National Cliches

Happy New Year!

As a Freemason and film enthusiast, I took the opportunity of seeing the Nicholas Cage vehicle “National Treasure” recently. It concerns the attempt by Cage’s character to locate a vast treasure hoard brought to America by the Knights Templar and guarded by their supposed heirs, the Freemasons. You might think that the portrayal of Freemasons as noble guardians of a “national treasure” would make me well disposed towards the film. I mean, it’s not as if we Freemasons get favourable exposure in the media very often, is it?

As you may have guessed by now, I thought the film failed in several respects. From a film critic’s perspective, it was cliche-ridden: it had all the standard elements of Hollywood thrillers from the self effacing hero, blonde, feisty love interest, computer geek who could get past security systems, car chase, British villain (you knew the Sean Bean character was going to turn out to be the baddy simply because he was cast in the film), huge holes in the plot’s plausibility, etc. It was boringly predictable in those respects. But don’t watch it and get the idea that you now know some history about Freemasonry. The background story, about how the mediaeval Knights Templar brought a vast treasure hoard from Europe to America where they somehow changed into Freemasons is wildly off the mark. Firstly, Freemasonry, it is agreed by most scholars, was a British phenomenon that started in Britain and spread from there to Europe and America in the eighteenth century. Secondly, the whole “Templars as precursors to Freemasonry” theory is still very much conjecture and lacking in good evidence. Thirdly, there is, indeed, a myth in Freemasonry dealing with something important that has been lost, but it is not a treasure hoard under a church in America. We have enough silly myths about us to deal with already and even though this one, for a change, puts us in a good light, it’s still nonsense.