Week 4 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre like the films we have previously watched in class set in a latin american country, specifically, in the City of Mexico. The camera makes it very clear in presenting this with a zommed in shot at the beggining of the film that focuses on what looks like a newspaper clipping that reads “México, DF”. The main characters in the film however are Americans. The first character we meet is Dobbs who seems to be roaming around Mexico alone with no money, literally walking around begging for money. Although he is selective in who he asks for help, we never see him ask any locals. There’s a part in the film where Dobbs goes up to a man and says “…help a fellow American…”, the man seems angry telling him that he has asked him before and that this will be the last time he helps him.

Dobbs ends up getting a job but himself and Curtin never actually get paid. They keep asking their boss when they will recieve their work’s pay but they never get a definite answer. Instead they are told, “What can you do with money out here anyways? Except gamble and loose it”. Up to this point in the film I questioned why Dobbs was even in Mexico, why not go back home to America and find a stable job to support his life financially since his only desire and struggle so far seemed to be money.

Indeed, money was the central theme of this film that established the conflict between Dobbs and the other characters and also between Hobbs himself. We can see that money is the build up for the conflict early on in the film when Dobbs, Curtin, and Howard are in El Dormitorio Negro. Howard specifically says, “…I know what gold does to men’s souls…when the piles of gold start to grow that’s when the trouble starts…” This conversation to me serves as a warning for the downfall that is about to happen, the downfall is then established within the shake of hands between Dobbs and Curtin when they agree that they are going to join Howard to search for gold. In this scene the camera makes sure to show the gesture of both men establishing their agreement by the shaking hands, however, the camera seems to focus more on Howard’s facial reaction. He seems to have somewhat of a sly look on his face as if he knows that somethng bad is about to happen. Dobbs has a paranoia throughout the film that he believes that Curtin and Howard are plotting against him to take his share of the gold. It seems to frustrate him so much that he gets into arguements with both throughout the film. At one point Curtin gives him a portion of his gold to prove that he isn’t trying to take anything from him but it seems to just add wood to the fire because Dobbs throws the gold into the fire and responds with “I just don’t like being called a hog”. Dobbs’ paranoia progresses near the end of the film when he and Curtin are on their way to Tampico. His paranoia builds up so much that he ends up shoting Curtin believing that he his left dead. After he shoots him however he’s talking to himself and we see that through all his selfishness he does seem to have a conscious for what he has done.

Something interesting that stuck with me (but perhaps isn’t signifcant) is when Howard tells both the men, “Water is precious, sometimes more precious than gold” as they are starting their journey. I found this interesting because when Hobbs is alone before he gets surrounded by the banditos we see him tired, out of breath almost as if he is about to faint but he sees a lake and falls head first right into it. To me it showed that he somewhat killed himself for gold when it wouldn’t be able to buy him life but that the water that he was so desperate for at this very moment was his saving grace, at least momentarily.