Review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) by Ally C — 09 Feb 2011
One of the high watermarks in cinema, a place in the IMDB Top 100 and winner of three Oscars, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is not the subtlest of movies but it does move at a tremendous pace and is full of great acting and shooting.
The film came only two years after John Huston's film Let There Be Light, a rarely seen documentary about the after-effects of war on soldiers and TOSM is a much lighter but no less interesting film.
The story begins with Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt) who are down on their luck men who are looking for money. they meet an old man, Howard (Walter Huston) who plants the seed of gold in their head and it is not long after this that the three prospectors go off is search of the big find that will secure their financial future forever.
After this, the film settles down into a heist movie structure with the plans for 'capture' of the gold followed by paranoia and distrust of the other partners as they discuss how the gold should be split.
Howard has seen what the prospect of money does to men and admits he has gained and lost a fortune of gold over his lifetime. In this sense, the film is a parable of Hollywood and the making of movies itself whereby effort and toil is invested only for the end product to rely on other means to be successful or a failure.
The power of Walter Huston's portrayal of this seemingly wise old man arrives at his intersection of prophet and prospector, a man who will jump about wildly at the sight of gold but who will tell of the dangers the gold may bring.
His reaction at the end of the film to one of these two outcomes is remarkable but entirely predictable. The film works best when the three leads are together and watching their separate fortunes unroll.
Bogart is in excitingly mad form and Holt's calm Curtin is a perfect balance to the other characters. Huston's direction is economical but some of the other characters in the film do not add to the film as much as the central characters.
Some say this is Huston's best (he won his only two Oscar's on this film and directed his father to the Best Supporting Actor role two years before his death) but I prefer his smaller films Fat City and Wise Blood.
a master director however and one which nearly every one of his films is worth watching.
This review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) was written by Ally C on 09 Feb 2011.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
