Review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) by Joe S — 07 Jul 2008

"Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you got a conscience it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you got one, what could it do to ya?".

These are the words of the ill-fated Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart) after he has been consumed by greed. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" illustrates how an insatiable lust for wealth and fortune can take a man over, even one who may have been thought of as honorable. We get to see it all play out beautifully on screen a little bit at a time.

The film begins with Dobbs begging for pesos on the streets of Tampico, Mexico. He is down on his luck as a gringo who is far from home, though the details of his misfortune are never known. He befriends a man named Curtin (Holt) who is in a similar predicament. After they experience a failed attempt at finding a paying job, they happen to hear an old man named Howard (Huston) telling of how some local mountains are rich with gold. With nothing to lose, the men embark on a venture to try their hands at prospecting.

As it turns out, Howard was right. They find gold very quickly, and a lot of it. Tension first mounts as they debate on how to divide the gold up. Soon after, Dobbs becomes the group's most paranoid member and is just certain that the others would not even hesitate to kill or trick him and take his stash. The greed and paranoia only get worse from there, but I won't spoil any more.

This movie does a fantastic job of showing how greed can completely consume a man. As Dobbs goes to greater and more devious lengths to ensure that he comes away a rich man, he tries to justify his behavior in his own head just so he can go to sleep at night. With his constant referral to himself in the third person, we see that he is trying to convince even himself of who he is. The idea of a fortune wears him down to a nub, and by the time the end of the movie comes, Dobbs is hardly recognizable as the man we met at the beginning.

The film ends with a highly ironic twist (basically everything returns back to the way it had been before). And as for Dobbs, with him having betrayed his crew and burning every possible bridge, poetic justice is served.

This film is truly an American classic with a great underlying theme. With great performances to support the plot, you can't afford to pass this one up.