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Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather overthink National Treasure, starring Nicholas Cage, which lucks its way into some profound observations on what it means to be an American.
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I feel like the big problem with building a plot around conspiracy theories involving the founding fathers is two-fold. Most directly, the Revolution was largely a literal conspiracy until open fighting started, so it’s already weird to be surprised that these guys might have kept secrets. But on top of that, there are already so many huge and authentic conspiracy theories to draw on (Jefferson was often accused of trying to usher in the end of the world; the Federalists were smeared as monarchists; George Washington was later claimed to be descended from Odin) that “there’s a map to some treasure” is going to almost come off as leisurely…