The Prize: An Epic Quest For Oil, Money And Power

(I thought I was getting the whole series from the description on Amazon, However I just got 2 episodes).I WAS MISTAKEN - ALL THE EPISODES ARE INCLUDED

The video of the Prize was based on the excellent book by Daniel Yergin, with pictures, of the history of oil and its usage. It covers its early discovery in Pennsylvania, its use as an illuminant which replaced whale oil, and its value in the internal combustion engine. It covers the several wars which were fought over access to it. It reveals why we are where we are at this point in history.

Did you know that, at one time, there was a massive oil glut and the governors of Texas and Oklahoma sent National Guard troops to oil fields to halt production?Did you know that one of the primary reasons Rommel lost the war in North Africa was because he didn't have enough fuel to keep his vehicles running, while the Allied forces had all the fuel they needed?Did you know that John D. Rockefeller, one of the most ruthless businessmen in history, considered himself to be a good Christian who was just using his God-given talent to make money so he could give it away to good causes?Here's the episode list:- Our Plan (origins of the oil industry in the northeastern United States during the 1800s)- Empires of Oil (continuation of the early development of the oil industry)- The Black Giant (more continuation, into the 1930s)- War and Oil (World War II and oil)- Crude Diplomacy (post-WWII oil goes international)- Power to the Producers (oil producing nations take back the industry)- The Tinderbox (oil and war during the '70s and '80s)- The New Oil Order (projections on the future, lots of talk about conservation)I remember watching this on television when it came out in 1992. At the time, I purchased the VHS tapes of the series because I liked it so much. The first four episodes are just fascinating.What strikes me the most about it is the caliber of people they interview. For instance, when they were discussing John D. Rockefeller, they had his grandson David Rockefeller making comments. They also have the chairmen of major international oil companies, ex-diplomats, people who were there, and many more. This is an extremely informative series.Unfortunately, the video quality isn't all that good. There's definitely been some degradation of the film, and it's formatted for the old-style square television displays. But that's not too hard to get beyond.I found the first four episodes, up through World War II, to be very interesting. After that, they focused more on the political aspects of oil, and I didn't like it as much. Got a bit boring. Thus the 4/5 stars. The final episode is interesting only in comparing their 25 year old predictions to what has actually happened.

I would definitely recommend this DVD. While the quality of the video is not the best, the subject matter is a comprehensive history of the development of the oil industry in the United States and worldwide. Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Prize, is featured and Donald Sutherland does an excellent job as the narrator.Viewing this video gives the viewer a much better understanding of the many factors that play a role in the development, availability, and price of oil. An excellent follow-up to this DVD is Yergin's book The Quest which brings us up to the present on various types of energy and energy security.

i like it a lot everything is good.

Very interesting archival footage and history of the industry. Unfortunately, it's over-dramatized in places, and much of this 1992 production is rendered obsolete by the Fracking Revolution. The author strongly subscribes to the Peak Oil fallacy, as well many shades of pop Environmentalism. He touches on but doesn't emphasize how "foreign oil companies" not only discovered and developed this worthless commodity all over the world, but stabilized the market for decades, and allowed the Oil Economy to grow sufficiently to make oil valuable enough to expropriate. Image quality is fair; sound is poor in places and, without subtitles, some of the dialogue is garbled.

This is nothing but a great history of the petroleum industry and the people, companies, and countries that are important to it. The conclusion is outdated given the revolutionary role that fracking has had on US oil and gas production and the potential impacts on climate change policies.

In order to understand current politics, past politics, American wars...please watch this. Its amazing. America is just a business and that business is oil. Period. Literally, the general public are just subcontractors for the government's side projects while they focus on their main gig, oil!!!