Written by Linda
March 02, 2009
Leave it up to cable TV stalwart HBO to make a fine thriller where the nail-biting race is... to figure out how to perform the first open heart surgery! A winner of several Emmys, including Best Made for TV Movie, Something the Lord Made is an intriguing drama based on the true life story of an unusual partnership between an academic surgeon and his lab assistant.
The catch is that Doctor Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) is white, and his lab assistant Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) is black and without formal medical schooling. The film begins in 1930 Nashville, where Blaylock hires Thomas, a young man with a carpentry background who dreams of medical school. As things like money and racism get in the way of furthuring his education, Thomas rightly thinks that he can at least start learning about medicine by getting a job sweeping up lab animal cages at Vanderbilt University. When Blalock quickly discovers Thomas' natural curiosity and aptitude with medicine, he quickly molds him into his right-hand man.
In the 40s, Blalock goes to Baltimore (bringing Thomas with him) to become the head of surgery at Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is a huge change for both, as the prestige offers them new opportunities in experimental medicine, but at the same time being a much more racist environment towards Thomas than the school in Nashville. But it doesn't take long for others to see the brilliance of Vivien Thomas, and it becomes obvious (and startling to others) that Blalock and Thomas work together as equal minds.
Something the Lord Made suffers from a couple weaknesses. For instance, the story spans almost 40 years, yet Alan Rickman looks the same age throughout the whole film (except at the end he is in a wheelchair). At times, it does have the soft-focus "movie of the week" feel, and the soundtrack gets distracting in its emoting. It IS a made-for-TV movie, and often feels like it.
But Something the Lord Made (a reference to the perfection of Thomas's surgical stitches), is definitely a worthy viewing. It's an interesting portrayal of racism in the academic community; but more fascinating is the thrill of watching the two men discover an entirely new surgical procedure that was thought, until then, to be completely impossible: heart bypass surgery. Something the Lord Made is a fine tribute especially to the work of Vivien Thomas, who wasn't credited for his work at the time, but also to Alfred Blalock, who looked past color and knew a brilliant medical mind when he saw one.
