The Treasure of Sierra Madre
USA, 1948
Director: John Huston
Screenwriter: John Huston (based on the novel by B. Traven)
Genre: Adventure, Western
Soundtrack composer: Max Steiner
Editing: Owen Marks
Production: Warner Bros.
Cast:
Humphrey Bogart (Fred C. Dobbs)
Walter Huston (Howard)
Tim Holt (Bob Curtin)
Bruce Bennett (James Cody)
Barton MacLane (Pat McCormick)
Alfonso Bedoya (Golden Hat)
Plot
Fred Dobbs is a broke American who has ended up in the Mexican city of Tampico, and is trying to get by. He is forced to beg for alms from other compatriots. One of them, McCormick, decides to hire him for a heavy job. While doing this work, he meets the Americans Curtin and Howard.
McCormick turns out to be an abusive employer, who does not pay his employees. After giving him what he deserves, Dobbs and Curtin decide to join old Howard in exploring the Sierra Madre for gold. Those mountains are quite dangerous, and the expert Howard knows them well enough to act as a guide. Dobbs, meanwhile, has won a small lottery prize that allows them to buy some donkeys and mining equipment.
The three set out on their way. Dobbs and Curtin are not used to the hardship of such work, and did not expect the search for gold to be so difficult. But soon their efforts are rewarded. They discover the precious metal and work with increasing motivation.
However, the more gold they find, the more their mutual suspicions grow. Distrust and greed are on the rise.
On top of that, what they are doing is officially illegal because they do not have permission from the relevant authorities. In addition, dangerous bandits lurk in the mountains.
One day, when they go to buy supplies in a nearby town, they meet another American, James Cody. Although the others try to dissemble, Cody intuits that they are gold prospectors, and insists on joining them…
Comment
Excellent adventure film reminiscent of a revisionist-style western, which shows us, with masterful use of suspense and great psychological depth, the development of an alliance of American gold prospectors in the Mexico of now 100 years ago. The initial supposed values of loyalty and camaraderie are increasingly tarnished by mutual suspicions once the search for the treasure begins to bear fruit – especially because of the character and behavior of one of the members of the protagonist trio.
Indeed, there are many ingredients of the Italian-style western that two decades later would be popularized by directors such as Sergio Leone; and the film we are concerned with today could well have been called “The Good, the Bad, and the Old”.
The story is based on a novel by B. Traven, an author of German origin who settled in Mexico and who also inspired the screenplay of the excellent film “Macario” (1960), which has a philosophical-metaphysical plot very similar to the much better known (but in my opinion overrated) “The Seventh Seal” (Ingmar Bergman, 1957).
During the plot we are presented with the values of loyalty, comradeship and honor; always in opposition to greed, distrust and betrayal, also components of the story.
It is interesting to note that the greater the number of partners, the better the “harmony” in the group seems to work. When there are only three of them, the suspicion is greater and they decide to divide their respective shares of the loot from the beginning of each night (instead of at the end of the project). When Cody arrives, the three of them join forces because they distrust the newcomer. And then the bandits arrive and the four gringos have no choice but to defend themselves together. We see here the usual pattern of new external threats helping to keep otherwise organically uncohesive groups together.
There are great metaphorical allusions of great visual power in several scenes: among them is that of one of the main protagonists of the story, who, tormented by his conscience, tries to fall asleep by the campfire, and the framing of the camera and the sound accompaniment suggest that they are the flames of hell, waiting for him. Another scene to highlight is that of the poisonous lizard hiding in the hole where one of the characters kept his share of the treasure (and the conflict that develops from that situation). And there are many more memorable situations, such as the reading of the letter from the wife (now widowed) of one of the fallen, or the hospitality of the Mexican indígenas.
Old Howard is played by Walter Huston, who was the director’s father. Humphrey Bogart gives a superb performance as Dobbs; it is very convincing to see how he descends further and further into a spiral of paranoia…
Don’t miss this masterpiece!
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