National Treasure Review

Will the Naughties (2000-2009) be remembered as the decade when intellectualism became fun and hip – a backlash against the Go-Go Nineties and the Dum-Dum Eighties? The hit anime series R.O.D. (Read Or Die) is about superpowered agents of the British Library Special Forces. As the internet becomes commonplace, it’s being used most not for porn or games, but for reading and writing. Dan Brown’s pulpy but well researched thriller The Da Vinci Code, made into a hit Ron Howard/Tom Hanks movie, is a gigantic bestseller. And even our most popular stupid action spectacles, from demolition derbies to roller derbies, are enjoyed with a healthy sense of perspective and appreciation for the craft involved as well as the visceral thrills. National Treasure is a part of this trend, a winking action thriller in the Jerry Bruckheimer tradition that uses a knowledge of history as the basis of its fast moving treasure hunt plot.

Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) has been searching for a certain treasure all his life. Rewriting history a bit, the Knights Templar discovered not the Holy Grail, but a more traditional cache of jewels and precious metals under Solomon’s temple, and formed the Freemasons to protect it through the ages. The movie’s mythology goes on to explain that the clues to the treasure’s location were planted by the United States’ Freemason Founding Fathers. Some of these clues were passed down through the Gates family to Ben, and after a series of setbacks, he finally finds himself on the right track. Unfortunately, the trail points toward secret information concealed on the back of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most closely guarded artifacts in the world. Also, his backstabbing former partner Ian Howe (Sean Bean) has enough of the clues to be on the same path, and Gates believes that Howe is just underhanded enough to try to steal the document. When official channels, represented by official Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger, Helen of Troy), don’t believe his story, the obsessed Gates sees no alternative but to beat Howe to the punch.