Review of There Will Be Blood (2007)
I believe David Bacon had it right in a contemporary Z Magazine review. Too much political material (people’s resistance, systemic incentives) is omitted, not only from the novel but from the historical reality surrounding the drama. The complete change of the tycoon’s character is also regrettable. What remains is individual, pretty and irrelevant. Compare Tulsa (1949) which shows resistance and systemic incentives, yet is more glamorous and dishonest.
References here: It’s a Free World... (2007), Okja (2017).