National Treasure

Wild and incredible legends of secret societies – Knights Templar and Masons – hidden passages in ancient churches, coded rhymes and encrypted historical documents have been popularized by such writers as Dan Brown in his best-selling controversial novels, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. An immense popular interest in these myths and the adventure tales surrounding them has found its way onto the big screen in the newest release from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, National Treasure.

Absent the controversy and religious symbolism of Brown’s tales, National Treasure is a fast-paced adventure with touches of humor starring the increasingly eccentric Nicholas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates. Gates is an amateur and obsessed historian on a quest for the mythic and secret National Treasure believed to be composed of artifacts from the great civilizations of the world and hidden away by the US founding fathers during the Revolutionary War period. Legend has it that an invisible map on the back of the original Declaration of Independence holds the final clues to the treasure's location. Gates's one-time collaborator, Ian Howe (played by Sean Bean of Lord of the Rings), after a falling out over tactics in 0pursuit of the treasure, is his arch nemesis. History buffs will note the rivalry between Gates and Howe, names derived from generals leading opposing sides in the US revolutionary war. Similar tidbits of US history can be found throughout the film.

Gates is aided by sardonic and witty, but resourceful Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and Abigail Chase (talented and attractive German actor Diane Kruger). Chase is a National Archives historian who is intrigued by Gates adventure and becomes an unwilling accomplice in the search for the treasure and the effort to save the original copy of the Declaration of Independence after discovering that Gates has stolen the document to protect its secret. Jon Voigt's role as Gates disillusioned father and one-time treasure-seeker is notable.

Throughout this circuitous tale, Ian Howe, a wealthy investor, competes with and eventually overtakes Gates in the race to the concealed riches. While Howe's goal is strictly motivated by the desire for financial gain, power and prestige, Gates seeks only to restore his family's honor lost over the generations as people came to see the Gates as crackpots perpetuating dead myths.

In the process of searching, however, Gates also discovers the importance of recovering the collective artifacts of human history built by human labor and knowledge and the value of returning them to their rightful owners. If imperial power is symbolized by possession of these ancient artifacts – if they indeed exist – Gates' democratic impulse is to return the objects of history to the people as they are its makers and rightful owners.

This democratic ideal depends, however, on whether or not the treasure is real. Gates isn't absolutely certain it is real, but refuses to give up the quest and continues to argue against the skeptics and cynics who doubt his sanity. His father, a symbol of a comfortable and quiet generation, has come to accept his own inability to find the lost treasure and assumes it was only a myth.

Among other things, this film is about competing and contested factions in the struggle to define America's past and future. In this conflict – not so subtly a class conflict – Howe signifies the worst traditions in the national story: imperialism, class exploitation, power, slavery, domination and violence. Gates expresses the best, if currently suppressed, traditions of democracy, unity, and a larger belief in the intrinsic value of a universal humanity that defies borders.

If the treasure does exist, who will ultimately control it? Will the Ian Howe's of the world subvert its internationalist democratic meaning, say for example like George W. Bush has done, in order to garner wealth into the hands of a few or will the treasure's true meaning and value be returned to the people of the world? The outlines of this very real struggle are at the heart of the story.

This film's glaring shortcoming is its implausibility. If we are asked to believe that a story about the struggle for democracy is populated with only white actors (as is the case with National Treasure's main cast), then it defies reality. If the film's makers simply aren't aware of this flaw in their otherwise entertaining achievement, then perhaps they need more schooling in US history than trivial tidbits about Benjamin Franklin's writing habits or the names of Revolutionary generals. A film about the American national saga that excludes people of color falls short; when that story centers on the struggle for democracy and excludes people of color, it fails outright.



--Martha Kramer writes on popular culture for Political Affairs and can be reached at pa-letters@politicalaffairs.net.



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