Sarah’s Oil Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: Is Sarah Able To Keep Her Land?

It’s simultaneously ironic and strange that while “Sarah’s Oil” has a miraculously inspirational story, its most popular cast member, Zachary Levi, probably wouldn’t have been a part of it if he hadn’t gone through an unexpected downfall. Once a hot property of Hollywood, thanks to the hit spy drama series “Chuck,” where he played the lead, Levi was still considered quite a name even before the pandemic, when his big-ticket DC superhero movie, “Shazam,” hit theaters. However, despite “Shazam” being a decent enough popcorn movie, playing a superhero couldn’t propel Levi into stardom. Instead, his career took a nosedive, and the man ended up on a Texas ranch. And nowadays, he’s focusing on faith-based cinema, if you consider that a genre. “Sarah’s Oil” is one of those, so it’s not exactly a surprise how blandly it follows a set template of movies of this kind. Like most Christian movies, it lacks any punch, and you can’t really find much cinematic value—not that you go in expecting any. I don’t mean to offend anyone here, though. My job is explaining “Sarah’s Oil,” and I’m going to do exactly that. If you haven’t watched it yet but are planning to, this is where you stop going further.

Spoilers Ahead

First, let’s talk about the real person for a moment. Sarah Rector was an American oil magnate, who used to be known as the “richest colored girl in the world” back then. I’m not sure how much of the movie actually matches up with what really happened in Sarah Rector’s life, or whether there ever was a Bert Smith or not. Like most formulaic biopics, the movie opens with Sarah narrating her incredible story. At 11, Sarah is given a piece of land, being the Black grandchild of a Creek Indian family, thanks to the Treaty of 1866. While what she got was completely legitimate and certified by the government of the United States, it didn’t guarantee her safety from racial abuse by White people, as we see throughout the film. The little girl, however, seems to be unbothered by it. If there’s one thing I could really appreciate in this movie, it’s how early it gets into the business, without any frills. Somehow, Sarah starts to have a feeling there might be oil under her land, and in no time, we see her and her father, Joe, knocking on the doors of the oil corporations in town. Why would they need them? Because the oil (if there’s any) needs to be drilled out of the ground, which only a corporation can do. Due to the color of their skin, most companies turn Sarah and her father down, until they come across Devnan, who runs the Pan-Oklahoma corporation, known as the Pan-Okie. Instead of ignoring a child’s whim, Devnan decides to give it a try and sets up camp on Sarah’s land. They do a six-month contract where Sarah leases her land in exchange for both money and royalties from the oil. Unfortunately, after a while, Davnan concludes the land is dry and leaves the equipment behind. He tells Sarah that packing it all up is going to be difficult, so he is leaving it as a compliment. Shortly after, a man shows up at the Rectors’ doorstep, wanting to buy Sarah’s land, that too with a price as high as 6 dollars per acre, for 160 acres in total. If that’s not enough, the same man, along with a thug, shows up at night and ransacks the house for the deed of the land; they obviously don’t know that Sarah and her parents have hidden it already, sensing something is off. We see Sarah, her parents, and her brother watching the men going bonkers searching for the deed from afar, as they already hid nearby anticipating trouble. Sadly though, Sarah’s dog, Blue, gets shot during the chaos and goes missing. 

The answer, of course, is a resounding yes. Sarah has oil under her land; otherwise, Devnan would not have gone to the trouble of doing all this—yes, it is revealed that he did send that man—to get the oil all for himself. He wants ownership of the land because his greedy soul can’t accept someone else making more profit than him; as Sarah is the landowner, she becomes the richest if anything substantial happens. But Sarah and her strong-willed parents are defiant enough to keep that from happening. That said, the land still needs to be drilled in order to get the oil out. So enter Bert, a jolly man who keeps wandering all over the country in search of treasure and money, along with his friend, Mace. Sarah first meets him when he buys her a glass of lemonade at a local cafe where the waitress is very much against colored people entering the space. Upon their second encounter, Sarah proposes that Bert and Mace come and get the oil out, with the equipment and setup already there. 

Of course, it’s a given that Devnan is not going to let this go, especially with Sarah bringing someone else to do what he has been wanting to do for so long. So he goes to Sarah and threatens her with the contract they signed, only to get thwarted by Bert. Meanwhile, Bert and Mace find themselves in a pickle when they’ve no choice but to stop drilling because of a pipe getting stuck. The movie tries to be a bit educational here, but since all that was ultimately pointless, I’m choosing not to get into it. With the work not advancing, Bert considers Devnan’s proposal of registering himself as a White guardian of Sarah and selling Devnan the land. The White guardian, as you can imagine, is one of the most atrocious legal institutions to exist at the time, where a colored minor would need a White man or woman as someone showing them the light. While Bert thinks his scheme is going to save Sarah and her family from Devnan and his constant threats, it actually backfires, as Devnan’s men visit the house again, this time with the intention of killing Sarah. Thankfully, Sarah’s parents are smart enough to ask Sarah and her brother to run beforehand. Not everyone can escape danger, though, as we see Mace getting shot by these men for absolutely no reason.

I honestly don’t think real-life Sarah Rector had it as easy as this film tries to show. I mean, sure there are conflicts and troubles, the biggest one being Devnan literally wanting to kill an eleven-year-old child to take her land, but the solution also comes quite easily. The movie doesn’t explicitly mention it, but the Almighty has a lot to do here, I suppose. A change in her White guardianship, from Bert to this woman named Miss Bernard, puts Sarah in an advantageous position legally. Miss Bernard is an underdeveloped character, by the way, a local widow with whom Bert may have a romantic thing—another thing that the writer of the movie deserts after scratching the surface. Despite all this, and even a judge telling Devnan to stay away, he returns to Sarah’s land during the climax. Despite having a white flag with him, Devnan shows no intention of backing down, as he starts wiggling a gun in everyone’s face. It doesn’t end well for him though, as he’s unable to do much damage and finally yields. Like most of the film, the climax of it is extremely plain, as Sarah gets everything she deserves. The land belongs to her, as does the oil, and a bright future. Bert leaves for more adventure, leaving a teary-eyed Sarah behind.