It’s the early 1900s in Oklahoma Indian territory. An 11-year-old black girl named Sarah Rector lives with her struggling family on a large property.

Unfortunately, others consider the land worthless. And it’s especially tougher for the Rectors due to the Jim-Crow laws for people of minority race.

Sarah has a decent relationship with her mother, father and little brother. But she particularly has a nice relationship with a family dog, Blue Bonnet.

Even though their land gets the poor reputation, Sarah is confident that there is some special oil underneath the soil.

Regardless of the laws restricting people of color, Sarah decides to secretly study different topics to learn more about the potential oil beneath the ground. But she does this to protect her family. She also comes across some surprises that may be able to be fixed and aid her even more.

However, many of the white citizens are strongly against the idea of a black person becoming successful. Even worse, racial hostility breaks out and increases.

Despite that, though, Sarah meets this white Texan man named Bert Smith – he is very kind and even enthusiastic about the idea of helping her.

But the violence from other white people does not stop. Sadly, they end up shooting Blue Bonnet at the Rector family’s house. This prompts the Rectors to escape for their own safety.

Yet Sarah continues to see Bert. She even gets to know him to the point where he can be her white guardian to sign the contract for her land.

However, once they are in the courthouse, the whites and blacks have mixed reactions. While the white people are against this, the black people encourage Sarah to follow her dreams by singing a gospel song. Even Sarah’s parents do what they can to make her confident.

In spite of her friendship with Bert, though, sarah is hesitant to him signing her contract for her oil job. She wants her parents to sign it instead.

But racism continues to grow to the point where the Rector family escapes to Kansas City. And worse, Sarah thinks that Bert betrayed her. She no longer wants to have anything to do with him.

But can things still improve for Sarah?

There was a lot I learned about this time by watching this movie, especially because it was based on a true story. For instance, Sarah’s parents were worried about her becoming educated and would strongly discourage it.

Not surprisingly, it was normal in black families for the parents to be much more protective of their kids compared to white families back then. This was done to protect them from racism or any racial violence.

But I deeply admired Sarah’s friendship with Bert. He was one of the very few white people willing to help her.

Which brings me to my next thought: Zachary Levi, who played Bert, succeeded with his southern accent. He is American but does not have that kind of accent in real life.

Fun fact: I actually met Zachary Levi at a Broadway theater back in 2013. And he was super tall and very nice.

Anyway, back to the review. Regardless of how much this movie engaged me, I will admit that it was hard to follow at times. A good percentage of the narrative above was referenced using Wikipedia. Of course, all words are my own.

Despite that weakness, I do understand that this was based on a real life event. Therefore, it isn’t necessarily going to follow the same exact format as a fictional tale.

However, certain plot points were easy to pick up later on. And not surprisingly, certain content was fictionalized. That includes Bert Smith.

He actually never existed. He was only added in the movie to give Sarah a mentor.

But overall, I liked Sarah’s Oil. It was a good watch with a decent number of strengths.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.