Struck Oil

“Struck Oil” masterfully dissects the moral decay at the heart of post-Civil War American society, centering on the tragic figure of John Stofel. His initial act of profound selflessness—stepping into the fray of war as a proxy for a morally bankrupt deacon, in exchange for a seemingly modest farm deed—sets the stage for an escalating narrative of betrayal and psychological ruin. The film meticulously chronicles Stofel’s return from the battlefields, not with the laurels of victory, but as a spectral echo of his former self: profoundly wounded and irretrievably insane, a stark, visceral embodiment of the conflict’s unseen, insidious toll on the human spirit. This descent into mental fragmentation forms a harrowing backdrop, against which the narrative introduces a potent catalyst for further tragedy: the discovery of vast oil reserves beneath his hard-won, now immensely valuable, property. It is at this juncture that the very deacon, whose initial ‘generosity’ now appears a cynical maneuver, resurfaces, his piety a thin veneer over rapacious greed. He embarks on a chilling campaign to dispossess Stofel, shamelessly exploiting the veteran’s shattered mental state to reclaim the oil-rich land, thereby transforming a tale of personal sacrifice into a searing indictment of avarice, the vulnerability of the traumatized, and the corrupting allure of sudden, unearned wealth.