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A True Treasure of a Film

© Brian Tubbs

A recent Washington Post reviewer called "National Treasure" a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for "people who slept through history class." While this line was intended somewhat as a put-down for the film (it being a negative review), the description fits. If you're willing to suspend reality for a couple hours, something most movies these days require you to do, then "National Treasure" is a fantastic and rewarding historical trip, well worth the price of admission and a bag of popcorn to boot.

The film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Jon Turteltaub, stars Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Fraklin Gates, a discredited conspiracy theorist, no longer welcome or respected by his historian colleagues in academic circles, due to his obsessive and as-yet-unsuccessful treasure quest. The treasure Gates is seeking is of incalculable value, and according to legend, was protected for generations by the Knights Templar and later the Freemasons. In on the conspiracy were such notable Founding Fathers as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin (of course), and the last surving signer of the Declaration, Charles Carroll, who sends the Gates family on their generation-spanning quest, one that drives Gates's father (played skillfully by Jon Voight) to bitterness and disillusionment. "National Treasure" provides whirlwind tour of Boston, Washington, D.C. and, of course, Philadelphia. Along the way are shootouts (with little actual violence), car chases, intrigue, and a series of puzzles that bring our heroes and villains ever closer to that ultimate destination where "X" marks the spot.

Interspersed within this otherwise "popcorn movie" are bits of drama that emphasize values of patriotism, loyalty, and honor. At one point, Gates (Cage) and his partners unroll the Declaration (which, they have of course stolen from the National Archives) in the actual assembly room of Independence Hall. There is a poignant pause, where Gates sighs, and then expresses with wonder: "The last time it was here, it was being signed."

There is something refreshing about a film that is not afraid to believe in something. In this case, what "National Treasure" believes in is America. And at the end of the movie, the moviegoer senses that the real "treasure" isn't what Gates is looking to find, but rather history itself - and all that it represents.

There is a tendency for many modern moviegoers and critics to prefer darker, edgier films like "Maria, Full of Grace" that paint a gloomy picture of life and push a particular agenda or "American Beauty" that seek to completely upend Americans' conception of "Middle America" or "family values."

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