Secret Elitist Elements in "Treasure"

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2007)

Although they exhibit insightful interpretation of code language, the writers made many decisively elitist choices that fail Disney's promise to serve the public interest. The heroes of this movie are jet-setter multimillionaires or billionaires. They could have been persons of ordinary income, with minor adjustments to the plot. So many American movies focus on the experiences of the topmost income earners as if to say that theirs are the most interesting lives. The affluent heroes claim their desire to solve the mystery is to clear up their family name, a name that is followed in the news media, that originates centuries ago. That is pure poppycock because here, in America, we don't have a nobility, we don't have persons strutting superiority over the peasants on the basis of family plumage, crest, shield. The writers must be anticipating the imminent demise of the inheritance tax, which many Republicans sought to entirely extricate from federal law in our recent past. Then, these valiant heroes cause horrible damage and injury to ordinary populations where they engage in car chases. No punishment is even feared. But when one of them detains the President for a few minutes, even though the President was pleased that it happened, there are these overlong deliberations about the harm to that V.I.P. and the punishment that might be meted out. If the film was intended to be realistic, how do heroes engage in highly destructive car chases without fear of lawsuits for negligence and reckless driving? Or if it is a fantasy, why do the audiences have to be treated to scenes of large fleets of police cars chasing down these heroes as if they were criminals just for having spoken of interesting things privately to the President? It's consistent with the return of a nobility to depict damage to peasants as trivial. Setting aside this objection, this movie is fun to watch, in good taste, and thought-provoking. But nobility is the family value Disney is promoting with "National Treasure".