Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-11-07 13:05:11
Imported:
2025-11
Tags:

Content

#38 on the AFI List and nothing like what I expected. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect going into this one because I knew nothing about it. I did have to refresh my memory about which movies John Huston directed that I've seen here on Patreon: The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The African Queen (1951), both of which I enjoyed. I also connected some dots while reading the credits, but after looking it up, Walter Huston is John Huston's dad! And Canadian to boot! What amazing family movie lineage up to Angelica Huston! She sure looks like her pop!

I’m still thinking about this movie since I watched it last week. I think it may get better with each rewatch. Of course, I loved and was stunned by the cinematography. It was absolutely stunning. The sharp and stark black-and-white cinematography really made the Mexican landscape shine on camera. I loved the Cactus! I thought it looked so good on camera! Everything popped, and it felt like it was eating those men up. Unforgiving, I think, is the word that comes to mind as I write this. John Huston lights the film brilliantly; it's brutal, and the glaring desert stares you right in the soul. Mother Nature really is the fourth character and truly unbeatable.

Some things I may not know about this time in history, but the story felt like a smooth, slow-burning masterpiece, perhaps a warning about what greed does to the soul and how paranoia deteriorates the mind. Houston let the movie breathe while pacing it well.

I loved Walter Huston and his little dance. His joy, his outlook on life and the way he trusted. Tim Holt, a sweet, innocent-faced, good-natured soul. You root for him in every scene. Bogart, I don't know if he steals the show, but he carries it. His descent into madness was one of the hardest I've watched. But, still amazed. Everything just ate him away. So sad.

Really, no heroic ending, yet it ends with a gut punch and what I described as wholesome, for lack of a better word. A chuckle. Still choked at what happened. SO much more meaning I am yet to uncover from it. Brutal, yet a wild ride.

Thanks so much for watching, can't wait to read your takes!

xx

ames

Files

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Comments

Greg In East TN

This movie is where the famous line "Badges? We don't need no steeeenking badges!" came from in Blazing Saddles.

Toc

Oh man, beautiful write-up. Nailed it! it's funny, for some reason, I've always gone out of my way not to say much about this movie so that you had no expectations! It was a title I knew for years before I saw it - it was always on TV - and it wasn't what I was expecting either! Definitely not Bogie's character arc! Love Walter Huston in this, and so happy you connected the dots. Ok, getting ready to watch! Rock and roll!

RegalEagle

Great synopsis! I salute you for taking on the challenge of the AFI top 100.. after all so many of these wonderful films lack today’s cultural references..

RFK Fan

If you've ever seen John Houston act (Chinatown a good example) you can see where Daniel Day Lewis got his inspiration for the voice of Daniel Plainview in THERE WILL BE BLOOD..

Joe R

The Caine Mutiny - 1954 is another great performance from Bogey.

Toc

Killer movie, killer reaction! Fantastic post-film analysis A total blast! Thanks Ames!

John A

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre earned John Huston an Academy Award for Best Director and best screenplay. Also Walter Huston won best supporting actor. This movie is another Bogart movies that has a famous line that is misquoted often as “Badges , We don’t need no stinking badges!” Great misquote done in many movies and TV shows

Clay F

Now can mark this movie on my watchlist as watched. May get better with each rewatch. Curtin is a likeable character. I thought Bogart did well portraying Dobbs descending into paranoia. I liked Howard's arc in becoming a medicine man in the end. Liked your outro. Early in movie, you mentioned Brylcreem. I remember my dad using Brylcreem.

JM63

Paul Thomas Anderson said The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was a big influence on There Will Be Blood: “When I watch this again, all of life’s questions and answers are there in the movie; the way to make movies, live your life, get along, everything.” On the face of it, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would seem an odd choice for Anderson whose own films, Boogie Nights and Magnolia among them, are sprawling, Altmanesque canvases with multiple, parallel stories. But he saw Sierra Madre as a kid and rediscovered it seven or eight years ago when he began to adapt There Will Be Blood. “I definitely tried to mimic that approach. My natural instincts as a writer may be more scattered, so in an effort to be more traditional I used a book, just like they did. Sierra Madre is as direct as you can get—nothing clever, nothing structurally new or different—and I mean that as a high compliment. It’s harder than anything else to be completely straightforward.” Anderson recalls that when he was younger he would teach himself to write by writing down scenes from films in order to see what they looked like on the page. “The films I love the most are, for the most part, very traditional in their structure. So, when I was getting ready to make There Will Be Blood, I put on Sierra Madre before going to sleep at night for a week, just trying to get it to soak into my head and help me approach storytelling in a more old-fashioned way. I suppose I kept looking at it as a film I wished I knew how to make.” The film also influenced the look of There Will Be Blood. This short YT video (2 min) compares several shots and sequences from both. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7dL5MW2oPA