‘Something the Lord Made’ a devine film
“Something the Lord Made” is an absolutely riveting film about a black man whose vocation was expected to be a carpenter and an eminent doctor and how the pair changed the world.
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This film was released for HBO four years ago and recently returned to the premium channel. It is also available on DVD.
Mos Def plays Vivien Thomas, a black man in the Great Depression who yearns to be a doctor. Fat chance, given the era. That's especially true after he loses seven years of savings in a failed bank.
So he does the next best thing, he gets a job sweeping floors and doing other maintenance for surgeon and researcher Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman.)
Except Thomas is drawn to Blalock's library and is engrossed in books on anatomy. He is a natural in research and fast becomes Blalock's assistant.
Using dogs in their experiments, they try to figure out how to save patients who are in shock because of traumatic injuries. Blood is leaving important parts of the body and people are dying, at least in the 1930s.
The acceptable solution at the time is to constrict blood vessels, forcing blood to needed areas. But Blalock and Thomas discover that supplementing the body with more blood is a better solution.
A dozen years later, Blalock is accepted as chief surgeon at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Thomas and his wife (played by Gabrielle Union), tag along. They are forced to live in a bad section of town. Thomas is doing important research, but his job classification is Grade 3 maintenance worker, earning $16 a week. To make ends meet, he does odd jobs for his landlord to get a $7 reduction in rent.
Blalock depends on Thomas, especially when they start researching blue babies, those with blue lips because their hearts are defective and they can't get sufficient blood pumped through their bodies. But when Thomas complains about his pay, Blalock fails to see the importance. They work together each day, but come from other worlds.
The story of discrimination against Thomas is fascinating. He must use the back entrance to the hospital, even when he's with the chief surgeon. We see a doctor throw money at him and tell him to get coffee. There's the look of horror on a staff person's face when Thomas uses the white restroom. You can't help but think of the progress we have made, with a black man a major party contender for president today.
We learn in the 1940s, trying to correct defective hearts was unheard of. God made the babies that way and they were expected to die in a few months. Blalock had a vision that it didn't have to be that way.
There is a wonderful scene in which Blalock is about to do the first surgery on a dying baby, after Thomas has done all of the research. But when it comes time to do the surgery, Blalock runs out of the operating room to get Thomas to assist. The nurse refuses to page Thomas because he isn't a doctor.
Later, when Blalock is honored for his work, Thomas can only watch from the back because he is there as a servant.
This is one of those small films but it is well acted and authentic to its time period. It is compelling as it is educational. You will remember “Something the Lord Made” for a long time.
SOMETHING THE LORD MADE
Directed by Joseph Sargent, written by Peter Silverman
Runtime: 110 minutes
Not rated, but brief periods of foul language
4 stars out of 4
PUBLISHED IN WEEKENDER, Sept. 12, 2008.
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