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The miracles of The Majestic: |
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| Nipawin - Thursday, July 25, 2002 - by: Mario deSantis | ||
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needed |
Last Friday night I suffered a gall bladder attack and my medication relieved me of the atrocious pain within a span of some 10 minutes. So, when on Saturday night I went alone to the local store to get a DVD movie for the family to see I first picked up The Beautiful Mind, but then looking at the available option of choosing The Majestic I changed my mind. Canadian born Jim Carrey stars in The Majestic and I felt that after a night of suffering I needed a comedy. But at home, as we watched the movie we all got a surprise, and I must say a beautiful surprise. | |
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McCarthy |
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 reveal 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. | |
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recaptures |
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. | |
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exercises |
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.’ | |
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suitable |
I was really impressed by 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. | |
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integrity |
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 the lives of Americans, entrepreneurial capitalism has been replaced by the derivative formulation of greed, and the First Amendment of the Constitution is drastically curtailed as so many fraudulent leaders keep invoking the Fifth Amendment. |
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| References: | ||
| The Majestic http://www.jimcarreyonline.com/movies/majestic/index.html | ||
| Common Sense versus the Sophistication of Business and Economics: The case of the Euro overcoming the U.S. Dollar , Thursday, July 18, 2002, by: Mario deSantis, Ensign | ||
| 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 | ||
