National Treasure

[the Royaliste]

I really liked this one overall; research on privateering has educated me a bit over the years on 'a Franklin and Wall St.' relationship....Good plot, nice 'history', but......Somebody pull-eze explain to Mr. Bruckheimer 'afore he makes another flick that there are parameters to black powder, and he seems to like makin' it 'go off' after swimmin' in the ocean (Jack Sparrow), and in a ship's hold under the ice for 250 years fulla snow! (the Charlotte)..I kin hardly get it to fire hours later, still in the weapon, much less after a few centuries!...Other than that, a fine movie!

[Duchess]

I enjoyed it. Though on the scale of things, I probably won't see it again for a while, and don't feel a desire to own it.

It was a well developed plot line and Cage did a good job doing 'his' in trouble but still humourous character.

In defense of the black powder thing, it is a whole lot more dry, being frozen under the ice than yours is on the open water.

While watching the movie I kept trying to figure out what they took out to make it a PG movie. The only thing I could come up with is there is a reference to the girl swearing, but I don't recall that she did.

The Duchess

[HarborMaster]

We are looking forward to this one., The plot and trailer appeal to us.

The Watered down Black Powder is pretty bad tho !

I hope its not as dark a movie as POTC., and I hope the new POTC's will be lit up enough to see the islands without all the dark aura?

HarborMaster

[the Royaliste]

In defense of the black powder thing, it is a whole lot more dry, being frozen under the ice than yours is on the open water.

Born and raised on the Northern Plains where -40 below keeps the 'riff-raff' out , made mine on Alaska's North Slope....C'mon, this is preposterous..Even when sub-zero, the humidity is thru the roof!..So, pour some gunpowder in the snow,(nevermind the freeze-thaw cycle after 250 yrs.), and light it..take pictures for 'proof'... :)

[Red Maria]

I went to the preimere and I agree about the black powder. I like the movie though a good pop corn movie. Another annoying thing to me and aechivist here at work it the constant rolling and unrolling of the Declartion of Independence. As an Archivist here put after the third unrolling all the writing would have fallen off. <cringe>

But hey! this is Hollywood! You can do anything you want to 280 something year old vellum!

[Hrothgar Addams]

Lookin' at Jerry's Career (thanx, ta IMDB)

Here's a partial list of his credits:

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

"Amazing Race 5, The" (2004)

Fearless (2004) (TV)

"Amazing Race 6, The" (2004)

National Treasure (2004)

"C.S.I.: NY" (2004) TV Series

King Arthur (2004)

"Skin" (2003) TV Series

"Cold Case" (2003) TV Series

Bad Boys II (2003) (producer)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

"Amazing Race 4, The" (2003) TV Series

Kangaroo Jack (2003) (producer)

"Amazing Race 3, The" (2002) TV Series

"Without a Trace" (2002) TV Series

"CSI: Miami" (2002) TV Series

Bad Company (2002) (producer)

"Amazing Race 2, The" (2002) TV Series

Black Hawk Down (2001)

"Amazing Race, The" (2001) TV Series

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Rmember the Titans (2000)

Coyote Ugly (2000)

Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

Enemy of the State (1998)

Armageddon (1998)

Con Air (1997)

Rock, The (1996)

Dangerous Minds (1995)

Crimson Tide (1995)

Bad Boys (1995)

Ref, The (1994)

Days of Thunder

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Top Gun (1986)

Thief of Hearts (1984)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Flashdance (1983)

Th' Moral?

Reality is not in his dictionary-- Check yer brains at the door and enjoy the action.

But then, I liked Spongebob the Movie--what do I know?

[capnwilliam]

Entertainment is neither science nor history. Now, such things as walking undersea with black powder weapons and then expecting them to function goes beyond artistic license, into the level of the ridiculous! But then, POTC was entertainment on a different level than NT.

I loved National Treasure, not least for its (rare for Hollywood) favorable portrayal of the Masonic fraternity. Seeing Harvey Keitel fingering his Masonic ring inspired me to dig mine out from the jewelry box; and it rests proudly on my finger!

Capt. William

[the Royaliste]

Entertainment is neither science nor history. Now, such things as walking undersea with black powder weapons and then expecting them to function goes beyond artistic license, into the level of the ridiculous! But then, POTC was entertainment on a different level than NT.

I loved National Treasure, not least for its (rare for Hollywood) favorable portrayal of the Masonic fraternity. Seeing Harvey Keitel fingering his Masonic ring inspired me to dig mine out from the jewelry box; and it rests proudly on my finger!

Capt. William

Altho' I no longer show any Masonic affiliation for purely personal reasons, I enjoyed the close references me ownself!..With a mum 'twas a point in Eastern Star, an' me dad a past master-Blue Lodge, it was a fond memory flash I hadn't expected.........

[Red Maria]

I was just surprised and delighted that they used the Silence Goodbody letters. That's pretty obscure Frankliniana.

[Red Maria]

The Library just got in Prologue a Quarterly of the National Archives & Records Adiminstration Special Issue no.3 Nov. 2004. In it there is an article titled A New Era Begins for the Charters of Fredom (pg. 14). It's about conservation/restoration being done on The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and you guessed it The Declartion of Independence. The documents were removed on July 5, 2001 and returned in September 2003.

There is a remarcable close-up photo of someone retouching the W on "We the the People". I wish I could post the whole article but I can't so if anyone is interested please contact me off-line.

[capnwilliam]

Maybe the movie will stir up positive interest in American history; maybe in Freemasonry.

Hey, we might even learn some arcane things that we can use in contemporary politics: such as, real conservatives believe in states' rights, and that it follows logically to respect a state's police power to regulate prescription drugs without federal interference.

Hell, we might even learn that conservatives believe in balanced budgets, not in $700 billion deficits! And don't even get me started on avoid entangling alliances, and foreign wars!

Capt. William

[Hrothgar Addams]

By those standards, there hasn't been a conservative in office since Thomas Jefferson

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Aye, it was a fun movie, even with the black powder silliness.

A question for ye history buffs- I noticed also that they were popping round nails out of a supposedly 18th century item. (can't recall what the item was, I was looking at the nails. It was hand held and wooden) I don't know for sure, but I believe most (or all?) nails from the Revolutionary War era would have been square- correct? I tried to find some info on this and did find several references who said that most square nails were out of use by 1880 (Nice to know for confirming my estimated date on my violin case!)

I also found THIS ARTICLE by Bob Villa talking about nails from the 1700's being square.

[Captain Jim-sib]

My youngest son & I saw NT last night & thoroughly enjoyed the film & the soundtrack. Upon seeing the DC scenes, he proudly whispered to me that we were there with the Scout troop. After the show, he inquired about the Freemasons.

Though the blackpowder episode has been discussed, there was one scene that sparked my son's attention. Twas the money stashed in Thomas Paine's old book. When Cage was pointing out the clock time on the back of the C-note, the bill was a recent release. My "stashed" bills are the older variety...and the father character would had most likely had used the pre-2002 bills to stash. Perhaps that may be just availabitiy of the prop item. Kinda like matchbooks in period movies that have the flint on the back verses the front.

[Mission]

You know, I really WANTED to like it, but it started out implausibly and added implausability to implausability. The previews looked great, but the film strayed too far from the reality it was supposed to be established in for me. The thought "that wouldn't happen" or "that COULDN'T happen" kept interfering with my enjoyment of the film. I don't mind films that are set up in such a way that the plot holes are part of the environment (the very similar, but vastly superior Indiana Jones trilogy comes to mind), but this was supposed to be set in today's reality.

Plus, what the heck was Justin Barth's character doing? Did I miss something? He was just shy of USELESS! There was enough Jar Jar in Episodes I and II, he didn't need to pop up here.

Harvey Keitel was great, but underused. Then again, Harvey is always great. Like John Goodman and Sean Connery, you can depend on him no matter what movie he's in.