National Treasure (2004)

-
July 4 is Independence Day in the USA, a federal holiday that marks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the thirteen American colonies (July 4, 1776); they recognised themselves as the United States of America and as no longer ruled by the British empire. 

Coincidentally, the weekend before July 4th, I was watching the movie National Treasure, which starred Nicholas Cage, Diane Kruger, and Justin Bartha as the protagonists who tried to solve the mystery on the reverse side of the Declaration of Independence... hoping that this could lead to a major trove of national treasure.

I have never seen the Declaration of Independence but it certainly is an interesting document to visit in the museum because it stated the aspirations of the colonies seeking and striving for self-identity and independence.

The movie, of course, began with a fictitious conspiracy theory... that aside from these powerful words, there's more to the Declaration. It supposedly contained a clue that they needed to solve; similar to Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs so that their rescuers could find them. The three protagonists followed the clues while attempting to evade both the authorities and a fellow treasure hunter. In reality, the Declaration was just a step in the treasure hunt. But what made it a focal point was the difficulty to get access to it; after all, the conflict all began because everyone wanted to get ahold of the this document, for whatever reason.

I liked this movie and I can honestly watch it repeatedly... just like the Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones. To me, it's not about the goal too much but rather the act of overcoming the challenges; for instance, the symbolic pot of gold can be reached after the treasure hunters proved themselves worthy (by solving the clues).  

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more