Sometimes history doesn’t suck. Or at least it doesn’t suck 100% of the time. And perhaps it’s right to shine a flashlight at historical justice no matter how hard we have to look to find it. Today, for example, we have to go to 1913 Oklahoma, where the (then) six-year-old state was just figuring out it, too, had oil. And NOT ALL OF IT WAS OWNED BY WHITE MEN!!
Thanks to Muscogee descendance, 11-year-old Sarah Rector (Naya Desir-Johnson) is granted 160 acres of useless scrub in Glenpool, Oklahoma. It’s 1913 and the clock is ticking. How’s that? Well, in a year, Sarah will owe property taxes on the granted land. They’ll come to about $30, which is roughly $5.6 trillion in today’s economy. Or it may as well be for the ability that an 11-year-old girl on Black and Native American background can legally -or, geez, even illegally- get her hands on $30.
Here’s the thing, though – there’s oil on that land. Sarah just knows it. She can feel it. She’s right, although, I swear this strikes me as the kind of thing gamblers tell themselves while walking into casinos. Still, because she is right, and because she is smart and shrewd, it’s hard to root against Sarah. But this all raises a very big problem – how do you get people to invest in your property before the proverbial -excuse the expression- well runs dry? And how much more difficult is it going to be for an 11-year-old black girl in Oklahoma to do so?
After being refused by several racist oil men, Sarah gets Jim Devnan (Garret Dillahunt) to invest a little in exploration. Devnan is probably the most honest of the conmen running oil around town, which is kind of like being the most qualified member of Trump’s cabinet. It is only a matter of time before Devnan tries to take all of Sarah’s Oil for himself. And yet, what needs to be recognized is Devnan did indeed supply and erect the structures which eventually do pull oil from the ground. If he refuses to do that part initially, there is no Sarah’s Oil; the story is “oil that belongs to the white guy who bought this property at auction,” which isn’t much of a movie.
And when Devnan “gives up” on Sarah’s land, Sarah has to go find another champion in the form of lesser conman and drifter Bert (Zachary Levi), who smells a payday. This is a more complicated role than we’re used to from Levi – Bert comes off initially as a do-gooder, but we can see he’s torn between doing the right thing and doing the greedy thing. We know full well his default setting is “greed.” It is only Sarah’s ambition and helplessness than compels him to do the right thing here.
Sarah’s Oil is a nice tale full of standard clichés (did you hear the one about the kid who is good at chess?) and easily spotted evil. It is likable enough to endure its flaws, and there are certainly a few. Personally, I cringed like a vampire seeing a sunrise when Sarah herself gets all preachy on her overlords in biblical fashion.
Why you sanctimonious, self-righteous, hypocritical piece of shit. You’re gonna call out the “greed” of 
others like you didn’t ignore two reasonable offers for your property – you know, the one you can’t afford to keep?! This is where I draw the line. Look: 1913 Oklahoma was not the best place to get social justice. If you don’t believe me, just check out what happens in Tulsa eight years later. But getting a lecture on greed from a greedy 11-year-old, well, you’ll forgive me if I’m a little deaf to it. Yes, I am glad that Sarah finally cashed in on the fair value of the property … but there was murder along the way. And while I’m not blaming Sarah for the deaths – they were clearly the work of the greedy oil barons above Sarah on the totem pole – there likely wouldn’t have been any murders if Sarah had taken the first or second decent offers for her property.
So, yeah, there are levels of greed, but don’t tell me Sarah wasn’t greedy, and please don’t have the kid lecture me on the good book when it comes to greed.
This film seems like the kind of thing Angel Studios is chastising itself for not buying the rights and then punching up the God talk on their way to a truly poor retelling. As is, this film was acceptable and certainly will make justice-seeking audiences happy. Personally, I’m going to half-smile knowing that while this is indeed a victory for David over Goliath, it is certainly not a victory for common sense, harmony, or human growth.
There once was a resident Okie
Granted some land as a jokey
Turns out all her acres
Were millionaire makers
Now how do you drill oil on the low-key?
Rated PG, 103 Minutes
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Writer: Tonya Bolden, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, Cyrus Nowrasteh
Genre: Times history didn’t suck 100%
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Black and Native Americans in search of justice
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Who roots against a precocious 11-year-old Black girl? Oh, yeah, racists
