Summary Of The PRIZE: Epic Quest For Oil, Money And Power

The setting of this film, The PRIZE: Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power by Daniel Yergin, is from when petroleum industry had became the most popular global energy during the Gilded Age which was around 1800s, when old industries transformed and new industries started to born, to the modern times in 1900s. This film starts with the description of John D. Rockefeller, who made modern American economy and was the symbol of American monopoly, and his Standard Oil Trust Company in the American economy. This film talks and explains not only about oil business as new boom energy along rail road industries in America during the nineteenth century, but also modern economics in the world that was affected by petroleum industries. The tone and mood

of the entire story are very interesting and this film changes its tone and mode along the themes of the stories in the film. For example, the background songs when the narrators explain about how oil industries started to become a boom as new energy are very rhythmical and light, which makes the mood and tone exciting and joyful. When the film starts to talk about how the oil business was in deep depression and the prices had collapsed by the late 1860s, the tone and atmosphere of the film change into deep and dark with giving gloomy and heavy songs for the background of the film. The tone over this entire film is very narrative and calm. Moreover, the songs in this film along narrations and descriptions are well shown to support the tone and mood of the story. I have learned a lot about every events and people from these time periods of the film. I had not much knowledge about American economic history before I watched this film. I got to know about John D. Rockefeller, who was known as a person that created modern American economy and was the symbol of American monopoly with his Standard Oil Trust Company, and how he affected the economics in America. I also learned who Franklin Tarbell and Ida Tarbell were and what they thought and wrote about John D. Rockefeller and the workers who worked for the companies in that time. Moreover, it gives me information of how oil business in 1800s had changed to affect the modern events and environment along human suffering, such as gulf war, Saddam Hussein, and even Communism of the Soviet Union. The message over this movie is that there must be a solution of the problem that is caused by oil energy. As amount of oil consumption that we have used and amount of pollution seriously affect the earth and our environment, there must be a change about oil economy. Moreover, poverty, health crisis, and political instability that directly affect human lives need to be solved along the problems of environment. I do agree with this film. There is a limit of oil energy that is the main energy resource in the world currently, which means that we do need to develop high tech energy and new forms of energy. I think having new forms of energy is very significant in order to solve the environmental problems with pollutions that are caused by current energies. I do not think there was something I did not understand about the film, because this film was well-explained enough to give a lot of information in every aspects. Moreover, it connected economy of 1800s and the present events of around 1900s to talk about how oil economy has affected into the gulf war and the communism of the Soviet Union, which I could not think of, like the author. What I liked best about the movie is the well explained information of how oil economy has affected to the past and the modern economy. It was very interesting how this film has the economics description of different time periods, 1800s, the past, and 1900s, pretty much modern time period and how oil economy affected to change American or the world, which makes me to think and compare about how its economy affects the present time. And, I liked the songs that were used in the movie. They were helpful to understand and very interesting to support the narrations. The part that I liked the least about the film was that the last part of the story when it talked about other countries as example, such as Japan, Russia, and China. I think I would like this film more if this film talked less about other countries as examples. I would like to know other countries and how they were related. However, having too much examples in the film made me little bit confused. That is why I chose this part as the least favorite of the film. The strongest emotion that I felt when watching the film was a surprise. I felt it was very interesting and surprising when I was watching this film. Even though I do not think that this movie showed or contained very noticeable and obvious emotions, such as joy and grief, this film made me to feel sad and sorry when this movie described the gulf war. I also felt very surprised about how the oil economy that used to help increasing economics affected a lot in every side in the world to cause the war and how oil has became very significant to our lives, which means that we still need a lot amount of oil, even though we are now in technology time period. This movie reminded me of Korean oil economy. Since Korea doesn’t have various resources including petroleum, the prices and scarcity have been getting higher and higher, which is why Korea needs to develop new future energy like other countries and I think it is related to this film of talking about new and other kinds of energy in the last part of the story. If I had a chance to ask characters in this movie a question, the people I want to ask would be John D. Rockefeller and Franklin Tarbell. I would like to ask John D. Rockefeller how John D. Rockefeller thought about American economy at that time and his Standard Oil Trust Company. And I would like to know more about an idea or a concern of Franklin Tarbell’s moral judgement on giving up the workers’ freedom along with John D. Rockefeller and his company. It is always interesting to know more about their own ideas in specific ways. As I finished watching this film, I was thinking about new energies that could replace oil resources to protect the natural environment and human being. This film was talking about how oil became very significant to the world and it was still necessary as a resource, even though new technology time period came and other energy had been developed.

I get an interest on knowing what kinds of energy have been developed recently, because this film was published years ago. The most powerful story told by this movie is the last part of story when it talks about how we need new types and forms of energy instead oil and gasoline, because this part is very related to the current problem that the world faces with energy, which makes me think it is very powerful story to influence people to be aware of the problem that this movie talks about. I would like to recommend this movie, The Prize, to a friend. I’ve been interested about oil industries and this movie is very interesting about how it explains the petroleum industry in the American economic history with not only economic history but also all other events of the time. This film is very educational and it also gives lots of information about American economy along oil business in 1800s and 1900s. And, I got to learn a lot about John D. Rockefeller who I didn’t have much knowledge about before I watched this movie. That’s why I would recommend this film to a

friend