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You can watch The Butler (2013) for free on Hoopla, rent on Apple TV+, or buy on Apple TV+.

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

Can a man remain a silent witness to history while his own family fights to dismantle the systems that keep him in service? This sweeping chronicle follows a dedicated valet as he navigates the volatile decades of the Civil Rights Movement from the hallways of the White House.

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