NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
US, 2007, 124 minutes, Colour.
Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Greenwood, Ty Burrell.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub.
When you’re on a good thing…, make a sequel. It’s much of the same as the very successful National Treasure. The principal cast are back plus Ed Harris as a villain and Helen Mirren as Nic Cage’s mother.
This is contemporary matinee escapism: adventures decoding documents, uncovering coded secrets and then, whoosh, into Indiana Jones territory and action.
National Treasure came out in the wake of The Da Vinci Code, taking another historical (and hugely questionable) hypothesis and comically going where it led. And one wonders why millions of readers believed the absurd and exaggerated theories of Dan Brown and would not dream of taking the hypotheses of the National Treasure films seriously. Clearly the latter are preposterous, entertainingly so. But, The Da Vinci Code!
After the family found the Templar’s treasure in the crypt of the church in New York’s Wall Street (because they were able to decode the message on the back of the Declaration of Independence which they were able to steal), they now need to clear the family name when an upright ancestor is implicated in John Wilkes’ Booths assassination of President Lincoln. Clues and codes? Clues on the side of the statue of liberty in Paris. Codes to be found in the desk of the queen in Buckingham Palace and the desk of the president in the Oval Office. This necessitates visits to England, a car chase through London, infiltrating the White House. A great opportunity was lost when the intruders into Buckingham Palace did not see Helen Mirren as the queen in a cameo!
The climax is at Mount Rushmore in the Spielberg vein.
Nick Cage, Jon Voight, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris and Helen Mirren all find themselves in all kinds of dangers and adventures. Nonsense, but enthusiastic derring-do nonsense.
1.A popular entertainment? Value of a sequel? Relying on the impact of the original?
2.The screenplay drawing on The Da Vinci Code, the history of the FBI, conspiracy theories, the death of Lincoln, the death of J.F.K? The Indiana Jones action adventure at the end? The combination of these ingredients?
3.Conspiracies and clues, evidence, the puzzle, the codes, the code mentality?
4.Washington DC, London and the car chase, Buckingham Palace, Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore? The scope of the film? Exotic? The appropriate musical score?
5.The prologue in 1865? Gates, his son? Booth coming in, the code, solving the code? The assassination of Lincoln? The assistant and shooting Gates? Gates’ last words to his son, the key to the code? The Gates family pride? The evidence against Gates as being a conspirator? The diary, the missing pages, the family’s name in disrepute?
6.Ben, the lecture, his relationship with his father, his reputation? Mitch Wilkinson and the attack? The threat? Talking to his father, his father’s memory of his grandparents, the proof?
7.The tension between Ben and Abigail, Abigail and her going out with Connor? The White House connection? Riley Poole and getting into the apartment, caught? Deciphering the code, the computer evidence, looking at the diary? The indications to go to France? The builder of the Statue of Liberty?
8.Patrick, the attack, Wilkinson’s henchmen? Taking the cell phone? Spying on him? Wilkinson and his background, his henchmen, the guns, listening in, the pursuit?
9.Ben and Patrick going to France, the statue, the helicopter, photographing the code, the police, the translation, the cab?
10.Audience sympathy with Ben, Ben as earnest, his skills, talking to people, estranged from Abigail, loyal, his dependence on Riley?
11.Riley, his place in the original store, writing his book, the signings – and failure? His car being taken? His computer skills, hacking in? His nerd personality?
12.Buckingham Palace, Abigail’s arrival, the British style, the tour, the argument for the diversion, going into the queen’s office, the desk and the panel, the manoeuvres for the escape, the car chase through London? The photo on the road cameras? Throwing the code into the Thames?
13.The decision to go to see Emily, Patrick and Emily separated for thirty-two years, the reasons for their clashes, her work in translation?
14.Connor, his attraction towards Abigail, allowing them into the White House? The visit, the tension, Abigail pretending to lose her earring? Ben and his being absent, getting the information from the desk? Riley, the revelation of the secret book?
15.The social, Ben and his skill in getting in, meeting the president, offering him architectural information, the president going, trapped, the discussion about the book, the pursuit, the information? The escape? The president and his hitchhiking with the truck?
16.Agent Sadusky? His work, the past, friendship with Ben, information, pursuit?
17.Wilkinson and his going to Emily, the cover, translation? Information about Mount Rushmore and the city of gold?
18.The city of gold, the history, the pre-Columbian treasure? The documents? The visuals of Mount Rushmore? The city – the traps, the balance, escapes, heroics? Wilkinson and his self-sacrifice?
19.The treasure, Emily and the cataloguing of it?
20.The president, the FBI? Ben and the rehabilitation of his family, the medal?
21.The popular combination of conspiracies, imagination, American history, what if?
