Sarah´s Oil

The oil industry have proved to be a very successful business for many different oil companies worldwide. Not only do we need oil for our cars, trucks, industrial machinery but we also need oil to make manifacturing tools to function properly. Even though times are changing and they develope new ways to construct cars without oil, we will still neeed it to function in society. It is possible in the future we may not need oil as much if they keep developing other products that´s better for the environment? I am all for a positive change if we can help the environment. If we look back in history though the oil industry have been very important helping a lot of families to survive. People were able to have jobs, have a paycheck they could survive on and were able to buy homes. The oil companies themselves were making a lot of money and the so called black gold industry was blooming during the early 1900´s. When it comes to movies that talk about the oil industry there are several titles to choose between. One of my personal favourite films regarding the oil industry was released back in the year of 2007 and is called Syriana. Directed by Stephen Gaghan this film takes place in the Persian Gulf kingdom, where a U.S. energy giant Connex Oil is losing control of key old fields, ruled by the Al-Subaai family. The Emirate´s foreign minister, Prince Nasir Al-Subaai ( Alexander Siddig ), has granted natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the U.S. oil industry and the U.S. government. Connex Oil have a plan though to fix this, by using a smaller oil company as help to guarantee a succesfull deal. The question is can they pull this off? Syriana is a very well made political thriller that really digs deep inside the oil buisness and how much money they are dealing with worldwide, while everyone may not follow all the rules as they are meant to be used. Fantastic casting with actors such as George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Amanda Peet and Christopher Plummer among others and i have to say the whole cast give really good acting performances. Worth a watch on streaming or even on physical media. Speaking of oil i read last year about a drama film coming out telling the story of a little black girl named Sarah Rector, who was the first black girl who was allotted 160 acres of land. I have not heard of this story before so i was definetely fascinated watching a biographical film telling her story as a very young woman. Not knowing much else about this story i decided to rent Sarah´s Oil on VOD. Is this a drama film you should see or should you go watch the 2007 film Syriana instead?

Sarah Rector ( Naya Desir- Johnson ), a descendant of the Creek Freedmen, who is granted 160 acres of land in Oklahoma through a federal allotment program.  Considered useles and unfit for farming, the land was expected to yield nothing. Guided by a deep personal conviction and her faith, Sarah insist there is oil underneath the ground. After her family leashes the land, an oil gusher produces over 2,000 barrels a day, making her incredibly wealthy over night. Some big names within the oil industry find out about this and is determined to take Sarah´s land, but she´s not going down without fighting for what is rightfully her acres.

When it comes to faith based drama films i have personally been struggling with some of the American faith based movies that have hit cinemas worldwide. For example the God´s Not Dead franchise, i would say that the first film is ok while the other films struggled with a lot of issues. Thankfully we did have a good one known as War Room from director Alex Kendrick that became very successfull on physical media, selling over 40 million DVD copies in America alone. So when i went into Sarah´s Oil knowing this was a faith based film based on a true story i did have my doubts. Would this film have at least descent acting and a interesting story compared to some of the God´s Not Dead films? And i will be honest and say this is one of the better faith based drama films i have seen so far. Not just because this is a very fascinating story regarding the first black girl who was granted 160 acres of land in Oklahoma, i think this film is interesting from a historical perspective as well in the oild industry during the early 1900´s. As we all know back in those days there was still a lot of racism across America, so for a girl like Sarah to be able to pull this through in difficult times is actually incredible. Sarah´s Oil manage to tell this story in a realistic way while giving us a chance to get to know Sarah better. She seemed very intelligent for her young age and clearly wanted to learn about the oil industry. The acting from young actress Naya Desir-Johnson as the main character Sarah Rector is really good. I have seen many young actors in a lot of films over the years and i have to say, considering her young age and acting this good already im positively surprised. I look forward to see her act in future releases. I also enjoy her screen chemistry with actor Zachary Levi ( who plays superhero Shazam in the DC comics inspired films ) as the character Bert Smith. It´s almost like Bert becomes not only a business partner to Sarah but also a father figure, making sure she´s not put in any danger because of her skin color This film manage to portait how greedy the oil industry can be, who don´t care about human life as much as making money. Even though this is a faith based film you don´t really feel like they are pushing faith on to you, that this is important for Sarah and her family but they treat everyone equal. I find the costume design matching with the early 1900´s and the same thing regarding different locations manage to capture the time period well. Sarah´s Oil could inspire many young women worldwide to follow their dreams, because if a black young girl in the early 1900´s could buy a property ( when racism was a big issue ), then other young women can follow their dreams in modern days as well. Sarah´s Oil is a beautiful looking film, with solid acting performances and should fit well with families of different ages. Director Cyrus Nowrasteh ( who directed the 2008 powerful drama film The Stoning Of Soraya M. ) proves once more why he is so good at telling dramatic stories and this is a worthy watch.

Rating: DDD