Wendy Choi

20th C. History

Mr. Nimmo

26 May 2009

The Majestic and the Cold War

In The Majestic, Jim Carrey performs as the obviously apolitical and shallow
screenwriter Peter Appleton. He is accused of being a Communist by the Congressional panel
during the Red-scare in 1954 because he once attended the extreme leftist gathering in hope to
impress a girl from the American government-sponsored college of UCLA. Thus, the
Hollywood screenwriter was fired from the studio one day and decides to go north but instead
drove under the influence of alcohol and falls of a bridge. Carrey was washed off to the beach of
a small town which has lost sixty two men as a result of World War II and has never since yet
recovered. Due to Peter’s facial features, he was mistaken for the respected old man Martin
Landau’s son— Luke. As usual, the movie industry attempts to convince the audience that
movie is the center of life as Carrey brings vivacity to the town by rebuilding the Majestic Movie
Theatre. The Majestic was set in the 1950s when the Cold War is largely and effectively in
progress. It was the climax of Senator Joseph McCarthy's commitment to the anti-Communist
cause and his series of Red Hunts. Eventually the plot surrounding the Red Scare develops in
close proximity to the last quarter of the movie when Carrey regains his memory and the
Hollywood Red-hunters, or higher-ranking police officers, appears in the rather segregated town
for Carrey according to their potential record of weak-for-totalitarianism leftists— or basically
Communists.

The movie movingly portrayed the absurdity in the Red hunt as a way to uphold
American culture and Western value as the superficial Peter is contrasted with the patriotic
World War II soldier Luke Trimble. Peter’s evolvement into a patriot much like Luke is traced
through Peter’s interaction with Luke’s girlfriend Laurie Holden and her last push for him to
reject the claims of the Red-listing and not to make an unnecessary and untruthful confession.
Thus, the movie well portrays the daunting Red-Scare of which anyone can become accused and
lose one’s reputation. Peter Appleton’s innocence and the town’s lost faith in him also
demonstrate the much undesired disparity of most of the accusations of guiltless individuals.