Review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) by Guy G — 09 Jul 2011

[100/A+] A tremendously sure-footed, macho adventure-travelogue into the open, brutal wilderness of 1920s Mexico, with three down-and-out Americans trying to change their luck by prospecting for gold in the brown, bandit-infested mountains. There, the biggest threat to their endeavor turns out to be, not thieves or rattlesnakes, but the effect of gold on man's moral sense.

This movie has the grit and environmental scenery (beautifully photographed) of a true western, including cantina brawls, gunfights, Indians, horse-riding banditos, and the thematic appeal of hardscrabble men forging a way through an untamed land. But Huston's epic is determinedly unforgiving, Hobbesian, and wry, with deeply amoralistic inclinations that belie the romanticism of the classic genre.

Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs may be an unforgettably despicable and weak fellow, whom greed drives to madness and destruction, but his kinder, gentler companions (Holt, and a perfect Walter Huston in a bull's-eye performance) are obviously closer to his reptilian shortcomings than we are comfortable to admit, once things get down and dirty in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the adventure, the surviving men can but laugh at the cosmic joke of their misfortunes and lost treasure. But no irony is necessary as they relate their shameless plans for the future, founded in dishonesty and incredible hubris. As they depart each other, spun out on the senseless wind like their briefly-held gold, one can almost see John Huston winking sardonically.

The message may be terribly cynical, but rings fairly true, and anyway the ride into and through this dusty, old masterpiece is worth every moment.