National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a 2007 sequel to the 2004 film, National Treasure. Back by popular demand, the cast and production team will return for a follow up to the original film, directed by Jon Turteltaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The writer is Gregory Poirer.
[It was stated in the first film's commentary that there were no plans for a sequel, but, due to the first film's impressive box-office performance, an earning of $347.5 million worldwide, a sequel was given the go-ahead in 2005.]
November 19-04 National
Treasure
Review
NATIONAL TREASURE
On December 13, 1952, the Constitution and the Declaration were placed in helium-filled cases, enclosed in wooden crates, laid on mattresses in an armored Marine Corps personnel carrier, and escorted by ceremonial troops, two tanks, and four servicemen carrying submachine guns down Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues to the National Archives. Two days later, President Harry Truman declared at a formal ceremony in the Archives Exhibition Hall.
"We are engaged here today in a symbolic act. We are enshrining these documents for future ages. This magnificent hall has been constructed to exhibit them, and the vault beneath, that we have built to protect them, is as safe from destruction as anything that the wit of modern man can devise. All this is an honorable effort, based upon reverence for the great past, and our generation can take just pride in it."
Cinema Blend re Cast of National
Treasure: Regardless, there are some very good moments in
this flick. Justin Bartha is mildly amusing in his obligatory
comic relief role. Slowly but surely he’s wiping away that
little smudge on his resume called Gigli. Sean Bean is,
as always, a great nemesis. Whether being pitted against James
Bond, Mr. Frodo, or even a geeky Nicolas Cage, Bean never fails
to be the guy we love to hate. Diane Kruger, whose face launched
a thousand CG ships this summer in the Brad Pitt led epic
Troy, plays the intellectual hottie “Dr. Abigail Chase”
with so much subtlety that you’ll forget how “Hollywood” her
character name sounds. Filling out the cast is an ensemble of
extended cameos, including Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer,
and Jon Voight. Harvey Keitel phones it in as the head FBI
investigator. Clearly he and was cast in the part just so he
could give a poignant monologue at the end. Without that, the
role has no business being his. Christopher Plummer gets the
difficult job of being the expositionist. At the very beginning
of the movie it is he who tells the complete story of the
treasure to both young Benjamin and us for the very first time.
Plummer convincingly delivers this “legend” as the wise old
grandfather and does such a bang up job in the opening ten
minutes of National Treasure that I have to admit… he had
me hooked. Finally, there is Jon Voight who plays Benjamin’s
skeptic father, and through most of the movie proves only to be
a nuisance.
THE MAGIC SQUARE
A Magic Square [Kamea in Hebrew] is a
balanced design of numbered units in the form of a square,
similar in appearance to a tic-tac-toe box. Each line,
horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, is composed of numbered
squares, arranged so that the sum of any row is also equal to
the sum of any column in that square. Additionally, the sum of
either of the two diagonals of the square also equals the sum of
either a row or column in the square.
Magic squares have been esteemed for their
magical and mathematical properties, considered by many to be
pre-flood era seals, formulae, and signatures. The origin is
unknown but these identification seals appear to date back to
Zoroaster and the eternal flame. Manly P. Hall writes, "During the periodic
epidemics of plagues in Europe, such charms were blessed as a
protection against pestilence. In the true spirit of the magical
amulet of long ago, the plague medals often included Cabalistic
arrangements of letters that could be interpreted by the
faithful as a prayer for divine protection. Medals against
injury and war, or the hazards of travel, are also known, from
which it must be inferred that these medals did possess some
type of mysterious virtue. The same should be said of the
indulgence medals, which forever remind us of Martin Luther’s
break with the Church over the commercialization of indulgences.
[under a different]
classification are the very beautiful and often ornate
medallions worn by the individual for his own religious comfort.
Among wealthy people, these were often beautiful works of art,
and in this class, silver seems to predominate as a basic
material. Some of these medals have projections extending from
their four sides in a cross-like design, or are pierced at four
equidistant points on the perimeter. Thus, the means was
provided by which the medal could be sewn onto the hat of the
wearer or to some part of his garments." - see Religious
Medals and Medallions Solar
Square construction consists of six numbers in each sequence.
They add up to the same sum total, in any direction, when we
combine all the numbers in a row. The numeric value of any line
of the Solar Magic Seal is always 111. The Solar formula was
often made of metal and worn for focus and protection, as an
amulet over the heart center. Pectoral amulets were the most
popular "jewelry" associated with the Solar Seal. Raw materials
were usually gold, jade, or lapis lazuli - also coloured
glass. Elizabeth Howie observes, "Early Celtic society
was defiantly oral (Duddy). The druid class comprised the most
highly educated segment of Celtic society (MacCana). According
to Duddy, they had a "professional commitment to orality,
resulting in a principled resistance to writing." Evidence
exists, including inscriptions on coins and swords, pottery
bearing graffiti, and calendars, suggesting that the learned and
merchant classes of Celtic society were literate (Duddy).
Furthermore, the Celts used a ceremonial form of writing called
ogam consisting of incised lines (Duddy). Ogam is
believed to be derived from magical symbols (MacCana). The
druids saw writing as threatening to their power: writing down
their sacred knowledge would make it vulnerable to misuse, and
their powerful positions as holders of knowledge would be
threatened (Duddy); so although they were aware of writing, they
did not use it to document their history or their
beliefs." Scholars usually attribute first evidence of
the magic square as an early business tool to the kingdom of
Persia. Desert people were always known by key code puzzles,
usually built on the foundation of a mathematical design. These
power squares made their way to the Western world during the
Crusades. The magic square is found among the wide variety of
artifacts that date to ancient caravan and trader collections
that were used in the mainstream for utilitarian purpose during
the first dynasty after the flood. Other tools of the trade
include circular medallions and rings with a variety of zodiacal
symbolism, possibly transferred to clay when a business deal was
due to become final.
National Treasure
-Elizabeth
Howie, Early Insular Illuminated Manuscripts: Merging of Oral
and Literate Cultures
Films
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost
Ark - Go to
Mystique -
Indiana Jones homepage
Kingdom of
Heaven
National Treasure Director:
Jon Turteltaub 2004
[You
Tube]
National Treasure Image [lg]
Cage, Kruger and Voight
by torchlight
BACK Nicolas
Cage
Robin Hood and the Sorcerer [Robin of Sherwood pilot – John
Carpenter]
The Stone
Example of Magic Square
Presidential Library
BACK Abramelin
BACK Transfiguration
