"Sierra Madre" Is Treasure

Review #19: Treasure of Sierra Madre, 1948 Hot. Really hot. When you watch this movie you feel the heat. The heat of the dry, Mexican mountains. The heat of the frustrations of manual labor. The heat from the tension between friends. The heat that comes from greed. In a nutshell, this movie is about greed, and the men who go crazy from it. And, Humphrey Bogart does a good crazy. You see glimpses of it early on in the movie, as he asks the same American man for money three times in a row. You hear Walter Houston foreshadow this crazy as he sets the stage for what will become the beginning of the end for Bogart's character. I thought this movie was a western. It's not. It is really a movie about the vices of greed and how it can ruin you. It's a movie about losing your mind. It's a movie about living. Bogart's character lived for himself. He lived for each day and was a man without a dream. He got the gold. And, that was all that he wanted. Then, he died. The end. This movie is #38 on the AFI 100 Movies 100 Years list. For me, it's along the lines of movies like "Psycho" and "Vertigo," exploring why people act the way that they do. I have to admit that it is unlikely I would have ever watched this movie without it being part of my movie project. What unlikely movie favorite have you discovered?