List Price: $24.95You Pay Only: $19.99 You Save: $4.96 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767085298
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 0767085299
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 27, 2005
Running Time: 50 minutes
Sales Rank: 31105
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
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Editorial Review:
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: THE STORY OF OIL narrates the stories of these men--including John D. Rockefeller and William Mellon--and the empires they built. Learn how oil came to dominate American industry--and about the nation's current dependency--and discover why the resource continues to cause global flare-ups. EMPIRES OF INDUSTRY presents the comprehensive history of 'black gold,' the resource that continues to govern our world. DVD Features: Interactive Menus; Scene Selection
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Bad Black Gold
Having read Daniel Yergin's epic on the oil industry (The Prize) I was expecting much much more from this DVD. I must say after viewing its less than 1 hour effort I am utterly disappointed. To begin with, Amazon.com should make it mandatory for each DVD on sale to state the length of the production. This is basic product information and I wonder why we need to get this information from customer reviews when available. After a 5 hour "The Story of India" and a 4-disc "The Universe" my expectations were for a 2 hour presentation at the least.
This DVD has not enough coverage and depth for its price. It focused mainly on the origins of oil in the USA and thereafter demands for it, firstly for kerosene lighting and thereafter during the automobile craze in the USA. It largely ignored the development of the oil industry in Persian Gulf countries, Mexico, South Amercia and parts of Asia and the politics surrounding oil during World War II.
Rating:  - Empires of Industry - Black Gold: The story of oil
Great general history of the petroleum industry in America and abroad. Terrific photos, documents and tales - I'd highly recommend.
Rating:  - Story of Oil
Good historical review of the importance of oil in our society. Somewhat simplified with little insight of political and industrial importance.
Rating:  - Film Review
It was slightly better than average, but it certainly was aimed to make the petro industry look good.
Rating:  - An Industry Public Relations Effort passed off as "History"
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).
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