Very different to the film
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Rather than being about Daniel Plainfield and to a lesser extent his "son" HW, the book is told mainly from the perspective of "Bunny" Ross, the actual son of oilman J Arnold Ross. There are very significant roles for two of the Watkins brothers: Eli the Pentecostal preacher, corrupt as in the film, but more believable here to those who know something of Pentecostalism in 1920s California (some of the material clearly influenced by the career of Aimee Semple Macpherson); and a very prominent role for Paul, the politically committed union activist who ultimately becomes a communist, and has a profound influence on "Bunny".
Why three stars? Well, for me three stars means averagely good, four stars is for significantly better than average and only the truly exceptional should get five stars. There is much to admire and enjoy here, but it was written in 1926, and the author's advocacy of socialism/communism, with his enthusiasm for communist Russia seems hopelessly naive and misplaced, given what we have known for many decades now. Human greed is an evil thing, and the capitalist beast needs taming, but communism proved a worse system than America in the 1920s in virtually every respect.
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A book that changes one who reads it...The film on the other hand is in shambles
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Sabahattin Ali is said to have commented on this book that whoever reads this book becomes a socialist. This book carefully re-creates the atmosphere of the early periods of United States and the emergence of oil barons. The story revolves around the son of a wealthy oilman and his role model a communist worker. Paul is a very political person in every aspect, he organises the workers, deciphers the US Army's involvement in the Far East part of the Soviet Union. Also in the book is mentioned the Teapot Dome scandal involving the then president Warren Harding-one of the least succesful presidents of the US.
I have already watched the film "There will be Blood" based upon "Oil!". The film has to be watched and judged seperately as it has no connections whatsoever with the book. As an adaptation it is disgraceful to use Upton Sinclair's or Oil!'s name. Only the beginnig of the book is same where we meet the characters. No World War 1, no scandal, no class warfare is mentioned. I like Daniel Day Lewis, and he does a brilliant acting but I think he was used as pawn for the cencors of the original book. For me I can only say that do NOT watch the movie, read the book instead...
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