I've started watching films from a suggested film list that came along with orientation for my MFA degree in screenwriting. So far I've watched Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, The Treasures of the Sierra Madre, Psycho, and The Third Man. The Treasures of Sierra Madre was a film about obsession with gold. The character played by Humphrey Bogart becomes so obsessed with Gold that he finally goes crazy and resorts to violence to take all the gold. Bogart's character is much different than his character in Casablanca. Rick is smooth and suave as an expat bar owner in Casablanca. He is willing to risk his life so that his former lover can escape with her scientist husband to the US. In Sierra Madre he is a low life. He begins the film by begging for money on the streets of Tampico in Mexico.
Bogart and his friends head to the mountains after coming into a little sum of money to mine for gold. They find a small haul and mine it. Yet the story really begins after they decide to head back to civilization. Here the group splits up and Bogart tries to kill his partner. His partner lives and Bogart is murdered by bandits. In the end no one gets the gold.
Yet it's the obsession that stays with the viewer. The image of Bogart's bearded face with his crazy eyes; obsessed with gold, willing to kill his partner for his share. The length humanity is willing to go for wealth becomes a moral tale that instructs us to head the warning of the old man in the film. I try to live my life not obsessed with money. But it is difficult. Money is what makes the World go round. This film is a reminder to me to not be so obsessed with money or posessions. Life is too short.
No comments:
Post a Comment