National Treasure [6]

Hundreds of years ago, the Knights Templar collected an enormous treasure consisting of artifacts from around the world. Over time, the treasure was secretly hidden in the U.S. by the Masons, a society entrusted with the treasure's care. Wanting to keep the treasure out of the hands of the British, Benjamin Franklin and other members of the Masons hid the treasure in a secret location during the American Revolution and left clues to its whereabouts hidden in various places. Unfortunately, all those who knew the location of the treasure died before it could be shared. By chance the Gates family ended up with the first clue to finding it. They have passed the secret on through the family for generations.

In this movie I have to suspend my disbelief so that I can go along with the premise that there is a vast wealth of treasure hidden away by the founding fathers of our country. Why? Because it is just too vast. Well, if that were the case, why do we learn in history about the phrase"Worthless as a continental"?

The Second Continental Congress, which met from 1775 to 1788 (and drafted and signed the Declaration of Independece on July 4th, 1776) printed many millions of dollars of currency without ever having the funds to back them. This was one of the ways they financed the Revolutionary War. Of course, inflation set in and the notes were devalued. By 1780 forty dollars in Continental paper traded for one Spanish milled dollar coin. By 1781 in Virginia to took $1000 paper dollars to get one dollar in coin. This was the origin of the phrase "As worthless as a Continental."

Moving forward after the brief educational interlude... Why, Oh Why didn't our founding fathers (many of them Masons) use the fictional "national treasure" depicted in this movie instead of printing worthless paper to fund the revolution?!? Or why not pull out this money for the war of 1812 or the Panic of 1837, Panic of 1857, Depression of 1894, Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1901, or the Great Depression of 1929. or many other times when we sure could have used an extra buck or two in this country. What are these movie masons protecting it from anyway?

Don't get me started on this tenuous link from Masons to the Knights Templar. Good grief, the Templars had their assets plundered and were disbanded in the 1307, before America even existed as a country. And the Freemasons did not organize until 1717. How does one secretly cart a vast horde of treasure over all those years, and then to America, the place where it could have done the least amount of work. It would be the equivalent of taking bank checks to Greenland.

So, this is an adventure movie in an alternate Earth remotely related to our own. (Hey, didn't we decide that was a bad idea after Star Trek: The Omega Glory ["E Pleb Neesta"]). There is also supposedly a giant treasure. There are some thrills. Suspend your disbelief and be prepared to have a history discussion about how STUPID this movie is! {BB}

*** SPOILER WARNING ****

The national treasure is rumored to be hidden in the Trinity Church at Wall and Broad on New York's Manhattan Island. The present church was built in 1846, long after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Added: November 19th 2004
Reviewer: BB
29 Point Scale Score:    [6]

Related Movie Link (IMDB): IMDB
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Language: english