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of secret societies – Knights Templar and Masons – hidden passages in ancient churches, coded rhymes and encrypted historical documents have been popularized by such writers as Dan Brown in his best-selling controversial novels, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.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.
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