ABSTRACT
The 2004 film National Treasure is a hybrid, both a cryptographic conspiracy narrative and an action film based on a search for ancient treasure similar to the films of the Indiana Jones franchise. The film asks us to envision the American Founders as a tight cabal of infinitely wise, honorable, and prescient demi-gods who occupy a mythological past unsullied by recognizable technology. National Treasure hinges upon a Declaration of Independence conceived as art in Benjamin's sense, one that hails from an apparently non-mechanical age. A web-based exhibit that runs parallel to the "Charters of Freedom" specifically addresses itself to the film National Treasure. While war films depicting the American Revolution are few in number as compared to films about other conflicts such as World War II, there has been a steady stream of "biopics" about individual American Founders since at least the 1970s, and many of these films present the Revolutionary era in a manner similar to National Treasure.
