National Treasure (1 and 2)

[syrakusos]

My wife and I saw National Treasure: The Book of Secrets today and it was not as good as the first. The plot was ragged and full of holes... and several elements were repetitive to the point of cliche. (How do you (1) light up a cavern of gold? Well, (2) the natives left these troughs of oil...) The character of Mitch Wilkinson had a lot of potential from the Confederacy and the Secret Circle to his ancestor (General Parks?) and the support of the British for the Southern cause even long after the War, even to drawing in Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (though not Frédéric Bartholdi or Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel). All of that was wasted. Wilkinson supposedly has tremendous resources from his successful security consulting firm which profited from Gulf War I, and Ben Gates hints "I know" that Wilkinson "needs" to find the gold, but why is never clear. It is not as if his company is $180 billion in debt or anything. IN fact, it comes down only to his wanting to be remembered in history -- though, again, he has plenty enough of that in his own family. It is all very confused.

Nonetheless... If you love history, this movie will push your buttons. When they discover that they need to go to Buckingham Palace to view "The Resolute Desk" I leaned over to my wife and whispered, "The other one is in the White House." How do you know that?? she demanded. But I just waggled by eyebrows at her.

Speaking of my wife... if you have one and have ever been divorced or not over a long period of time, this movie has a lot of charm. Patrick Gates and his ex, Professor Emily Appleton, are real dears. For the younger crowd, Benjamin Franklin Gates is now separated from Abigail (Chase) Gates, but for strictly personal reasons: they are still in love, given the chance...

National Treasure 2 has its problems.

The original is a classic. This past semester, I had a class in Social Psychology taught by (what else?) a conflict feminist. Turns out, National Treasure is one of her favorite movies. She considers herself a patriot. She chides her students for calling Iraq "Bush's war." She says that this is still a democracy and that makes this your war: if you did not speak out against it, then you were for it with your silence. So, we were discussing the movie by way of the socialization of men and emotions. I argued that men are not socialized against emotionalism, but only for other kinds of expressions. I told her, "I was in a patrol car with another officer and I was telling him about National Treasure and he saw it, too, and really liked it. And I told him about the scene that choked me up and brought tears to my eyes, when Benjamin Franklin Gates is in Carpenter's Hall and he unrolls the Declaration and he says, "The last time this was here, it was being signed." and when I said that I choked up again and when I looked over to the other officer, he was swallowing back a sob."

[John Dailey]

~ Haven't caught '2' yet; but, sure will, DVD-wise. It's gotten not-good reviews (on average, re Rot-Tom), yet, I thought '1' was well done, whatever 'artistic license' taken (ok: I forget the new buzz-label, but 'front-up admission': I'm a Nick Cage fan. Call me biased), so, I expect '2' to be at least adequately interesting. --- Though, what could be more earth-shattering, historically, than a hidden Masonic map on the back of the D0I pointing to a protected location for Library-of-Alexandria-and-whatnot ancient treasures all rivaling King Solomon's Mines...I dunno.

~ Looking forward to '2.'

LLAP

J:D

Edited January 1, 2008 by John Dailey

[Alfonso Jones]

~ Haven't caught '2' yet; but, sure will, DVD-wise. It's gotten not-good reviews (on average, re Rot-Tom), yet, I thought '1' was well done, whatever 'artistic license' taken (ok: I forget the new buzz-label, but 'front-up admission': I'm a Nick Cage fan. Call me biased), so, I expect '2' to be at least adequately interesting. --- Though, what could be more earth-shattering, historically, than a hidden Masonic map on the back of the D0I pointing to a protected location for Library-of-Alexandria-and-whatnot ancient treasures all rivaling King Solomon's Mines...I dunno.

~ Looking forward to '2.'

LLAP

J:D

Somehow, I missed seeing National Treasure when it first came out. But I've purchased it through iTunes and plan on watching it on the long trip back to Shanghai this Friday/Saturday.

Alfonso

[emb021]

Saw NT: Book of Secrets in a theater with my brother and dad. While a pretty good movie, not quite as good as the first. More puzzles in the first, IMO. More interesting personal elements in the first (DoI back in the Carpenter's hall, discussion about daylight savings, etc).

The character of Mitch Wilkinson was a bit of a puzzle. Meant to be the 'bad guy', but with motivations that wheren't that clear. I was expecting a more sinister reason for him wanting the gold (which would have tied in with some of the things of the past. I'll avoid stating them here for those who haven't seen the movie).

The intro of Gates' mom was interesting. From the first movie, you would think she was dead, but really she was just divorced from Gates' dad. The interactions between the 2 characters were interesting.

Abigail Chase didn't marry Gates. Maybe after the movie ending, they finally did.

Also unclear was how the matter of Gates ancestor was cleared up.