Something the Lord Made
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Movie Reviews of Something the Lord Made
Movie Review: A superb mixture of medical and human drama from HBO
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Honoring the Work and Lives of Pioneering Doctors
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: A Heartening Story
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1930, Vivien Thomas is an unemployed carpenter when a friend gets a position for him at Vanderbilt University Hospital. He must clean the dog kennels for Alfred Blaylock, M.D. surgeon, overbearing, supremely confident descendent of Jefferson Davis and racist by today's standards.
It isn't long before he notices that Thomas is reading his medical books and he begins pushing him to operate on research anmimals, which he does with singular skill. In twelve years, Doctor Blaylock's research in shock and trauma earns him a position as head of surgery at Johns Hopkins in MD. He turns down a position in Michigan because they will not accept his lab assistant, and Blayock will go nowhere without Vivien Thomas.
Enter Doctor Taussig a medical doctor who meets Blaylock in his home where Vivien Thomas is serving drinks to his guests. She asks the good doctor to pioneer a surgical procedure for "blue babies," so called because they do not have enough blood flow to the extremities. While Mr. Thomas is serving drinks and listening to the conversation, he is adding his two medical cents to his mentor. With more curiosity and respect than pique, she demands, "Who are you?" Dr. Taussig and other guests like Drs. Denton Cooley and William P. Longmire will soon learn of Thomas's knowledge and skill.
As in real life, Thomas helps Blaylock overcome the dictum, "do not touch the heart." He creates special clamps, stitches, and procedure for blue baby operations. Thomas has the magical ability to operate with his eyes closed. He will assist the ground-breaking operation of open-heart surgery, but will not get any of the credit.
Heartbroken and feeling betrayed by the exclusion, Thomas tries to pursue college and a new career without success. He humbles himself returning to Doctor Blaylock where he teaches residents surgery. He finally receives an honorary degree that doesn't quite match the level of respect and admiration that hospital staff have for his achievement and skill.
There's nothing like a good book, but there is also nothing like a good movie. Alan Rickman plays Dr. Blaylock superbly. Very progressive by World War II standards, he is woefully bigoted by today's, and is perplexed at Thomas' disappointment in him. Mos Def too, plays the respectful and self-respecting Vivien Thomas to perfection. He will not tolerate Dr. Blaylock's temper tantrum and returns money to another doctor who insists he get coffee and a donut for him. Both play from a superb script. The single piano as background was the perfect accompaniment to the triumphs, disappointments, frustration, and sadness of the show. I found several parts in this feature I wanted to play again and again, and there are too many favorite parts to catalogue them here. HBO has made another movie that nourishes the soul and, of course, the heart.
It will do you good perhaps, on some rainy night to turn off the ringer on your phone and see this film.
It is truly a heartening story.
To the memory of Doctors Alfred Blaylock and Vivien Thomas.
Movie Review: Saving Heart
Summary: 5 Stars
As a writer and editor in health care, I am always curious to learn about the workings, indeed, the miracles, that happen everyday in hospital operating rooms. "Something the Lord Made" is based on the true events that led to cardiac surgery as we know it today.
But there are two great stories here. One story is the fascinating process of discovery in medicine born of the partnership between the brilliant Dr. Alfred Blalock (played by Alan Rickman) and his no less brilliant laboratory technician, Vivien Thomas (played by Mos Def). The other story, no less fascinating, is of a white man and a black man in a partnership to bring oxygen to the heart ... metaphorically speaking. Their partnership takes place in the time when civil rights were still just a twinkle in Martin Luther King's eye, in the 1930's and 40's. Blalock is a risk-taking surgeon who runs a laboratory where he conducts his research, and he hires an African-American janitor with an interest in medicine. He promotes him to lab technician, but where there are moments when Blalock rises above bigotry and does what is right, there are also those moments when he conforms to the racism of the day. When he achieves success in developing the technique for a bypass on a "blue baby," he publicly expresses his gratitude to every white man in the operating room, yet leaves Vivien Thomas unacknowledged. Blalock is in great measure a hero, defying the day, but not without his moments of failing the quiet man working beside him, bringing life to his heart in more ways than one. Much of the movie's intrigue is the movement of the two men toward and away from each other, in and apart from medicine.
It is disappointing that this movie has not received greater acclaim. First shown as an HBO movie, it deserves the bigger screen. It shines an important light on innovation, the risk and determination needed to realize a great discovery, the taking of a higher road when the lower road would seem so much easier. We see a man rise above when he is forced to take the back entrance to John Hopkins, live on the pay of a janitor while perfecting operating techniques he can literally perform with his eyes closed, perform under surgical lights in a hospital where black men cannot be called on a PA system... because they are black. We see here a man do the work he loves, in spite of the lack of recognition, in spite of being ignored again and again, year upon year, brushed aside without credit. This is the greatness that happens when, and only when, a passion is followed through first and foremost because the work is worthy - not the applause.
It is only when great work is done without considering applause, after all, that it deserves it. The ending, so long in coming, is deeply satisfying. It brings new oxygen to all human hearts.
Movie Review: Something HBO Made
Summary: 5 Stars
When I read the description of Something The Lord Made, I thought to myself - there is just no conceivable way that this is going to be interesting. However, it did have a lot going for it. It was directed by Joseph Sargent, who also directed the brilliant, A Lesson Before Dying. It starred Alan Rickman who is so good he could make an IKEA commercial look like it was directed by Ingmar Bergman. It paired Rickman with Mos Def, who has remarkable screen presence. (I first noticed Mos Def in another exceptional film, The Woodsman, which, coincidentally or not, also featured Kyra Sedgwick.) So, despite the promise of (in)action confined exclusively to a medical lab, I forged ahead.
I'm so glad I did. This is one of those minor gems you might easily miss. Make sure to pay attention to the score, which is outstanding. It's way too easy to sketch this movie out as an anti-racism diatribe, that's way too facile. As with A Lesson Before Dying, racism is simply a fact, not a larger-than-life villain. This, of course, makes the depiction that much more powerful. We don't see the pain of racism courtesy of gassy soliloquies; we feel the pain of it as we read Mos Def's face watching Dr. Blalock receive his award at Baltimore's Biltmore Hotel.
Why beat a dead parrot? We know the Biltmore is segregated. Vivien - Def - can only gain admittance by posing as a bellhop. We know that Blalock is a vain and arrogant surgeon (quelle surprise!) only too willing to bask in glory that would never have been his without Vivien's remarkable contributions. And yes, we know that the racist culture surrounding these men makes it easy for Blalock to distance himself from Vivien when it suits him.
This context of racism is woven right into our flag; it's part of the culture, hardly newsworthy enough to merit a film. The engine that's really driving Something The Lord Made is not racism at all; it's the subtle, complex relationship joining these very different men who share a passion for medicine. The interplay between Vivien's self-effacing, quiet dignity and Blalock's braggadocio is pure gold, these two are so right for each other; they balance one another in a way that is touching at the very least.
Certainly there were moments when I wanted to explain to the supercilious twits at Hopkins that Vivien was the genius behind the wheel and they should be lavishing praise on him. At times it was sad, and Vivien's stoicism makes it sadder. But the movie never takes cheap shots; Def and Rickman offer marvelously reserved performances, thereby increasing the impact. Ultimately I was left with an overwhelmingly positive sense of how people can, and often do, achieve miraculous things despite the mountains of debris and bizarre baggage they've been saddled with. A wonderful film.