Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

What’s the most important thing in life and how far would you go for money? Those are the central questions in the Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Humphrey Bogart is Dobbs, a man who lives the life of a bum in Mexico. How he ended up there is not made really clear. He begs for money whenever he sees other Americans so he can continue living. He doesn’t seem to have a goal in his life. After getting his hands on some money he ends up being able to pay for a roof above his head for a night. There he meets an old gold digger named Cody (Walter Huston) who tells him that there’s gold to be found in the dry desert mountains. Together with a friend he met during a small job he did he decides to buy the necessary equipment to head out to the desert and start searching for gold. Together with Cody the three head out of town to begin their search.

The journey through the desert is a very long one. As Cody is the only one with experience, the other suffer a lot, but Cody manages to pull them through it. The heat isn’t the only enemy in the desert as it is also the hiding place for Mexican bandits, so it is far from safe.

After careful searching they manage to find gold and this is where the movie really starts to me. They are not only hiding the gold for anyone that happens to stumble upon the site, but also for each other. As time goes by they start to trust each other much less. They are sleeping with one eye open and the situation in very tense. When outsiders show up it seems nobody is able to think clear anymore.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a movie which looks at the borders of the human psyche, wonderfully shot by John Huston. It has a lot of very intense scenes and a great finale, which really makes the movie stand out. Bogart also plays the type of character I hadn’t seen him do before, but my favorite is Walter Huston with his very contagious laugh.

This movie has earned a place in the IMDB top 250 and I think the main reason for it is its human story about the things that are important in life.

Score: 8