Breaking Bad is my favorite TV show of all time (well, either that or The Wire), and one thing that I've heard from several people is that there are a lot of similarities between it and the 1948 classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Now, I had seen the movie before (it's actually one of the best black and white movies you’ll ever watch), but I never really made the connection between the two…until I watched it again recently, and now it's incredibly obvious.
So, here are just a few of the ways that The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is similar to Breaking Bad.
Firstly, Humphrey Bogart Plays The Perfect Morally Gray Protagonist
Of all of the excellent characters in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is obviously the greatest. It all goes to the fact that he's actually the antagonist of the series, but it's really up to the viewer as to when they come to that conclusion (for me, it was when Walt just watched Jane die).
We get a morally gray protagonist in Fred C. Dobbs (played by Humphrey Bogart) in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Now, if you don’t know, Bogart actually played a number of gangsters before he played good guys like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, Rick Blaine in Casablanca, and Frank McCloud in Key Largo. So, he always had that bad boy streak in him. However, in Sierra Madre, he’s not an all-out bad guy. Not at first anyway. Similar to Walter White, he’s actually down on his luck, and broke at the start, as he completes a job, only to get stiffed out on the pay.
However, when he and two others uncover gold, you see his slow descent into avarice, and he essentially “breaks bad” and becomes a killer to protect the gold that he’s acquired. He might not poison children like Heisenberg, but he’s definitely not a nice person, either, which makes him one of the best morally gray characters in cinema history. He’s like Heisenberg-lite.
The Open Desert Setting Definitely Reminds Me Of New Mexico In Breaking Bad
Anybody who’s watched Breaking Bad can tell you - New Mexico is a character in itself. The vast desert, the crime coming in over the border, the law enforcement trying to quell the violence, it all just makes Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul feel completely unique like the best westerns often do (and yes, Breaking Bad is essentially a neo-western).
We get that same sense of openness with the Mexican setting in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. We see the vast desert, we get the federales (“Badges? We ain’t got no badges.”), and we get the rugged men who have to deal with this often harsh environment.
In a lot of ways, Breaking Bad’s New Mexico setting almost feels like an extension of the Mexico setting we get in Sierra Madre. I don’t know how I didn’t see this before with the first time I watched it, but I definitely see it now.
The Theme Of Greed Corrupting Completely Is Also Present In This Classic Film
Lastly, the theme of what greed can do to people is prevalent in both the movie and the popular AMC series. In Breaking Bad, Walt probably wouldn’t have gotten in over his head if he wasn’t greedy for the sense of power that being Heisenberg gave him. In the end, this greed destroyed his entire life, as well as his family.
We get that in Sierra Madre as well, as Fred C. Dobbs might have had a better fate if he didn’t let the temptation of gold take over his life. This greed was all-consuming, and it ultimately led to his downfall.
In that way, both the movie and the TV series have a lot in common. If you’ve seen the movie, can you spot any other similarities?
You can rent or buy The Treasure of the Sierra Madre on Amazon
