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January 01, 2008
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
We went to see the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets last night. The critics have generally panned this film (“Can you imagine how dreadful the National Treasure movies would be if Nicolas Cage weren’t in them” sniffs the Boston Globe’s Ty Burr) but I must confess that I fell for the first one and I like this one even more. How could I fail to love two films that make history and historians central elements of a good-time global romp!
This sequel intersects my own life in so many places I began to think it had been made just for me. There was a painful book signing—a unique form of self-torture I have engaged in numerous times. There’s a sequence shot at Mount Vernon—a place where I just recently shot a short film, which will shown there as part of a new exhibit starting on President’s day. An important scene takes place during the White House Easter Egg Hunt—I just finished a piece for The History Channel on said event. It is followed by a scene in the Oval Office—I’ve been there. (Okay, I’ve stood in the doorway and looked in, but that is still pretty damn cool.)
There is also an extended sequence inside the Library of Congress, a place with which I am very familiar, having visited numerous times for research purposes. I found a terrific article about the shooting of the film, in which I learned that they used a helium balloon to lift a lighting set-up to the top of the 160 foot dome in the reading room to light it during the all-night shooting there.
The move is, of course, preposterous in countless ways. But it also is chock full of real, little known history stories, such as the tale of the Resolute Desks, which play a major role in the plot. Critics may moan and groan, but I think it is fantastic that one of the most popular movies of the Christmas season puts history and historians on a pedestal. Hoorah!
Posted by rickbeyer at January 1, 2008 02:34 PM
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