The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Premium Collection (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Download + UV + Art-cards + HMV Exclusive Slipcase Packaging) (2-Disc) (Uncut | Region Free | UK Import) - Restored & Remastered in HD

I have enjoyed this movie ever since I watched it for the first time on TNT (nowadays TCM). Now, I am glad to have the dvd. A trio of treasure hunters brace for greed as they travel across Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains to hunt for gold. Along the way they face bandits and robbers, until a treachery force them to part ways. A gripping end to cinema's finest treasure adventure that fetch John Huston Best Director Award at the Oscars.

Bogart and Walter Huston in a movie directed by John Huston, who could ask for anything more? Excellent support from Tim Holt as a nice guy and Barton MacLane as a sleazy contractor.

One of the best movies captured with visual clarity and excellent sound on this DVD. It is black and white. A must see classic movie about how greed changes people. Excellent acting by Bogie and John Houston.

Now this is how you are supposed to treat a film classic! This DVD version of an all-time classic film that has a great storyline, excellent acting and compelling drama to the very end has been restored very well here and although there are still a few picture quality imperfections at some spots, overall, the restoration has been very well done. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is an audio option included that would allow for at least Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or DTS/THX quality in addition to just the Dolby Digital Mono quality here which as far as Mono goes is very well remastered.The mostly cardboard digipak packaging is also very well put together making me wish all dvds would be packaged in this way as well. This DVD represents great value for money as well as we get excellent bonus features on both discs and the best one of all is the 2 hour-long documentary on the life of John Huston. I enjoyed that documentary almost as much as the movie itself and I also appreciated the Bugs Bunny cartoons and the other documentary on the making of the film as well.Until perhaps an even better restored version on Blu-Ray comes around, this here is the best version of the film that you can get. I thought this is Bogie's best ever performance and yet he pales in comparison with that of Walter Huston who put in among the best 5 performances that I've ever seen by a male actor. John Huston the director also shows that he's a good actor with his small part at the start of the film. Even the small boy selling lottery tickets was excellent and I can't think of any bad acting at all among any of the cast.This film fully deserves its top 30 ranking among AFI's Best American Films list. The story of how Bogie's honorable character degenerates because of greed to the horrible lowlife that he became in the end as compared to what became of his companions is a study in great story-telling and great acting. You start out liking Bogie but end up totally hating his guts at the end. If that's not great acting, I don't know what is.Excellent film, great extras, great value for money, excellent dvd makes this highly recommended!Updated 20 April 2011:Amazon won't let me review this separately and so I've added this on. The Blu-Ray version is excellent and is a marked improvement over the dvd. Both the picture quality except for a few frames at the Cody scene and the sound quality are excellent and a vast improvement over the dvd as well. The blu-ray is now the definitive version of this film and I'm astounded at just how much better it is over the dvd version that I've reviewed above.Blu-ray version is very highly recommended!

ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a timeless story about greed & distrust. The story takes place in Mexico in the early part of the twentieth century. Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart) is a down-on-his-luck American bumming his way through every day. He will barely work & it's easy to see he's not a nice person. The director, John Huston, has a cameo role as an American who Dobbs puts the bite on three times in the same day.Dobbs meets Curtin (Tim Holt) who become co-workers for a less than scrupulous American who doesn't pay them. They force McCormick (Barton McLane) to pay them. Dobbs had also bought a lottery ticket earlier in the story from a young Mexican boy (Robert Blake). The windfall from the lottery ticket & his wages has Dobbs dreaming about other things. When Dobbs & Curtin end up at a flophouse they overhear an old man, Howard (Walter Huston) talking about gold mining. This really gets Dobbs to thinking & he convinces the other two into searching for gold. Dobbs puts up the bulk of the money for their supplies; Curtin has his stake also & Howard will provide the experience & know-how.All of this is pretty amazing considering that Dobbs is inherently lazy. Even the warnings from Howard about the hard work & mistrust between partners doesn't stem his enthusiasm.Howard leads them into the Sierra Madre, a wild & remote area. Dobbs & Curtin find it hard keeping up with the old man, both becoming somewhat discouraged at the effort needed. But when Howard finds the gold Dobbs & Curtin become enthusiastic, Dobbs especially.Dobbs begins to work hard probably for the first time in his life. When Howard & Curtin start talking about when to stop after a certain monetary figure, Dobbs disagrees with their figure. The gold bug has bitten him & he wants more. Dobbs becomes increasingly paranoid distrusting both of his partners. He becomes so paranoid that he thinks that they want to kill him for his share. So, in order to protect his interest, he starts plotting their demise. Dobbs spirals downward eventually shooting Curtin & leaving him for dead.In the end Dobbs is killed by some Mexican bandits. The gold is scattered to the winds & months of hard work is gone.The film is beautifully restored. There are many bonus features, so many that an extra disc is included. There is an audio commentary track for the entire film by Eric Lax. There is "Warner Night at the Movies 1948" hosted by Leonard Maltin. Other features on disc one include a newsreel; a comedy short, " So You Want to Be a Detective" & a cartoon, "Hot Cross Bunny".Disc two has "Discovering Treasure: The Story of the Treasure of the Sierra Madre". This a new documentary that features a multitude of personalities discussing aspects of the film. These include Martin Scorsese, Eric Lax, Leonard Maltin & Robert Osborne. There are many other bonus features included on the disc.

I'm embarrassed to say that "Treasure of Sierra Madre" changed my life. I saw it as a child and was enchanted by three American ex-pats kicking around in Mexico and searching for Mexican treasure. By the age of 21 I was spending every other weekend in Baja and Sonora and did so for years. Since then, I've spent a lot more time there, bought a home in Jalisco and am, even now, living directly on the Rio Grande in South Texas. My interest in Mexico has culminated with my writing two novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God" on the glorious, brutal, gold-plated Conquest of Mexico.None of these things speaks to the quality of the film itself but clearly this is one of the really great films. In my opinion, it is very nearly perfect. I only disagree with one part. There is a cave-in and the Dobbs/Bogart character suffers some kind of head injury. Afterwards, he shows signs of increasing paranoia terminating with theft, attempted murder and Dobbs' own death.I have no doubt that the film was deliberately scripted this way so that the viewer had alternative options for Dobbs' deteriorating behavior--brain injury or pure greed. In that this is a story of greed, I would have ommitted the head injury. Dobbs' behavior springs from the depths of his own darkening soul. Other than that, the film is simply wonderful.We learn a lot of interesting things. A down-and-out gringo can beg but he can't stoop to the level of a shoe-shine boy, otherwise his "goose is cooked." We learn that ordinary men are capable of murder when their financial interests are threatened and we learn that gold dust doesn't necessarily shine.The banditos are terrific. I loved it when the one bandit tries to talk his way out of possessing a burro that belongs to somebody else. I love the rough-and-ready Mexican justice and I love it when the condemned bandito--unawed or too stupid to fear his impending death--asks for a pause in his execution as he retrieves his battered sombrero blown off by the wind.I love it when the two gringos discover that their gold, which has been blown away by the same gusting wind, is gone forever. They erupt into hysterical laughter. After all, what the Hell else can they do? Months of hope and back breaking labor shot to hell. I love it all... especially the truth that the real Treasure of the Sierra Madre isn't the gold, at all. It's the love that the Indians have for the old man.Ron Braithwaite