Saltzman Sees...The Majestic (2001)

The Majestic is a film that captures the sincere beauty of the movies and why we go in the first place. Jim Carrey stars as Peter Appleton, a screenplay writer in love with Hollywood. Carrey loses his memory during the film and while he tries to make sense of his new reality and tries to remember his past, he falls in love.  The most beautiful love story of the film, however is the one between Harry Trimble, played by Martin Landeau, and the movies.  The Majestic is an old run down movie house that Landau's character used to run before the war.  It is then brought back to life with the help of the entire town's blood sweat and tears.  Landau and Carrey brilliant and capture the true love affair with movies that we all have.  The entire cast is captivating as they show the audience what truly matters in this life is that you open your heart and let people in.

Martin Landau won my Best Supporting Actor of 2001.

"It was the only way to fall in love." ~ Martin Landau

Landau was interviewed in 2001 by Nancy Pfefferman, talking about what made movie houses such as The Majestic, so wonderful:  "You'd walk in off those hot streets into a nice, air-cooled theater and you'd spend all day watching Cagney or Jimmy Stewart. It cost all of 17 cents. Woody (Allen) and I both fell in love with the movies at those old theaters. It was the only way to fall in love." Pfefferman felt there was a Frank Capra like quality to the film.

Landau, when asked about the movie from Rebecca Murray and Fred Topel, agreed about the Frank Capra connection: "I read the script and I was very moved by it. It was like Frank Capra had put this on his shelf in 1951 and forgot about it."

The Majestic is a "Capra (esque)" masterpiece about why movies find a warm place in our hearts and stay with us for generations.  Landau felt it decades ago growing up in Brooklyn, and it is still felt today.  If only these movie houses still existed so we could go see today's movies the way they were meant to be shown.