Description
The most valuable substance on earth has brought wealth to poor nations and nearly bankrupted wealthy ones. It has created cities overnight–sometimes destroying them just as quickly–and has caused rampant international warfare. When a Canadian chemist found a way to turn petroleum into kerosene in the 1850s, the need for oil exploded. “Black gold” burns at the heart of the modern age, making those who control it the wealthiest and most powerful men on earth. Black Gold: T… More >>
The movie with all the information about the story of oil was really good. The thing which could improve it would by a subtitle in English so that people with less English knowledge can read the spoken word.
Rating: 5 / 5
It was slightly better than average, but it certainly was aimed to make the petro industry look good.
Rating: 4 / 5
Good historical review of the importance of oil in our society. Somewhat simplified with little insight of political and industrial importance.
Rating: 3 / 5
Great general history of the petroleum industry in America and abroad. Terrific photos, documents and tales – I’d highly recommend.
Rating: 5 / 5
This documentary is very informative as it pertains to the development of the big oil corporations, Standard, Gulf and Texaco in the U.S. It is rather odd that it passes through the 1930s with no mention of Middle East fields, that is until the 1970s (!) with the “oil weapon” of OPEC (which actually formed in the early 1960s) and gas embargo. One will find no mention of the role that oil corporations played in transforming merchant and Navy ships to oil during WWI, hence acquiring a “key” to the U.S. Treasury through “national security” rhetoric. One will find no mention of how the U.S. corporations muscled out British imperial influence in Saudi Arabia before WWII. Nor how western oil corporations both finagled in the sovereignty of foreign nations through supporting autocratic regimes and military coups using cynical anti-communist (and later human rights and “terrorist”) justifications (Iran, Iraq, Latin America, Indonesia, Sudan, etc.). Nor is there any mention of the importance of controlling Middle East oil to rebuild Europe and Japan after WWII (nor the important, perhaps even central, role of oil in igniting that war!). Finally, not a peep about the escalation of petrochemical production and its environmental effect, not to mention emissions and global warming. This documentary is vastly compromised by the industry perspective, yet informative, if supplemented by other readings and documentaries (such as The Corporation, or Hidden Wars of Desert Storm).
Rating: 1 / 5