We love Nick.

And just like that we’ve come to the end of our week.

Author

Tyler Clark
June 30, 2023

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the newsletter that loves movies more than Nick Cage loves taking a paycheck.

National Treasure (2004)

And just like that we’ve come to the end of our week. So let’s finish out strong with an incredibly fun adventure film that is so of its time, not in that it feels dated, but simply because Disney would never make something like it today!

We’re talking about John Turteltaub’s National Treasure!

A National Treasure

As we’d mentioned before this feels like a movie Disney would have zero interest in making today.

It’s not franchise-able, you can’t really make toys or games out of it, and it can’t be used to push a new teeny bopper star. For God’s sake John Voight is fifth billed!

But that’s so much of the charm of this thing. It’s a simple adventure with the most specific quest with the most specific end goal imaginable.

The film features performances, a score, and the visual stylings that felt mostly standard at the time but in hindsight we yearn to bring it back. A style that is so warm and textured, a score that is this big and memorable, and performances so earnest you actually believe Nicolas Cage and Justin Bartha are stealing the Declaration of Independence!

Filmmaking Through the Eyes of a JourneyMan

We talk a lot about auteurs here. Filmmakers with they’re specific uncompromising styles.

But not every person that directs a movie is an auteur. Sometimes they’re just filmmakers that show up, put in the work, and make quality films.

We’re not talking about directors who are known for making trash like Olivier Megaton or Len Wiseman, directors who just have poor instincts.

We’re talking about directors like Joe Johnston, Ron Howard, or Doug Liman, guys who are a steady hand that will always deliver a strong product.

Is the movie always gonna be great? No, but you can always rely on them making it the most solid version of what it is.

Let’s take Liman for example. The man has directed over the course of his career: Swingers,The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jumper, Edge of Tomorrow, and Chaos Walking.

Are these all winners? No, but do they have a solid foundation behind them in the directors chair? Absolutely!

Today’s feature is directed by one of these types. John Turteltaub is a man who has zero distinct elements to his films but always delivers a product that is at least interesting. There are no through lines between While You Were Sleeping, Cool Runnings, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but they are all incredibly watchable.

And Turteltaub even believes this of himself. One of his old camera operators tells the story that at the end of a take John called cut and as he was watching the footage, looks at this grip and says “You know, I’m not some fancy artist. I know what I do, I make turkey sandwiches. and who doesn’t like turkey sandwiches?”

Today’s Scene