The Themes Of Leadership In Lee Daniel's The Butler

In every good film, there is an introduction, a rising action, a climax, a falling action, and a conclusion. These are basic staples when it comes to writing and creating a film. But when it comes to the characters in a film, there are some other staples as well. One of these such staples is that there needs to be a solid leader in the film, one who can keep the story moving or put the main character back on track. In Lee Daniel’s “The Butler”, however, we see multiple leaders over the course of the movie, all showing different tactics of leadership that are stated in Barry Posner and James Kouzes’ book “The Leadership Challenge”.

There are many different types of leadership that are present in every good leader. The interesting part …show more content…
The first type of leader comes from the main character of the movie, a man by the name of Cecil Gaines. The film covers the life of Cecil, and goes through all of the struggles and trials that he faced in order for him to get into the position that he was in, as the head butler of the White house. Throughout the movie, one of the strongest types of leadership qualities that he exhibits is what “The Leadership Challenge” calls “searching for opportunities” (Kouzes 157). In the film, you see Cecil living his life trying to find opportunities to put both himself and his family in better positions in life. Whether he does this by seeking out people to try and raise his status in the hierarchy of command, or by forcing himself into situations that would require him to take charge in order to show others that he was capable of handling those situations. In his book, Kouzes says that if people put themselves in situations to test …show more content…
Cecil has two children in the film, and it is clear that he attempts to put them in situations to thrive throughout his life. For example, one of his children was a very bright student, but he did not want to go to school because he thought he couldn 't make it. However, Cecil makes it a point to encourage his son at every opportunity possible, and try to get him to go to college, particularly Howard University. Even though the son would ultimately choose to go to Fisk University, his fathers message clearly got through to him, making him understand and believe that he really could make it in college, and that it would be a great experience for him. In “The Leadership Challenge”, it says that a large part of strengthening others are “Developing competence and confidence” (Kouzes 243) Cecil does this for his son multiple times in the film by encouraging him to fulfill his potential and telling him that he was more than capable of handling college. This demonstration of another leadership quality proves that Cecil is a strong leader in the film, and confirms his role as the leader of the white house