What filmmaking techniques does The Treasure of the Sierra Madre use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948): Escalating Moral Stakes, Character Arc Inversion, Landscape as Sacred Geography, Symbolic Object and Earned Catharsis.

Who directed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

John Huston directed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, released in 1948. CineCode also covers The Maltese Falcon (1941), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moby Dick (1956), The Man Who Would Be King (1975).

What films are similar to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

Films that share techniques with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre include Silence (2016), Thelma & Louise (1991), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Adventure · Drama · Western

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

John Huston, 1948

3 American drifters in Mexico strike gold in the mountains. They find out that bandits are a smaller danger than what greed does to a man's ability to trust anyone. John Huston's pessimistic adventure film treats getting rich as a psychological autopsy.

4 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 adventure, drama and western film directed by John Huston. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (4 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Silence uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Escalating Moral Stakes

Raising the ethical price of winning with each part of the story. Every compromise the characters make leads to a worse one, until they can't go back.

How this film uses it

Dobbs' paranoia grows in steps. First it is reasonable, then excessive, then murderous. Each step is caused by the one before it, so his mental breakdown feels like it had to happen. I feel like the gold never really corrupts Dobbs. It removes the conditions that used to keep the worst parts of his character hidden.

Where to see it

Dobbs' night watch sequences. The paranoia shows up in small changes in how he acts. They add up to a portrait of a man eating himself alive.

Narrative

Character Arc Inversion

Taking a character to the opposite of where they started, such as from weak to strong or from decent to compromised. That reversal is what the film is about.

How this film uses it

Dobbs is introduced as a likable underdog, and his hardship wins your sympathy. The film then uses that sympathy against you. By the time Dobbs is capable of murder, you have already sided with him. That makes the change more disturbing than if he had been a villain from the start.

Where to see it

Dobbs' attack on Curtin. This is the moment his reversal can't be undone. The man you liked is fully replaced by the man the gold has revealed.

Cinematography

Landscape as Sacred Geography

Photographing real landscapes like mountains, plains and rivers so they feel mythic and full of meaning. The land becomes a spiritual and moral test the characters have to cross.

How this film uses it

The Sierra Madre mountains are where the gold comes from, and they are also where the film tests the men's morals. Every climb toward the mine takes the men further down into their worst selves. The landscape doesn't care about their greed and isn't changed by their destruction. The mountains outlast all of them.

Where to see it

The final irony. The wind blows the gold dust back into the mountains, and the landscape takes back what the men killed for.

Narrative

Symbolic Object

Returning to the same physical object again and again until it means more than what it is. It moves the plot and also stands for the film's main ideas.

How this film uses it

The gold dust is the film's main symbol. Every character gives something up for it. It weighs nothing and destroys everything. At the end, the wind scatters it and returns it to the mountains, and nothing comes of it. That is the film's darkest joke and its most complete statement.

Where to see it

The bandits scattering the gold sacks. You can't tell the dust from dirt. The thing men killed for goes back to the earth and nothing is left.

Narrative

Earned Catharsis

Building up to a big emotional release slowly, by investing in the characters and giving small bits of hope. When the release comes, it feels deserved after all the suffering.

How this film uses it

The film's emotional release is laughter. Howard laughs at the cosmic joke of the gold blowing away, and every scene of greed and paranoia before it has earned that laugh. The release is ironic and has no sentiment in it, but it is real. After so much grimness, a man laughing at his own ruin is the only relief possible.

Where to see it

Howard's laughter in Durango. He and Curtin find only empty bags, and Howard finds the loss funny. After so much pessimism, the film has earned this release.

Questions

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does The Treasure of the Sierra Madre use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948): Escalating Moral Stakes, Character Arc Inversion, Landscape as Sacred Geography, Symbolic Object and Earned Catharsis.
Who directed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?: John Huston directed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, released in 1948. CineCode also covers The Maltese Falcon (1941), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moby Dick (1956), The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
What films are similar to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?: Films that share techniques with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre include Silence (2016), Thelma & Louise (1991), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

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