Far
from Washington, Hollywood is an easy target for those in
Congress to find scapegoats. After World War II, the pattern
of emergence of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, involving
the media in part, frightened some Americans into believing
that a similar fate was in store for the United States, so
proactive measures against leftists in Hollywood were taken
by some members of Congress, in the process destroying careers
and frightening the film industry into capitulating by setting
up a blacklist. In The Majestic, Peter Appelton
(played by Jim Carrey) is a naïve screenwriter fingered
by his former girlfriend circa 1953 for once attending a meeting
of a suspect organization, Bread Instead of Bullets Club,
so he is blacklisted just as his career seemed to be taking
off. After the word gets out, he is fired from his job, his
current girlfriend deserts him, he gets drunk, he then drives
up the California coast, his car crashes on a bridge, and
he awakens from a concussion on the beach of a small town
named Lawson with amnesia. A double of Luke Trimble, a highly
decorated soldier who was missing in action during World War
II, the town soon believes that he is indeed the son of Harry
Trimble (played by Martin Landau), who provides shelter for
him in the apartment above his run-down cinema, The Majestic.
Lawson holds a welcome-home party for Luke, who is still unsure
of his identity, and a former girlfriend Adele Stanton (played
by Laurie Holden) takes him to various sentimental spots to
jog his memory, whereupon they carry on an old-fashioned romance.
Since he has no alternative, he decides to play the role of
Luke, and he encourages Harry to refurbish The Majestic. With
the aid of townspeople, the moviehouse reopens. In due course,
Appleton’s first film is exhibited, and his familiarity
with the spoken lines causes him to realize that he is indeed
Peter Appleton. Meanwhile, the FBI has been on a manhunt for
Appleton, who presumably slipped out of Hollywood to avoid
appearing as a witness before a Congressional committee. When
his car washes up on a beach near Lawson, investigators locate
Appleton, serve him a Congressional subpoena, the townspeople
shun him, and he gets a train ticket for the hearing in Los
Angeles. Before going, presumably to cooperate with the committee
by naming names, Adele tells him that Luke would not have
caved into such an undemocratic travesty; before he boards
the train, she sends him a copy of the Constitution containing
Luke’s last letter to her. When he appears before the
committee, he decides not to read a text prepared by industry
lawyers. In a Mr.-Smith-Goes-to-Washington speech, he first
admits that he attended the organization’s meeting because
he was in love with and horny for a girl, and he then lambastes
the committee for violating the very principles of democracy
that Luke Trimble died defending. He next reads the text of
the First Amendment, which some of those on the blacklist
invoked as grounds for refusing to cooperate with the House
Un-American Activities Committee, and he is applauded by the
press as he stomps out of the hearing despite gaveling by
the committee chair (played by Hal Holbrook) that he was not
excused from testifying. During his testimony, Lawson views
the proceeding on television and is deeply moved when their
town hero is held up as an example of patriotism for the country,
so when Appleton returns to ask an important question of Adele,
he receives a hero’s welcome at the train station. The
Political Film Society has nominated The Majestic,
directed by Frank Darabont (whose The
Green Mile won an award from the Society in 1999),
as best film raising consciousness of the need for greater
democracy. The most eloquent passages in the movie are the
comment by a film industry lawyer that every so often the
Constitution is renegotiated by members of Congress to suit
the needs of the time and Appleton’s riposte before the
committee that the Constitution is not up for renegotiation.
At a time when the effort to combat against international
terrorism has provoked a sweeping repeal of many long-cherished
civil liberties, the message in The Majestic
could not be more timely. MH
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