The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Runtime: 124 minutes

Directed by: John Huston

Starring: Bogie, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane

From: Warner Bros.

Not to start this on a sour note, but I have to state that I am still supremely unsatisfied with my cable provider, which is also where I get my phone and Internet. Since Thursday afternoon the 9th, my phone and Internet has been down for hours on end and among all the other issues that causes, I know this is a nationwide problem for the millions that also use this service, which I will name in the future if this remains an issue. What a wonderful scenario for all those that have to work at home, to boot. It wasn't an issue last night but I had to catch up on various sites when I had the opportunity to. While I am glad there is plenty of physical media at home for me, when I am paying for more than one streaming site at the moment... and that ruins the rough idea I had of what to stream from those places-and others-in the near future.

At least there is Turner Classic Movies, which I will be happy to praise again. This movie was on in the afternoon and as I had all the time in the world on Saturday, might as well view then talk about a late 40's classic. Bogie, Walter Huston and Tim Holt are an unlikely trio, wishing for better life as gringos in Mexico due to an obvious lack of cash. Bogie and Holt are poor beggars who manage to get ripped off when they do find work, and have to beg for every scrap they get. Huston is a prospector who says there is gold in them thar Sierra Madre mountains. They go make the journey and a treasure is actually discovered, but... this story is ultimately about all too human desires, greed and paranoia being the most obvious.

Plenty of time is spent at the mining site as it takes time to acquire all that gold. This is when suspicion rises, with Bogart's character being the most gruff and the least trustworthy. When other people get involved-friendly or otherwise-of course the situation becomes more complicated. This won Best Director and Best Screenplay for John Huston; to boot, he directed his father Walter to a Best Supporting Actor win. Without seeing most of the other nominees, those prizes seem well-deserved as this movie is great, including how the enthralling story is handled and the performances of all three leads. It does not demonize them for becoming corrupted by the idea of wealth; the prospector himself states early on that “even decent men” are susceptible to this.

It was quite the journey, filmed across the Southwestern United States and Mexico. The desert locations are accurately shown to be brutal on the trio, and they become covered w/ dirt & grime. The movie is not entirely a downbeat drama; there's also some action, a few melancholy moments, and nice characters who reward the one out of the three that does a great gesture by assisting them in a serious emergency. A great Max Steiner score-which at times is ethereal-is another asset. This has to be one of the best American movies of the late 40's, and far more significant than just a way for me to kill 2 hours this afternoon when I had nothing better to do.