Retrospective Film Review

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) • 75 Years Later

In 1920s Mexico, three men set out to find gold in the mountains.

What is the treasure that the men of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre seek? For three-quarters of a century, countless thousands have doubtless assumed it’s the gold waiting in the Mexican mountains, which becomes almost as important a character as Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart), Howard (Walter Huston), and Curtin (Tim Colt). Certainly gold itself is more of a prime mover in the narrative than their nemesis, Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya), or any of the other Mexican locals and American fortune-seekers they encounter.

There is both immense tension and real magic in the scene where the trio are finally able to start weighing the gold they’ve extracted from the ground, after all, as if the point of the film has arrived.

But both John Huston’s movie and the 1927 novel by B. Traven, published two decades previously and finally reaching the screen after earlier attempts came to nought, also make it clear that there is another kind of treasure involved. Traven hints at it…