Out there in the mountains there very well could be some veins of gold just waiting for you. But don’t let the wealth turn you rotten, or you might end up like our friend, Fred Dobbs. After striking a rich mine full of gold, Dobbs’ judgement became clouded by the thought of increasing wealth. Alongside his two mining partners, Dobbs was drunk with greed, insisting on splitting their shared wealth depending on how much each of the three of them earned. The foreshadowing of events, such as; the greed of men who strike gold, the scarcity of water up in the mountains, and the potential threat of bandits, was an excellent hinting at what’s to come.

     The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a 1948 western film directed by John Huston, was an exceptionally well told story about the search for wealth and its consequences on the behavior of whoever finds said wealth. The main characters are three American men down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico. Howard, an old-timer and ex-prospector, had spent all of his wealth over the years after finding mountains with gold and ran into two others; Fred Dobbs and Curtain, two unemployed men in their thirties who had been cheated out of money meant for them after doing business with a con-man. Together, the three of them voyage out for gold.

     Dobbs begins the movie as a beggar, nearly unable to obtain a single peso. Curtain starts in a very similar situation as Dobbs, getting swindled by Pat McCormick. They worked for weeks without much rest, and being given an empty promise about being paid $150 each. After meeting Howard, a previous prospector with no fortune left to his name, the three men head out on their journey and the search for gold. Dobbs and Curtain’s introduction to Howard is at a cheap hotel, where Howard describes the men he’s encountered over the years who had changed subconsciously due to striking gold and wanting much more.

     In The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, one largely important scene is when Dobbs, Curtain, and Howard had their second night in the tent on the mountain. At this point in the movie, the men had struck gold and Dobbs became greedy and hid what he had claimed to be his portion of the income. Howard heard a noise so he went to investigate, and to make sure no bandits had arrived. Once Dobbs noticed this, he went after him. Each of the three men had, at some point or another, left the tent. This had increased Dobbs’ paranoia to the point of impending insanity. All of this ties back to the earlier mentioning of Howard’s experiences with men and their changes.

     If I were asked if I would recommend this movie to a classmate, the obvious answer would be yes. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a wonderful film which thoroughly addresses the mental decay of some people who get drunk with money. Each detail was carefully placed into the movie, spanning from the connection between dialogue and the later events to the way each character displays themselves. The meticulousness of the director is very enjoyable to me. The majority of people this movie is intended for are teenagers or adults. This is mostly due to the fact that there is a surplus of vocabulary unknown to children and minor violence that parents may not want for their children.