Film Review
Jack Warner, head of Warner Brothers, once remarked that
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
was the finest film his studio ever made. Other Huston/Bogart
collaborations are acclaimed but this film deserves a place alongside
The Maltese Falcon and
Casablanca.
This place of excellence is certainly merited. Bogart delivers
his best performance and gives us one of cinema's greatest
characters. Veteran actor Walter Huston also gives the finest
performance of a long career. His son, John, manages to create
one of Hollywood's most sublime character studies.
The film revolves around three poor Americans living in Tampico,
Mexico, who try their luck at gold prospecting. The main
character in the early part of the film is Bogart's everyman,
Dobbs. He soon befriends a younger fellow named Curtin, played by
Tim Holt. The two men go to work and decide to take a risk with
their money. They team up with a seemingly unhinged veteran
prospector named Howard (Walter Huston) to find gold. The film
really begins to churn when the men do find gold. The possibility
of newfound wealth seemingly warps Dobbs into a paranoid and
monomaniacal man. Adding to the tension are brief appearances by
natives, bandidos and intruders.
Huston does a masterful job in this adventure / drama / western.
The film's slow pace creates a sense of palpable tension that builds
until moments of explosion. No scene feels wasted or
unnecessary. Each one adds something, either wholly new and
important to the film or building on another theme. It may at
times seem threadbare or simplistic but that only turns more attention
to the characters on the screen. Huston gives every performer an
opportunity to establish his characters and make something
memorable. Max Steiner does a solid job on the composing front,
the opening score mirroring the film's daunting themes.
While the contributions from Holt, Alfonso Bedoya as the chief bandit,
and a young Robert Blake are enjoyable, the show belongs to Bogart and
Huston, who are truly wonderful. Huston's rollicking performance
is made memorable by his mixture of exuberance and solemn wisdom on
screen. He conveys the two sides of the grizzled old prospector
so well that he brings plausibility to a potentially outrageous
character. Bogart's performance is perhaps more laudable as he
deals more subtly. Dobbs is seemingly an average, hard living
fellow down on his luck who becomes a monster. The difficulty in
Bogart's job lay in his showing us Dobbs's flaws without hamming up the
part, whilst allowing the other actors time to shine. When he is
finally called on to reveal Dobbs's madness, he does it
perfectly. Bogart gives an ordinary drunk an air as regal,
powerful and haunting as Olivier's Richard III.
The film's themes are numerous: greed, conscience, experience, fate and
the absurd. Howard and Dobbs are the vessels through which these
notions are revealed. Fate intervenes in giving Dobbs the lottery
ticket that was essential in helping him to raise the money for the
expedition and it laughs at the vanishing gold at the film's end.
These outcomes are at odds with the philosophies and actions of the
controlling anti-hero Dobbs, whose fall from grace is slow but
satisfying to watch. Howard's laughter and carefree personality
seem to indicate a long acquaintance with the sad ironies of life that
the young adventurers are destined to learn about.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
is a favourite among many much vaunted Hollywood triumphs. Its
timeless themes, powerful acting, and stout direction make it one of
the big screen's great morality stories, one that can truly be compared
with Shakespeare's tragedies. Like all good plays, the film
depends on artful storytelling and acting, which it has in
abundance. It is simply a masterpiece.
© Isaiah (New York, USA) 2017
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Next John Huston film:
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Film Synopsis
In a small Mexican town in 1925, three down-at-heel gringos meet up and
agree to work together to prospect for gold in the Sierra Madre
mountains. They take a train ride into the remote
hinterlands, surviving an attack by ferocious bandits en route.
As they set about their task, the oldest member of the group, Howard,
soon proves to be the most knowledgeable. It is he who manages to
find the gold they are seeking. Once the mine has been dug, the
prospectors can hardly believe the quantity of gold sitting in the
ground, waiting to make them all rich men. But greed soon sets in
and the friendships rapidly begin to crumble. Dobbs is determined
to steal the entire treasure for himself and, as his sanity starts
to disintegrate, he acquires a paranoid certainty that his associates
intend to kill him..
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.