The Majestic
All team (88)
Short description
In 1951, Hollywood screenwriter Peter Appleton is named before a congressional committee investigating communist influence in the film industry and is dropped by his studio. After a night of drinking, he crashes his car, loses his memory, and washes up in the small California town of Lawson. There, an elderly man named Harry Trimble mistakes him for Luke, his son reported missing in the war, and the townspeople welcome the stranger as a returning hero.
Peter settles into the role, grows close to Harry and to Adele Stanton, Luke's old girlfriend, and helps restore the Majestic, the town's dilapidated movie palace. His recovered life rests on a mistaken identity, and his Hollywood past is bound to catch up with him.
Frank Darabont directed and produced, following The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile and working from Michael Sloane's screenplay. Jim Carrey plays Peter, with Martin Landau as Harry, Laurie Holden as Adele, and supporting turns from David Ogden Stiers and Bob Balaban. The production cost about 72 million dollars and returned roughly 37 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.9/10 from around 61,000 votes and on TMDB 6.8/10 from a much smaller sample, while the critics' rating stands at 5.3/10, well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The voice reading Luke's letter belongs to Matt Damon.
- In the conversation of studio top executives, unseen by the audience, in the first scene of scriptwriting (as in subsequent scenes), the voices of famous directors can be heard, including Garry Marshall (1934-2016), Paul Mazursky (1930-2014), Sydney Pollack (1934-2008), Rob Reiner, and Carl Reiner (1922-2020).
- One scene shows a photograph of several people in World War II soldier uniforms. This is actually a photograph of servicemen on the fronts of World War II, all of whom settled in the city of Ferndale, California, after the war, where this film was shot.
- Brian Libby played the studio security guard named Hal. Libby appears in all films directed by Frank Darabont, as the director considers his participation in a film to be something of a good luck charm.
- Ferndale, where the filming took place, has neither the Majestic cinema nor Mabel's diner. The offices of the "Lawson Beacon" newspaper were filmed across the street from the World War II memorial, using the building that housed the "Ferndale Enterprise" newspaper. The police station and town hall are simply facades erected on either side of the bank building. The cinema facade was constructed by closing off the city parking lot. Interior sets were created on the grounds of the county fair.
- The scene from "Sahara" that restores Peter's memory features the same golden idol statue used by Steven Spielberg in the adventure film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). Spielberg is even mentioned in the end credits among those to whom the filmmakers express their gratitude (in Spielberg's case – for the provided props).
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