National Treasure

Review by Richard Lee

Walt Disney Pictures / 2004 / 131 Minutes / Rated PG
Street Date: May 3, 2005

Specifications:
-DVD-Video
-DVD-9
-Region 1

Aspect Ratio:
-2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
-English Dolby Digital 5.1
-French Dolby Digital 5.1

Captions and Subtitles:
-English For The Hearing Impaired
-French
-Spanish

Main Menu:
-Play
-Set Up
-Scene Selections
-Sneak Peeks
-Bonus Treasure Hunt

Bonus Features Index
-National Treasure On Location [11:17]
-Deleted Scenes [7:47]
-Opening Scene Animatic [2:21]
-Alternate Ending [1:01]
-Treasure Hunters Revealed [8:33]
-Riley Poole’s Decode This!
-The Templar Knights [4:59]
-Verizon Bonus
-Trivia Track Viewing Mode

First and foremost, this is a Disney movie; throw all caution to the wind and accept it for what it is, an entertaining, family-friendly, adventure flick that is loosely based on very real myths and secret societies. Nicholas Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, an archeologist, adventurer – a modern version of Indiana Jones if you will, without the gut-busting fisticuffs, who comes from a long line of conspiracy theorists, who have lost all credibility within their academic circles, because of their belief that a treasure of immeasurable magnitude lies waiting to be discovered. This treasure, they believe, amassed through the downfall of King after King, was passed down through the centuries by The Knights Templar, formed after the first crusades to protect it because they believed that the riches therein were too great for any one Kingdom to possess. The Knights Templar transported this treasure to The New World and formed the secret society now known as The Free Masons to which many of America’s founding fathers belonged. Ben Gates believes that the founding fathers left clues to the location of the treasure in artifacts that apparently implicate The Declaration Of Independence itself. It is the notion of stealing the well-guarded document that puts Ben at odds with his partner and funds-provider, Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean, who has made a career playing villains of this sort. Ben resorts to stealing the document himself in order to protect it from Ian. Along for the ride are Ben’s sidekick, Riley Poole, played by Justin Bartha; a National Archives curator, Abigail Chase, played by Diane Kruger; and Ben’s father John, played by Jon Voigt. Leading the pursuit of the purloined parchment is a federal agent played by Harvey Keitel, whose character seems transplanted right out of “Thelma and Louise”.

This movie marks the fourth collaboration between mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and actor Nicholas Cage and their first movie with a PG rating. It’s a “pop corn” movie to the highest degree; hugely entertaining with massive plot holes and lapses in logic but you’re not supposed to care. The fun is had in watching our heroes find the clues and with super-human intelligence, interpret them with lightning fast speed. Improbable? Absolutely! Again, it’s a Disney flick; just sit back and enjoy it.

Picture Quality:

Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, “National Treasure” is given the full visual scope of an action spectacle. This fact serves that purpose at the beginning when we are taken to The Arctic and at the tail end of the movie deep in the subterranean caverns of Manhattan. Everything in between is filled with aerial views of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. The picture is clear and sharp throughout; blacks and navy blues are rich and deep. The blue filter during the Arctic scene nicely conveys the frigidness of the icy conditions while the brown colors convey the dinginess of the caverns. No digital artifacts could be detected by this viewer save for maybe some slight edge enhancement during the snow scenes.

Audio Quality:

From the beginning, we get the impression that the Dolby Digital 5.1 track will spare no speaker from silence; the thunder accompanying young Ben’s search in his grandfather’s attic envelops the listener from all sides. The movie’s one and only explosion at the beginning has the LFE channel really rattling bones, if one is able to turn the volume up that loud of course. Bullets ricochet from all sides and the always reliable helicopter sound effects make good use of directionality of the rears. Trevor Rabin’s kinetic score, which could easily have been mistaken for one by Bruckheimer regular Hans Zimmer, keeps the action at a quick pace. Dialogue is always audible and never drowned out by the surrounding action.

Scenes for Demonstration Purposes: 1. [18:40] – Goodbye Charlotte. 2. [47:20] – Car Chase through Washington. 3. [100:00] – The Descent Beneath Trinity Church.

Bonus Features:

Accessing all the extras on this DVD is a multi-step process. You have to watch all on the first level in order to earn the code to open all the extras. To save time, the code is 405; on the main menu, highlight the icon of the open book at the top right of the screen and input the master code; you’ll then have all the bonus features.

“National Treasure On Location” is a short featurette with short interviews with cast and crew dealing with the various locations used for the movie, particularly filming the explosion of The Charlotte. There are two deleted scenes with optional director commentary; the first is Ben’s ancestor Thomas informing President Andrew Jackson that the last surviving signer of The Declaration Of Independence has expired. The second is an extended sequence of the descent under Trinity Church. “Opening Scene Animatic” is a rough animated sequence for the opening credits which was never used. “Alternate Ending” is a different ending which was used for preview audiences but was later taken out because it was deemed “un-memorable”. It involves our heroes embarking on a new treasure hunt after receiving no spoils for the treasure of The Freemasons. “Treasure Hunters Revealed” is a 9 minute featurette dealing with real treasure hunters, here represented by Mel Fisher Enterprises. “Riley Poole’s Decode This!” uses the voice of actor Justin Bartha to guide you through another puzzle to earn the master code which I have already given you. “The Templar Knights” again expounds on the legends and myths of what became known as The Freemasons. Lastly, there is information for Verizon Wireless users on how to download the “National Treasure” game onto your cellphone and an optional Trivia Track which you can turn on to learn various tidbits of info on the making of the movie while you’re watching it.