The Majestic was not a comedy at all but a rather serious, fascinating, imaginative, romantic and social story. Jim Carrey impersonates a Hollywood screen-writer, Peter Appleton, who at the time of McCarthy has been charged of being a communist. Appleton is to appear before a congressional committee to admit of being a member of the communist party and release the names of his supposed communist friends. But Peter Appleton has an automobile accident, he loses his memory and finds himself in a small California town where he is mistakenly recognized as the son of a local owner of a decadent and inoperative theatre: The Majestic.

Peter Appleton has no choice but to play this imaginative new role and in doing so he helps himself, he helps his supposed father and he helps the town people as well; in fact, he brings back to life the splendor of The Majestic.

Eventually, the FBI catches up with him, he regains his memory and he testifies before the congressional committee. But Peter Appleton is not a communist and rather than admit that he is a communist and give names as many other Hollywood people did, he finds the fortitude to speak out in accordance to the First Amendment of the Constitution. Appleton states that he attended a communist gathering while in college and he did so for the only reason to go after a young girl as a ‘horny young man.’

I was really impressed about this movie since I could understand better the dogmatism of the American political and business conditioning, especially so at this time of the Bush administration. What impressed me the most was the appreciation of the social uplifting which can be created by the miraculous expression of imagination, entrepreneurial spirit and freedom.

Peter Appleton and the town people imagined a new reality, Appleton showed his capitalistic spirit in rebuilding The Majestic and in making all the people happy, and he showed the power of personal integrity as he used the First Amendment of the Constitution to rebut the congressional committee’s accusations of being a communist.

Today’s reality is grim, we can’t have imagination anymore as President Bush has securitized our lives, we don’t have entrepreneurial capitalism as it has been replaced by the derivative formulation of greed, and we don’t have the expression of the First Amendment of the Constitution as our many fraudulent leaders keep invoking the Fifth Amendment.

References

The Majestic http://www.jimcarreyonline.com/movies/majestic/index.html

U.S. Constitution: First Amendment http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/

U.S. Constitution: Fifth Amendment http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05

Naming Names: The Social Costs of McCarthyism by Victor Navasky http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/mccarthy/navasky.htm

The New McCarthyism by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive http://www.progressive.org/0901/roth0102.html