"...Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is John Huston's 1948 American feature film adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, in which two penurious Americans (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) during 1920s in Mexico join with an old-timer (Walter Huston, the director's father) to prospect for gold. The old-timer accurately predicts trouble, but is willing to go anyway. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the first Hollywood films to be filmed almost entirely on location outside the United States (in the state of Durango and street scenes in Tampico, Mexico), although the night scenes were filmed back in the studio. The film is quite faithful to the novel.
By the 1920s the violence of the Mexican Revolution had largely subsided, although scattered gangs of bandits continued to terrorize the countryside. The newly established post-revolution government relied on the effective, but ruthless, Federal Police, commonly known as the Federales, to patrol remote areas and dispose of the bandits. Foreigners, like the three American prospectors who are the protagonists in the story, were at very real risk of being killed by the bandits if their paths crossed. The bandits, likewise, were given little more than a "last cigarette" by the army units after capture, even having to dig their own graves first.
In 1990, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Director Stanley Kubrick listed The Treasure of Sierra Madre as one of his top ten favorite films, and director Paul Thomas Anderson watched it at night before bed while writing his film There Will Be Blood.[2]
A great exercise in early dog-eat-dog capitalism and sheer greed; it has one of the more unique and yet subtle scenes I've ever encountered in any film when during the movie's climax: spoiler Bogart's character is actually beheaded by the Mexican Bandidos! If you don't look close you'll never notice, but the bandit pulls out a long knife, swings it down on Bogie, and then you can see the ripples in the water as his head rolls into the stream!!! spoiler
The film really shows off Bogart's versatility as a performer and in his choice of script. A must see for all film fans of any generation.
