The Majestic

Critic Roger Ebert, though I’m not great fan of his, got it right about “The Majestic”: It certainly is a Frank Capraesque look at the ideals of America. Maybe it sounds hokey, his speech, to our modern ears, but that’s likely because we’ve become more cold, more bitter, more close-hearted as blacklisted screenwriter Peter Appleton points out. Where are the warm hearts?

We still have them. I see them come out when disaster has occurred – not in the finger-pointing, the recriminations, the carping and whining and politicking that goes on afterward, but in the initial response, when people help others not because they have to or because it’s their duty but because their hearts are warm and open and they want to help. This is what makes any nation strong – people willing to help. And I think America, and many other nations, have that in spades. It just doesn’t come through in the media, in politics, where it’s more important to point fingers and lay blame than to help.