| The Treasure of the Sierra Madre [Blu-ray] | ![The Treasure of the Sierra Madre [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QFcuXTSTL._SL160_.jpg)
| Director: John Huston
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $17.99
as of 9/6/2010 10:06 CDT details
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Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,681
Format: Black & White
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Running Time: 126 Minutes
UPC: 883929118472
EAN: 0883929118472
ASIN: B001P829VY
Theatrical Release Date: 1948
Release Date: October 5, 2010 (In 29 Days)
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Availability: Not yet released
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Amazon.com
Ranked at No. 30 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 all-time greatest American films, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a genuine masterpiece that was, ironically, a box-office failure when released in 1948. At that time audiences didn't accept Humphrey Bogart in a role that was intentionally unappealing, but time has proven this to be one of Bogart's very best performances. It's a grand adventure and a superior character study built around the timeless themes of greed and moral corruption. As adapted by writer-director John Huston (from a novel by enigmatic author B. Traven) it became a definitive treatment of fate and futility in the obsessive pursuit of wealth. Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs, a down-and-out wage-worker in Mexico who stakes his meager earnings on a gold-prospecting expedition to the Sierra mountains. He's joined by a grizzled old prospector (Walter Huston, the director's father) and a young, no-nonsense partner (Tim Holt), and when they strike a rich vein of gold, the movie becomes an observant study of wretched human behavior. Bogart is fiercely intense as his character grows increasingly paranoid and violent; Huston offers a compelling contrast as a weathered miner who's seen how gold can turn men into monsters. From its lively opening scenes (featuring young Robert Blake as a boy selling lottery tickets) to its final, devastating image of fateful irony, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre tells an unforgettable story of tragedy and truth. With dialogue that has been etched into the cultural consciousness (who can forget the Mexican bandit who snarls "I don't have to show you any stinking badges!") and well-earned Oscars for John and Walter Huston, this is an American classic that still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Gold in the hills, avarice in the hearts of men. Two hard-luck drifters (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) and a grizzled prospector (Walter Huston) discover gold. Then greed and paranoia set in. John Huston won Academy Awards for his direction and screenplay. And his dad took the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Without awards, but with enduring acclaim, is Bogart's performance, transforming from a likable hobo to a heartless thug simmering in greed. Treasures place on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 American Films list reaffirms it's still a powerful movie.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 144
 Greed Leads to Murder August 8, 2010
Acute Observer (Jersey Shore USA)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948 film
A man checks his lottery ticket - a loser. [Symbolism?] He takes a job doing construction on an oil rig. They will get paid when the job ends. But this is a fraud to cheat the men out of their pay. An old man talks about the price of gold, its cost in human labor, and what it does to men's souls. Dobbs and Curtin find Pat the contractor, who has an excuse for not paying the men. A fight in a bar convinces him to pay some of his just debts. Can they search for gold instead? Dobbs has a winning lottery ticket for 200 pesos ($100). They now have enough for supplies, tools, and guns for hunting. They take a train into the country. Bandits attack! [They had the right to keep and bear arms then.] They will visit a mountain where no man has been before. The old man knows minerals, and finds traces of gold dust. They have to hide the find so nobody will take it.
A sluice is used to separate the gold from the dirt. This means hauling water from far away. The old man knows what gold will do to men. A cave-in creates drama. [Dobbs' bad luck?] Howard plans to buy a grocery store and retire as a small business owner. [The dream of many, then.] Curtin plans to buy a peach ranch. Dobbs plans to live it up in luxury. Will they set a limit on what they will take out of the mine? Will they grow suspicious? Does Dobbs have a problem? The Federales are searching for the bandits that robbed the train. An American asks questions; is he too curious? There is danger from the bandits, they are after their guns and ammunition. The miners defend themselves. The bandits flee when the Federales arrive. The gold harvest begins to diminish, its time to go back to civilization. Each man has his share on his burro. Curtin thinks about Cody's widow in Texas. Four men arrive at their camp. They ask for help, Howard goes with them to treat a young boy who fell into the water. The boy is revived. A miracle?
How did the Indians know they were there? Howard will stay with the Indians as a medicine man. Curtin and Dobbs head for Durango. "Its all ours to keep" says Dobbs. Curtin is honest, but Dobbs doesn't believe him. Their conflict is finally resolved. [Why didn't Curtin tie up Dobbs?] Can Curtin be rescued? Dobbs' talk tells his thoughts. But those bandits find Dobbs with an empty gun. The burros run off, but the bandits catch them, dump the sacks, and take them into town for sale. A bad career move. Can Howard and Curtin find their goods? Will a Norther blow sand over their goods? Only the empty sacks remain. Howard has the last laugh over their loss. What next? Curtin has plans for his future.
Did the praise of critics mean anything if the movie doesn't do well at the box office? Was this film "too cynical"? The death of the star may have gone against the expectations of the audience. [Bogart didn't play a villain since "High Sierra".] You could consider this a parable of the "pump and dump" scam in the stock market. The value of a stock rises to far above the IPO or book value only to come crashing down in huge losses (like the High-Tech stock scams in the late 1990s). The losses and impoverishment lead to a depression, as in the 1920s when this novel was written. Gold was $20 an ounce before 1933 when it was revalued to $35 an ounce. Nixon revalued gold in 1971 to cause economic turmoil ever since. Devaluing the currency was one way to impoverish most people while making the economic royalists richer.
 A True Classic! August 2, 2010
J. J Woehr (Lindenhurst, NY United States)
Two street beggers Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt) team up with an old prospector named Howard (Walter Huston) to find gold. When they find some though loyalties are put to the test. Fred especially starts to question whether or not he can trust his partners.
The film has it's share of action and adventure but it's mostly about greed and paranoia. Humphrey Bogart shows all those qualities in this film. I expected him to play some great heroic character, but his character is a very selfish and paranoid man.
I mean, when Curtin rescues Fred from a mine cave in, when he could have just left him there, Fred still questions Curtin's loyalties. Fred is too busy thinking that he's gonna lose his gold. When Howard and Curtin start to learn that there's more important things in life than striking it rich.
"In a Cavern, In a Canyon........." July 20, 2010
Strawgold (Wyoming)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Suspicion. Friend or Foe - a mindset in control or out of control; suspicion can save your life or drive you mad, depending upon how it's used. To the unstable, the latter is far more likely - and therein lies the tale of the "Sierra Madre". This remarkable old Bogart film is about much more than the phenomenon known as gold fever. It's about total loss of concept of reality - helpless in the clutches of a fantasy gone wild; a maiming and final abandonment of all human virtue as it progresses; a telling of what the mere "thought" of riches untold can do to a certain type of individual over time, one who may be teetering on the edge anyway - even as there are those who seem to be immune to it. Bogart delivers to the hilt in this particular role. Packed with highly charged emotional requirement to get into the head of such a character, it must have taken a month of Sundays under medication to come down from it when the filming was finally over.
He starts out normal enough - opening with Bogart, as the drifter Dobbs, blowing into a Mexican border town "broke, ragged and lousy" without even the price of a cigarette to his name, having gambled the last on a lottery ticket. He bums the price of a meal from another Gringo - more than once - buys another lottery ticket and meets Curtain, another bum down on his luck too on a park bench. He meets the same guy later on as they are both slickered by a bogus work deal, and as desperate men do desperate things, they get their money (and not a cent more) the old fashioned way. Afterward, they end up in a flea bag hotel, where they meet a grizzled old timer who has what they don't have - experience - but isn't trying to prove it. After spending some time together the next day and winning a little cash in the lottery that turned out to be better than trying to work in that environment, they decide to gather up the old prospector...and away they go on the quest for gold that the "Mother Mountain" guards close to her breast against trespassers.... The "road to hell is paved with good intentions."
The "rest of the story" - the adventure into the Sierra Madre wilderness, among banditos, Gila monsters, a stranger who has more in his scant possessions in the form of a letter from home than the other three have among all of them - is what makes "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" an excellent old movie to add to a collection of great drama cinema.
What would we do without the filmmakers, the songwriters, the authors of the scores and the scripts, the dissection of subjects for us; the actors who bring life to the words; the priceless dimension their work adds to our lives? I take this time to salute them all, having taken them so much for granted all these years.
4 1/2 stars-veteran Huston steals the show right from under Bogie! April 18, 2010
Robert Badgley (London,Ontario,Canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Warners 2003 release in a 2 disc format of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is certain to please the fans of this now legendary film.Released in Jan/48 it managed to get three Academy Awards,two for John Huston as director and screenwriter and one for his father Walter Huston.Huston in the twilight of his career manages to steal the show many times over and his performance tops even that of the name star in this picture,Bogie.Not to take away too much from Bogie,it is an all around solid cast with Tim Holt as the third amigo in this tale of deceit,lust and redemption.
The story starts with a down and out Fred Dobbs(Bogie)stuck interminably in Tampico,Mexico.Having arrived years before working for big corporations exploiting the riches of the land he is now out of work and broke,living from hand to fist.He hits up the same man three times without realizing it as he never looks up(director Huston in a dapper white suit and panama hat).Getting enough money for a bed in a flop house he meets Bob Curtin(Holt) and an old prospector Howard(Huston).Howard talks up a storm about his prospecting days around the world while Curtin and Dobbs listen in.He claims the Sierra Madre Mountains contain a dearth of gold and wishes he could go after it.After a night of contemplation Dobbs talks Curtin into the idea of actually trying to hunt for gold and they approach Howard.Howard says it's alright with him but they're still a little short of money.Just then a small boy(cameo by Robert Blake) comes by to tell him he has won on the ticket he bought a few days before.With the money now in hand the three head into the mountains.
After days of trekking and climbing they reach an area that Howard says should be fine for mining.They set up their equipment,build a sluice and soon thereafter are finding what they came to seek.Dobbs slowly but surely,day after day,becomes paranoid about his partners and their intentions towards his gold.Even after Curtin saves Dobbs after a mine collapse,it still doesn't convince him of their good intentions.Several spats result and Dobbs becomes more and more withdrawn.The paranoia is set aside however when an unwelcome fourth man enters the picture asking into the operation.Before the three can carry out their decision to kill him bandidos arrive to steal from them.It's a shoot out to the death until the Federalis arrive and chase the bandidos away.The Bandidos inadvertently took care of the fourth man as he is found dead as a result of the shoot out.
At this point some local Indians approach the camp asking for some assistance for a sick young boy,close to death.Howard goes off with them,brings the boy back to consciousness,and returns to the group.More bickering ensues amongst the partners,much of it pressed by Dobbs,whose paranoia is now slowly rearing its' ugly head again after a brief respite.Just as the three decide to leave the area the Indians again show up wanting Howard to return to the village as an honoured guest.He does so and Dobbs and Curtin head back to await for Howard's return.Along the way Dobbs' paranoia hits a peak and he "kills" his partner.When he goes back to bury him in the morning the body is gone.He assumes he was eaten by a mounatin lion,but in reality Curtin dragged himself off to a nearby Indian village where he gets medical attention and Howard and he are reunited.He relates his sordid tale to Howard and they decide to leave and find Dobbs to reclaim their share of gold.Dobbs in the meantime has had a tough slug of it coming down the mountain and has lost one mule out of the team already.He is desperate and out of water when he finds a watering hole.As he and his team of burros quench their thirsts the bandidos from earlier happen upon him.There is no where for him to run or hide and he is killed.They steal his burros and pelts to sell but dump the gold thinking it was a red herring and just sand.When they attempt to sell their merchandise in town they are caught and the Federalis finally catch them.They are executed just as Howard and Curtin arrive.The townspeople saved the pelts for Howard and Curtin but the men inquire as to where the more important stuff is.A small boy overheard the bandidos say they dumped it in an abandoned village just outside of town.A strong wind storm is coming up and by the time they arrive all they find are empty bags.All Howard can do is laugh at the irony of it all,as do the Indians who accompanied them and finally Curtin.Curtin and Howard part with Howard going back with the Indians to live out his life and Curtin returning to the States.
Wonderfully acted throughout this film is certainly a classic of its' kind and still holds up well even today.Bogie gives a good performance in paranoia and an off state of mind while Huston gives a great turn as an eccentric and grizzled old prospector who has seemingly seen and done it all but still is nobodies fool.Tim Holt as Curtin is the one in the middle,the apparent more sane and grounded of the two,who has to deal constantly with both men's idiosyncrasies;like a constantly moving pendulum.The Academy awards were certainly well deserved.The novel by Travens from which this came from to my recollection was terribly socialistic.That is it came at the story from an exploitative angle of big foreign business interests that stripped the Mexicans of their well deserved resources and hired labour from all over the world cheap in order to reap big profits.To convert that into the movie took a considerable talent and Huston showed he was certainly up to the task.A shining hour in the Huston cannon.
Technically this two disc set has been transferred well.The blurb on the cover tells us this film was restored visually and audially and was newly transferred.Well generally the picture is good and quite clear and crisp,but there are many instances of scratch lines and wear throughout which should have been removed and weren't.I think it's about time that a new remastering be done on this film to bring it up to snuff.However being 2 discs there are plenty of extras.There are featurettes on the movies' making and Huston's career,commentary,a vintage newsreel,two cartoons a funny Joe McDoakes comedy short,galleries,the /49 Lux radio version of the movie and a trailer for Key Largo.
In conclusion you won't want to miss the now iconic performance from Bogie as the down and out Fred Dobbs and you cannot miss Walter Huston's Academy Award performance as the old prospector,a scene stealing turn all the way.A classic that belongs on everyone's shelf.
Sierra Madre April 6, 2010
justice4all72
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bloody brilliant. A true tale of pure greed and the test of friendship. Bogart was brilliant in his role of Dobbs. The two disc dvd is a great package and contains some great special features. The video quality is outstanding and looks great on dvd. This is one classic film you do not want to miss. We don't need no stinking badges!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 144
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