conferences. Mike was...

A Korean War veteran who has owned a movie theater in central Kentucky for more than three decades is refusing to run “The Butler” due to the anti-Vietnam War stance of one of its lead actresses. Ike Boutwell, who opened MoviePalace and Showtime Cinemas in Elizabethtown in the 1980s, told the News-Enterprise that in all these years he has not, to his knowledge, let one movie with Jane Fonda play in his theater....

How absolutely horrible! Oprah and Hollywood are going ga-ga over The Butler a project that is purposely filled with racist lies from beginning to end. What horrible people. As Eric Bolling pointed out today on The Five that the “real” Butler was born in Virginia. His mother was never raped by a white man. His father was never killed by a white man. That was just included as an extra jab at whitey. [video] There’s more… The real Butler’s life story was not bad enough so they had to fill it up with racist lies. Hoover.org reported: "Born in 1919,...

Lee Daniels didn’t hold back during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, saying that he believed President Obama’s term in office has revealed America’s “true colors” and it is still a racist and “angry” country. Daniels wasn’t directing the comment toward all Americans, but he certainly had a point. Morgan is known for asking the tough questions and when he pushed the director of “The Butler” to speak up on racism in America since Obama was elected, the interview took a powerful turn. “I think that people are angry that he’s president and I think that they are showing their...

Love her or hate her, co-star Oprah Winfrey and her big media blitz helped open the pic even if it did little to help her public image by providing more dirt for her detractors. Yet a survey by Fandango found that 72% of Butler ticket-buyers claimed Oprah’s involvement increased their interest in seeing the film which was her first movie role in 15 years. But The Butler still trailed the opening weekend grosses of two recent and similarly race- and civil rights-themed adult pics: 42 and The Help. No one, and certainly not The Weinstein Company, expected director Lee Daniels’...

Progressive liberals can never win in the arena of ideas so they choose to fight in a different battleground, popular culture. Why deal with pesky facts that your ideology has never worked and only led to misery and death for millions of people? To the progressive mind, if you can't beat your enemy, then change the very fabric of his culture. By doing so, you'll lose many a battle, but you'll win the war. This is why progressives have taken over Hollywood and education. Sadly, many people today gain their knowledge through tv, movies, and the internet. True education has...

Washington D.C. woman says a weekend trip to see the movie, “The Butler” was marred by the presence of police inside the theater. Tiffany Flowers says she and her boyfriend, Alan Hanson, were attending a screening of the Lee Daniels film at the Regal Cinemas Majestic Stadium 20 theater in Silver Spring, Maryland Saturday, when the experience turned sour. She said that after waiting in line and having their tickets double validated, with the second ticket taker just ten feet from the first employee to tear their stubs, she and Hanson approached the theater entrance, only to find a police...

The new political drama Lee Daniels' The Butler takes its cues from a Washington Post article about a black servant named Eugene Allen who worked in eight presidential administrations. That part of the story is essentially unchanged. The rest of the film, a movie stuffed with politics, historical re-creations and presidential imitations, is rife with inaccuracies that should be corrected. Note: Some story spoilers ahead ... President Ronald Reagan was indifferent to the suffering of people of color. Breitbart News reported this week that Reagan biographer Craig Shirley shredded this notion by detailing the president's legislative achievements and personal outtreach...

It would have been too much to ask for Hollywood to give the Reagans their due in the forthcoming movie “The Butler.” You knew that going in. But either way, casting Jane Fonda in the role of Nancy Reagan was surely meant to push buttons, stir up controversy and generate interest in--and hence, profits for--the movie. This being the reality, let me then push some other buttons. The problem with casting Jane Fonda as former First Lady Nancy Reagan is not just that Fonda is nearly twenty years older right now than Mrs. Reagan was when she entered the White...