Mining in Mexico, drilling in Venezuela

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of my favorite movies, ranking somewhere in Bob’s Top 10. The other nine I have never listed.

84 Charlie Mo-Pic easily makes the list, since it is the best Vietnam War movie, period. Film critic Roger Ebert said of 84C: “I’ve never seen a combat movie that seemed this close to actual experience, to the kinds of hard lessons that soldiers are taught by their enemies.” A Vietnam veteran friend said that while he and his teenage son were watching the movie, the boy asked, “Dad, is this real?”

12 O’clock High is one of the best “war movies” ever made. Also on the list is They Were Expendable, a 1945 movie in which Robert Montgomery takes lead billing over John Wayne. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World also is one of my favorites. The Outrage also makes my list.

That is six. I’ll not list the remaining four, because I do not know what they are.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is on the list because it is a well-made, well-acted movie of a time when Americans were respected and because of something my mother once mentioned. One of her uncles, she said, after World War I went to Venezuela to work in the oil fields.

“We never heard from him after that,” she said.

Drilling for oil in 1920s Venezuela is not the same as mining gold in 1920s Mexico, but the drive and intent of both groups of men is the same.