The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

7/10

Starring

Humphrey Bogart

Walter Huston

Tim Holt

Bruce Bennett

Directed by John Huston

This was a better outing by John Huston. I much prefer this movie to his 1941’s The Maltese Falcon. Huston has made many great movies, with many tagged as classics, and this one is just as deserving of the term "classic."

What I liked about this movie is the irony that Howard (a character played by John Huston’s father, Walter Huston) sees in it. It’s like they went full circle and ended up where they started, but this time, two of them have a better idea of how they’ll live their lives from now on.

What makes this movie fantastic is watching it without having read the book it’s based on. John Huston wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, adapting it from a 1935 book of the same name by B. Traven.

The movie’s plot can be summarized in one sentence: You should never say never, and money brings out the worst in us. This theme is there from the start, but money just brings it out into the open.

We meet Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart), living in 1925 Mexico, trying to find any job to earn some money to get by. Down on his luck, he begs for money. He runs into another American, Curtin (Tim Holt), and the two talk about how hard things have been for them. A con man hires them to work on a site for him, but when they finish, he refuses to pay them and runs away.

                                     

The time it takes to get to this point in the movie might make you think the above is a spoiler, but it’s not.

They use their last cash to get a decent bed at what can best be described as a flophouse. There, an old man named Howard tells tales of gold. Dobbs gets interested but doesn’t have the money to fund the expedition. The next day, the lucky two run into the man who cheated them out of their pay. They track him down and manage to get their money. They use that money, along with some Dobbs luckily comes into, to board a train and go searching for gold dust.

Their train is attacked by bandits, who later play significant roles in the remainder of the movie.

The trio gets lucky, but the time they spend together gathering gold dust doesn’t do anything good for their minds. It’s these crazy behaviors that the movie is really about.

Fun, captivating, and interesting. I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a good movie take unexpected turns and leave them wondering how things got so out of hand.