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Something the Lord Made [VHS]

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Alan Rickman and Mos Def give superb performances in this wonderfully-written film about the triumph of intelligence and creativity over the effects of racial prejudice.

"Something The Lord Made" is the real-life story of Dr. Alfred Blalock and technician (later Dr.) Vivian Thomas, both of whom pioneered open-heart surgery in America in the mid-twentieth century.

Rickman, as Blalock, gives a flawless, charismatic portrayal of an egotistical surgeon who gains nobility of spirit while he defies (and yet is simultaneously confined by) the customs of his society. Rickman's performance is all the more impressive because he is British, and Blalock was an American from the south; nevertheless, Rickman's southern accent is natural and effortless.

Rickman brings likability and humanity to what could otherwise be an unsympathetic character; and this core humanity gives "Something The Lord Made" a depth not often seen in tales of bigotry within American society. Too often, tales of this sort delineate the bad guys from the good guys in an almost cartoonish fashion, but Rickman's Blalock is both good and bad, reflecting more accurately the reality of the times in which both characters lived.

Mos Def gives a subtle, moving and sympathetic performance as Vivian Thomas, a gifted man who is caught in the trap of prejudice and the expectations of an unenlighted society. The film clearly demonstrates that Thomas is the intellectual peer of Blalock; it is society and circumstance that for years robs Thomas of the practical opportunity to become Blalock's actual peer in terms of status. Def gives us the portrait of a man who chooses patience over reaction; through him, we feel outrage at the denial of the respect due Thomas, time and again.

The writing in this film is low-key and highly effective. Because American society has in some ways changed since the mid-twentieth century setting of this film, younger viewers may not understand the actions and choices made by Blalock and Thomas, both within this film and within real life. Nevertheless, "Something The Lord Made" gives an extremely uplifting and surprisingly accurate portrayal of life as it really existed in those times, and should be appreciated both as an historical and enlightening film.

For once, they got it right, offering a glimpse into the drama/suspsense of the early days in heart surgery, as well as giving a revealing look at two pioneering figures in the field - one well-known (the white doctor) and the other an unsung hero (his afro-american lab assitant). Neither saccharine or unrealistic, the film offers an unflinching look at both the genius and unbridled ambition of Dr. Blalock while countering it with the steadfast loyalty and dedication of his assistant, Vivien Taylor, destined to live in the doctor's shadow for much of his life. This is one I am adding to my personal collection. It is simply that good.

For me the worst bigots are not the ones who carry shotguns and engage in lynchings. Underneath their hatred is a fear born from knowing in the marrow of their bones that they are not as good as the people they are oppressing and that on an equal playing field they will be the ones who end up on the bottom. I am always outraged more by those bigots whose racism is embodied in what they say and how they say it, as well as by the gestures they demand to keep Jim Crow in place despite the evidence of their eyes and the assumption what they see actually gets into their brains. In "Something the Lord Made," there is a moment where a white doctor at the most prestigious hospital in the country makes a point of leaving his office and go into a laboratory just to have a black man fetch food and drink. I look at such a man and wonder what he is thinking, knowing that whatever it is, it is just not right.

Racism is the subtext of "Something the Lord Made," an HBO movie that dramatizes the story first told in the "American Experience" documentary "Partners of the Heart." This is the story of Dr. Alfred Blalock, who pioneered cardiac surgery in 1944 when he and Dr. Helen Taussig developed the Blalock-Taussig technique, a surgical procedure that repaired the faulty blood vessel in the hearts of babies that was causing a lack of oxygen. This fatal birth defect turned babies a light shade of blue, resulting in their being commonly called "blue babies" (Fallot's tetralogy). The story of "Something the Lord Made" is about not only this pioneering medical work, but also the relationship between Blalock and Vivien Thomas, a lab technician. Blalock (Alan Rickman) is white and Thomas is black (Mos Def), which is why racism keeps rearing its head throughout the tale.

Blalock is a brilliant but brash physician doing pioneering work on the treatment of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock (Blalock demonstrated that surgical shock resulted primarily from the loss of blood, and therefore encouraged the use of plasma or whole-blood transfusions as treatment). Thomas has been saving his money to go to medical school but has been working as a carpenter's assistant when he gets a job sweeping and cleaning Blalock's laboratory and dog kennels (experimental techniques are developed working on dogs, once a condition comparable to what is found in humans is created). But the doctor quickly discovers that Thomas has a quick and inventive mind and the Great Depression ends Thomas' dream of going to medical school. What starts off as a relationship between master and servant (or at least boss and employee), becomes that of teacher and student. By the time Blalock moves to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and takes Thomas with him, the two have become joined at the brain. There is a delightful scene where Blalock is kicking around ideas with his new colleagues and Thomas keeps making comments and bouncing ideas off the doctor until they are involved in an intense discussion and everybody is watching dumbfounded.

Director Joseph Sargent ("Colossus: The Forbin Project," "Miss Evers' Boys") has two major stories to tell here. One is the medical story of the invention of cardiac surgery and the other is the human story of whether Vivien Thomas would ever be recognized for his invaluable assistance in that effort. Thomas does the work of a lab technician, but is paid as a janitor. He has to use the back entrance at Johns Hopkins when he comes to work and students flock to see the great Dr. Blalock assisting Thomas when operating on a dog. Even after they achieve their greatest success, there are colleagues who laugh at Blalock because he needed Thomas' help to do the impossible, their bigotry making it impossible for them to realize doing the impossible is no mean feat.

There are social victories along the way. Not so much that Blalock is finally persuaded to do something about his invaluable assistant's salary as the young doctors who come up to Thomas and ask if they can work with him in their spare time (although their accents are invariably not of the south). But Blalock is getting his picture on the cover of "Life" and the only one in the operating theater not in the group photographs are Thomas and the nurse, and there is an element of sadness that it was over a decade after Blalock died that Thomas received his overdue recognition. Was Blalock's problem that he was egotistical or that the man was so focused? The film suggests it was the latter and that the work was what mattered. Indeed, the most memorable scene in this 2004 film is when we see with our own eyes the miracle that Blalock, Thomas, Taussig, and these others wrought in 1944.

"Something the Lord Made" won the 2004 Emmy for outstanding made-for-TV movie, due in part to the marvelously understated performances by Rickman and Def. The DVD includes audio commentary by Sargent, writer Peter Silverman, and producers Robert W. Cort and Eric Hetzel. The featurette on the making of the film and historical slide show both get into some of the true story, which is worth pursuing on its own. The frail child on whom the operation was first performed died months later during a second operation. But the film does make it clear that she was very ill and a high-risk patient to begin with, who was doomed to die, and what happened at Johns Hopkins in 1944 did prove the surgical procedure worked well enough to end up saving the lives of tens of thousands of children. So there are more aspects of this fascinating story that have been left untold that you can certainly find out more about.

I love this movie for two reasons. The first because, I myself had a right sided Blalock-Taussig shunt operation performed on me back in July of 1972, when I was about 16 months old. This allowed me the strength and oxygen needed to stick around until Nov. of 1976, when a complete repair of my tetralogy of Fallot complex was carried out.

Seeing the history and background of this operation hit me, as you may imagine, on a very personal and emotional level. It's also a little humbling to know that, basically, ALL open-heart surgery performed today, saving so many lives, is related to the surgery designed fix the condition; I came into this world with. Thereby, breaking the convention of not messing with the heart.

Thing is, I had thought this movie had a great impact on my emotions, which it did. But, that was nothing compared to watching this movie with my mother. Whenever the focus was on blue babies in particular, she about fell apart. While she was interested in the truths and history portrayed in this film, she was unable to complete watching the film. The names, the symptoms and the babies, just rang to true and real for her to handle.

So, I guess I would caution parents of a child that has had to go through this that, you may want to think twice about watching this movie. I would however, recommend that if said child is old enough to understand, you should buy them a copy of this movie. I think I will help them understand what a wonderful gift they have been given.

The second reason is because, of the historical value of this film. They way people treated each other then was just so... While better today, I still think there is a ways to go. I think watching this, can show the current generations were we have come from, and hopefully, help them understand there is still a ways to go. A little ambitious maybe, but then again, I should not be around today, to be typing these words either.

Finally, I would like to thank Mos Def and Alan Rickman for there stunning performances in this film. Awesome, just awesome.

As a former Open Heart OR nurse having worked with the likes of Micheal E DeBakey and working next door to the hospital of Denton Cooley, MD my knowledge of this portion of the Blalock/Taussig Shunt procedure was lacking.
I found this film to be wonderfully multifaceted. I watched and listened in awe as this beautifuly told story of Vivian Thomas, who I didn't know of, and the famous Drs. Blalock and Taussig evolves. It is compassionate in the treatment of African-Amrericans of the time and also the egoistic white surgeons and doctor surrounding the ground breaking reseach on heart surgery. Further research by me indicates that the story is as close to historically correct while still maintaining a bit of the drama. Purhaps I was more deeply impacted by the story of Mr Thomas, knowning all too well the status of the ancillary indviduals who surround these famous people. He was a powerful figure, but to a point was only interested in his research and allowed the Doctors to gleen the accolades.
A much watch for all but especially those interested in medical history. Many latex-gloved thumbs up.

This is a movie I am itching to show to the medical students I teach. The story of the first heart surgery (also the first pediatric heart surgery, just to make the accomplishment even more difficult) is put into context. I won't summarize the movie other than to say that issues of race, class, and gender were very important in this pioneering operation and led to the neglect of one of the key persons, Vivian Thomas, played with subtlety and skill by Mos Def. Dr. Blalock, played by the consistently excellent Alan Rickman, is portrayed neither as a do-good crusader or a black-hatted parasite but with the ambiguity and mental conflicts inherent in such an intelligent and ambitious character. A long-overdue recognition of Thomas' contributions ends the film and it would seem hackneyed were it not strongly based on true events.

Must-see for medical students, medical educators, and anyone interested in how the socially privileged were gradually forced to acknowledge the contributions of talented people who had been excluded from the mainstream of medical education.

Vivien Thomas would have been on his way to medical school if not for the stock market crash of 1929 wiping out the Thomas' finances. A skilled carpenter trained by his father, Vivien took work in the research lab of surgeon Alfred Blalock.

The partnership was magic. Blalock had been a disappointment of sorts. Although he graduated from Johns Hopkins, he didn't get his desired residency in surgery there, and after three years he left Baltimore to become the first surgery resident at Vanderbilt in Nashville.

Blalock had ideas about treatment of shock due to trauma - the now common sense plan of blood transfusion - and his research led to the saving of untold lives in World War II (and beyond). As a result of his new fame he was offered the position of Chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins. He brought along Vivien Thomas.

The achievements of Dr. Blalock are suitably shown in this movie, but the film wisely focuses on Thomas and on their relationship. Without a single day as a medical student, Thomas uses his innate intelligence and abilities so well that he becomes the lab extension of Blalock's research. While Blalock is off being Chief of Surgery, Thomas is in the lab, devising new surgical techniques on dogs. The movie by-passes the technique Blalock and Thomas devised for treatment of coarctation of the aorta.

Dr. Helen Taussig is a pediatric cardiologist at Hopkins who cares for those unfortunate children born with "blue baby syndrome" - Tetrology of Fallot - with a severely narrowed pulmonary artery (carrying blood to the lungs from the heart) and a hole in the wall between the right and left ventricles of the heart (allowing already poorly oxygenated blood to bypass the body). She approaches Blalock and the Blalock-Thomas team go to work trying to reproduce the condition in the laboratory so that they can devise a means to treat it. (Historical records show that it could have been any one of the three who came up with the idea).

So while Vivien Thomas is doing the bulk of the lab work that will eventually bring Dr. Blalock world-wide fame, he is being paid as a "class 3" employee (the pay scale for custodial workers) at Hopkins because he is black. He isn't even allowed to enter his building through the front door.

The film doesn't gloss over the fact that racism holds Thomas in his place when his own intelligence and abilities have made him in every way Blalock's colleague. It also doesn't gloss over the fact that Blalock did little to correct things for his colleague.

Alan Rickman portrays Blalock and Mos Def gives an astonishing performance as Thomas. Real suspense is generated in the scenes surrounding the first "blue baby" operation. Heart surgery had never been performed before, and failure would be both a professional setback, but also mean death for the child.

Seeing the final scenes, where Vivien Thomas finally gets some of his due credit for his extraordinary work (20 years after Blalock and Taussig have their fame), is a heart-warming thing. The world is a richer place for the contributions of these Doctors.

This film is a definite must see. I am a fan of Alan Rickman and as usual he gives a brilliant performance as Dr. Alfred Blalock. I loved Mos Def in the role of Vivien Thomas. Its been a while since I have watched a film that has touched me as this one as. As an African-American woman I was happy to view a movie that focuses on the achievement of a black man whose recognition is long overdue.

This is a quality HBO production about two extraordinary men who developed a new technique in heart surgery, (In fact heart surgery had never been done before) creating by-passes to the heart, in this case, the condition of `blue babies', where not enough blood or oxygen reaches the heart of the child, thus causing the skin to turn blue. This was a fatal condition before this surgical technique was developed. One can imagine that it is difficult enough operating on a full grown, adult heart, but the first by-pass surgery was done on an infant, which makes the event that much more incredible.

Alan Rickman plays the famous Dr. Alfred Blalock, whose approach to medicine generally extended beyond the received wisdom, forging ahead in to new areas and known for taking risks in the development of modern surgical medicine.

Mos Def put in an incredible performance as the famous African American, Vivien Thomas, once a skilled carpenter, to then discover his natural gift for surgery and medicine in general.

Since this groundbreaking surgery was performed, literally thousands of lives have been saved across the planet, thanks to the skill and determination of an educated and gifted researcher and a special autodidact, a man naturally skilled in surgery and a deep passion for the profession.

The film depicts the entrenched and generally accepted racism and social segregation at the time, shown with Vivien Thomas's constant battle against unfounded prejudice while working with Dr. Blalock at John Hopkins. However despite this racism, Thomas became an invaluable teacher at John Hopkins and finally, after the death of Dr. Blalock, was given the accolades, an honorary doctorate, and included as one of the great teachers and surgeons at the world famous hospital.

Is there humility in utter greatness? Well, to say the least, Vivien Thomas was terribly humble and extremely intelligent and, as the film implies, was the central contributor to the development of bypass surgery. What an inspiring individual.

HBO has a reputation for creating top quality films. Something the Lord Made is certainly one of them. Outstanding performances from the entire cast, a well written script, sound track and a story that should be more well known.

Excellent.

This 2004 made for television film details the lives of Drs Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) and Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), who are pioneers in the field of cardiac surgery.

Prior to the 1940's, it was theorized that touching the human heart would result in instant death. These two doctors' work in conjunction with Dr. Helen Taussig in as well as emergency surgeries begun in World War II gave rise to the discipline of cardiology.

Vivien Thomas began working for Dr. Alfred Blalock in 1929 at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, TN. At the time, Blalock was studying trauma. Blalock and Thomas together developed the procedure to transfuse blood to restore life to trauma patients.

That work took the pair of them to Johns Hopkins where the Dr. Blalock was challenged by Dr. Taussig to help 'blue babies.' The two pioneered both the instruments and techniques including sutures that 'grow' that enabled blue babies to live.

It's no surprise this film won an Emmy in 2004. "Something the Lord Made" is a fascinating historical depiction of a pioneering time in our history both scientifically and racially. Both Mos Def and Alan Rickman did an excellent job in their roles, literally losing their own persona in their acting.