# national treasure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709 "2004-11-08T20:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/61 "2004-11-22T22:02:01Z")
Just a question: If the Founding fathers had access to this treasure, why didn’t they use it when starting the US of A? Also, I get the impression from the trailers that the Treasure originally came from Egypt I was also under the impression that anything remotely resembling a huge treasure was stolen by Grave robbers long before the templars arrived. Do they explain this? Finally…the big questions. I liked “The Rock”. I enjoyed “Con Air” even though I realize it wasn’t particulary intelligent. I can stand “Armageddon” if I watch it under the assumption that it’s a comedy and not anything serious. The only part of “Pearl Harbor” I can stand is the actual attack scenes. I also liked “The Mummy”, but not so much the sequel. What are the chances I’d like this? ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/62 "2004-11-22T22:22:05Z")
It was better than I expected. I thought it was an entertaining movie, even good. Sure there were plot holes and places where you have to suspend your disbelief. It seems like the name and the advertising for the movie were the worst parts. This is one of the movies that the amatuer internet critics **have** to slam to keep their credentials. Considering what your comments on the other movies, I’m guessing you can ignore those critics and safely see the movie. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/63 "2004-11-22T22:23:49Z")
Ignore that extra “what” in the last sentence… :smack: _Preview is my friend… Preview is my friend… Preview is my friend…_ ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/64 "2004-11-22T22:28:09Z")
I just want to say that I think it looks awful and I can’t wait to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/65 "2004-11-22T22:44:39Z")
I saw it this weekend, and I loved it. But then, I’m perfectly capable of completely suspending my disbelief and just enjoying a good entertaining movie. And I won’t mind my kids watching it either (they’re ten and six, and love Indiana Jones.) I don’t think it was meant to be a deep thinker - just a movie to enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/66 "2004-11-22T23:19:53Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Just a question: > > If the Founding fathers had access to this treasure, why didn’t they use it when starting the US of A? That’s because they didn’t tell Alexander Hamilton and he wanted to use his plan to bind the states together by having the Federal government all of the states individual debts to consolidate power. However, would the treasure would have been valuable enough to run a country as small as the U.S. was back in 1787 with as small of a Federal government it had back then. Maybe they were hoping for some appreciation on their investment. > [@](#): > > Also, I get the impression from the trailers that the Treasure originally came from Egypt I was also under the impression that anything remotely resembling a huge treasure was stolen by Grave robbers long before the templars arrived. Do they explain this? > > Finally…the big questions. > > I liked “The Rock”. I enjoyed “Con Air” even though I realize it wasn’t particulary intelligent. I can stand “Armageddon” if I watch it under the assumption that it’s a comedy and not anything serious. The only part of “Pearl Harbor” I can stand is the actual attack scenes. I also liked “The Mummy”, but not so much the sequel. > > What are the chances I’d like this? I got annoyed by the trailers, but surprisingly this movie did more business than “SpongeBob”, which is one damn good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/67 "2004-11-22T23:27:30Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I liked “The Rock”. I enjoyed “Con Air” even though I realize it wasn’t particulary intelligent. I can stand “Armageddon” if I watch it under the assumption that it’s a comedy and not anything serious. The only part of “Pearl Harbor” I can stand is the actual attack scenes. I also liked “The Mummy”, but not so much the sequel. > > What are the chances I’d like this? If you liked _The Mummy_, you’ll like this. Without spoiling, the plot ideas are very similar, and so are a few of the character archetypes. The smart female librarian, for example, who’s actually allowed to be intelligent outside the context of “blah blah expositioncakes.” Also the evil British guys. Hot damn, do we hate the British. Bloody Royalists, got what was coming to 'em. _grumblegrumble_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/68 "2004-11-22T23:41:29Z")
I saw it yesterday, and as I expected from the trailers it was a fun, dumb little movie with a big budget. Stuff blew up real good, conspiracy theories, yada yada, but the real draw was that my adopted city of Philadelphia has never looked so good. I particularly liked that locations other than Independence Hall and environs were used, such as Reading Terminal, City Hall and the Franklin Institute. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/69 "2004-11-22T23:45:33Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > If you liked _The Mummy_, you’ll like this. Without spoiling, the plot ideas are very similar, and so are a few of the character archetypes. The smart female librarian, for example, who’s actually allowed to be intelligent outside the context of “blah blah expositioncakes.” > > Also the evil British guys. Hot damn, do we hate the British. Bloody Royalists, got what was coming to 'em. _grumblegrumble_ I believe she’s an archivist, not a librarian. They’re not the same and surprisingly, people in the two professions really don’t have much to do with each other. Archivists like to save everything. Librarians want to organize everything. They are often at cross purposes because librarians in their effort to organize stuff will say, “This is crap, throw it out.” And an archivist will say, “Wow, look at all this stuff! It’s all going to deteriorate into nothingness! Stick it in to large undifferentiated boxes!” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/70 "2004-11-23T01:06:52Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > You may be thinking of an episode of _The Dukes of Hazzard_ where some out-of-towners were searching for a lost Union Army payroll. Boss Hogg is eventually paid off with the promise that he can keep the cash if the cutie-pie historian can keep the documents. It turns out the cash is Confederate and of value only to a collector (though Hogg is so tearfully disappointed, this apparantly doesn’t occur to him). Why was a Union regiment being paid in Confederate money? Well, that’s just regular mixed-up life in Hazzard County. Didn’t the Confederacy resort to crankin’ the printing press to the point where their currency isn’t worth all that much even as a collectors’ item? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/71 "2004-11-23T05:13:11Z")
> [@Balle\_M](#): > > Wasn’t that the episode with the car chase? Now that you mention it, I think it was! > [@Steve MB](#): > > Didn’t the Confederacy resort to crankin’ the printing press to the point where their currency isn’t worth all that much even as a collectors’ item? The currency suffered massive inflation during the war, but it’s easy to find websites of collectors buying and selling the bills. I suppose if I suddenly found a trove of ~$50,000 Confederate dollars (my rough guess of two-month Union regiment payroll), I could gradually sell them off (not too quickly to avoid flooding the market) for a few modern bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709/72 "2004-11-23T05:49:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Like in the old song “One Tin Soldier,” where the valley people kill the mountain people for the treasure that’s buried at the top of the mountain, and when they get to it it’s just a rock that says “peace on earth.” Sheezus. That’d make _me_ want to kill some sunzabitches too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-treasure/273709.md?page=3)