synopsis:

'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is a classic tale of the elusive search for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains by a trio of ill-matched prospectors that meet in Tampico, Mexico. it is also an intense character study showing the corruptive and cancerous effects of greed on the souls of men. One of the film's posters clarified the theme: "The Nearer They Get to Their Treasure, the Farther They Get From the Law!"In 1925 in Tampico, Fred C. Dobbsmeets another drifter from America, Bob Curtin. Both have been cheated out of hard-earned wages by a dishonest employer named McCormick, and when they corner him in a bar, they beat him so savagely that it seems pointless to hang around town. Their next move is suggested by the old-timer Howard, who they've overheard talking about gold. They think he's good for advice and not much more, but he has the stamina of a goat and is soon filling their ears with practical advice about how to find gold, which is not too hard, and how to keep it and not get killed, which is not too easy.

The heart of the movie takes place on the slopes of mountains. They are so exposed in this landscape that only Howard's experience and rough Spanish get them through. They start out as partners, but the moment they find real gold, Dobbs grows avaricious, suggesting they divide their gains three ways, every night. Soon they're hiding their gold separately, and there is a long night when Dobbs awakens in the tent to find Howard gone, and then Curtin awakens to find Dobbs gone, and finally old Howard observes the turn has come back around to him and so why don't they get some sleep because they have work to do in the morning.

Howard has been here before ("I know what gold can do to men's souls"). He plays a tactful peacemaker, agreeing with Dobbs' paranoid suggestions because he knows they will make little difference at the end of the day: Either they'll get out with their gold, or they won't.

Although Howard saves Dobbs' life just by being a seasoned mountain man, and Curtin pulls him unconscious from a collapsed mine, he doesn't trust either one and finds he is capable of killing either one just to get a bigger share of the gold. He thinks he has killed Curtin, and the moment he does, he tips over into madness. But the harsh logic of the situation has earlier shown that murder is always a choice in these mountains. There is a poignant episode involving the soft-spoken American Jim Cody, who tracks them down to their camp, offers his help, wants a share and analyzes the situation for them: They can either make him a partner or kill him. The scene where the three men take a vote shows clearly how their moral weight balances out.

about this movie:

The screenplay, written by Huston, was based upon the 1936 novel of the same name by B. Traven (a pen name for Berwick Traven Torsvan), an elusive and mysterious individual who showed up during the filming under an assumed name (as Hal Croves, Traven's representative and 'attorney'), and served as one of the film's technical advisors after claiming that he had been sent by the reclusive author.

The movie, starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt, is desolate and despairing, the nicest character in it dies trying to defend men who were about to kill him, and the ending is not merely unhappy but like a cosmic joke against the hero's dreams.

As the stories of Howard and Curtin evaporate into convention, however, Fred C. Dobbs somehow moves to a higher level of tragedy. Hearing things in the night, desperate for a drink of water, staggering under the desert sun with the gold he valued so much, Dobbs is the tragic hero brought down precisely by his flaws. There is a pitiless stark realism in these scenes that brings the movie to honesty and truth. Leading up to them is a down-market Shakespearean soliloquy when Dobbs thinks he is a murderer and says, "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?"Alfonso Bedoya, as the bandit leader, says one of the most repeated and famous lines in this movie: "We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"gold against the soul [phrase]