Amazon.com Essentials:
Ranked at No. 30 on the American Film Institute's list of the
100 all-time greatest American films, The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre is a genuine masterpiece that was, ironically, a box-office
failure when released in 1948. At that time audiences didn't accept
Humphrey Bogart in a role that was intentionally unappealing, but time
has proven this to be one of Bogart's very best performances. It's a
grand adventure and a superior character study built around the
timeless themes of greed and moral corruption. As adapted by
writer-director John Huston (from a novel by enigmatic author
B. Traven) it became a definitive treatment of fate and futility in
the obsessive pursuit of wealth. Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs, a
down-and-out wage-worker in Mexico who stakes his meager earnings on a
gold-prospecting expedition to the Sierra mountains. He's joined by a
grizzled old prospector (Walter Huston, the director's father) and a
young, no-nonsense partner (Tim Holt), and when they strike a rich
vein of gold, the movie becomes an observant study of wretched human
behavior. Bogart is fiercely intense as his character grows
increasingly paranoid and violent; Huston offers a compelling contrast
as a weathered miner who's seen how gold can turn men into
monsters.
From its lively opening scenes (featuring young Robert Blake as a boy
selling lottery tickets) to its final, devastating image of fateful
irony, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre tells an unforgettable
story of tragedy and truth. With dialogue that has been etched into
the cultural consciousness (who can forget the Mexican bandit who
snarls "I don't have to show you any stinking badges!") and
well-earned Oscars for John and Walter Huston, this is an American
classic that still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon
