Something the Lord Made
Encyclopedia
Something The Lord Made is a film about the black cardiac pioneer Vivien Thomas
and his complex and volatile partnership with white surgeon Alfred Blalock
, the world famous "Blue Baby doctor" who pioneered modern heart surgery. Based on the National Magazine Award
-winning Washingtonian
magazine article "Like Something the Lord Made" by Katie McCabe, the film was directed by Joseph Sargent
and written by Peter Silverman
and Robert Caswell.
in 1930 when Blalock (Alan Rickman
) hires Thomas (Mos Def
) as an assistant in his Vanderbilt University
lab, expecting him to perform janitorial work. But Thomas' remarkable manual dexterity and intellectual acumen confound Blalock's expectations, and Thomas rapidly becomes indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his forays into heart surgery.
The film traces the two men's work when they move in 1941 from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins
, an institution where the only black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door. Together, they attack the heart problem of Tetralogy of Fallot
, also known as Blue Baby Syndrome
, and in so doing they open the field of heart surgery. The film dramatizes their fight to save dying Blue Babies. Blalock praises Thomas' surgical skill as being "like something the Lord made" and insists that Thomas coach him through the first Blue Baby surgery over the protests of Hopkins administrators. Yet outside the lab, they are separated by the prevailing racism of the time. Thomas attends Blalock's parties as a bartender, moonlighting for extra income, and when Blalock is honored for the Blue Baby work at the segregated Belvedere Hotel, Thomas is not among the invited guests. Instead, he watches from behind a potted palm at the rear of the ballroom.
After Blalock's death, Thomas continued his work at Johns Hopkins training surgeons. At the end of the film, in a formal ceremony, Hopkins recognized Thomas' work and awarded him an honorary doctorate. A portrait of Thomas was placed on the walls of Johns Hopkins next to Blalock's portrait, which had been hung there years earlier.
magazine article on Thomas, "Like Something the Lord Made", generated widespread interest in the story and inspired the making of a 2003 public television documentary on Thomas and Blalock, "Partners of the Heart." A Washington, D.C. dentist, Dr. Irving Sorkin, discovered McCabe's article and brought it to Hollywood, where it was developed into the film.
for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor (Clayton LeBouef
, in the role of Thomas' activist brother Harold), an NAACP Image Award
, a Directors Guild of America
Award for Sargent, and a Writers Guild of America
Award for Silverman and Caswell. The American Film Institute
, which named Something the Lord Made the Best Television Movie of the Year for 2004, called it "a revelation...a bittersweet story [that] is an important tool for America as it continues to search for a public vocabulary to discuss issues of race."
Vivien Thomas
Vivien Theodore Thomas was an African-American surgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s...
and his complex and volatile partnership with white surgeon Alfred Blalock
Alfred Blalock
Alfred Blalock was a 20th-century American surgeon most noted for his research on the medical condition of shock and the development of the Blalock-Taussig Shunt, surgical relief of the cyanosis from Tetralogy of Fallot—known commonly as the blue baby syndrome—with Vivien Thomas and pediatric...
, the world famous "Blue Baby doctor" who pioneered modern heart surgery. Based on the National Magazine Award
National Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...
-winning Washingtonian
Washingtonian (magazine)
Washingtonian is a monthly magazine distributed in the Washington, DC area since 1965. The magazine describes itself as "the magazine Washington lives by." The magazine's core focuses are local feature journalism, guide book-style articles, and real estate advice.-Editorial Content:Washingtonian...
magazine article "Like Something the Lord Made" by Katie McCabe, the film was directed by Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent is an American film director. He has directed many television movies, but his best known feature film works are probably White Lightning, MacArthur, Nightmares and Jaws: The Revenge, with his most popular film being The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. He has won four Emmy Awards...
and written by Peter Silverman
Peter Silverman
Peter Guy Silverman, O.Ont is a Canadian broadcast journalist based in Toronto, Ontario. His television journalism career began in 1974 as a reporter for Global Television Network's first years. In 1981, he moved to Citytv where he became a reporter for that station's CityPulse news program...
and Robert Caswell.
Plot summary
Something the Lord Made tells the story of the 34-year partnership that begins in Depression Era NashvilleNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
in 1930 when Blalock (Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
) hires Thomas (Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
) as an assistant in his Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
lab, expecting him to perform janitorial work. But Thomas' remarkable manual dexterity and intellectual acumen confound Blalock's expectations, and Thomas rapidly becomes indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his forays into heart surgery.
The film traces the two men's work when they move in 1941 from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...
, an institution where the only black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door. Together, they attack the heart problem of Tetralogy of Fallot
Tetralogy of Fallot
Tetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart defect which is classically understood to involve four anatomical abnormalities...
, also known as Blue Baby Syndrome
Blue baby syndrome
Blue baby syndrome is a layman's term used to describe newborns with cyanotic heart lesions, such as* Persistent Truncus Arteriosus* Transposition of the great vessels* Tricuspid atresia* Tetralogy of Fallot...
, and in so doing they open the field of heart surgery. The film dramatizes their fight to save dying Blue Babies. Blalock praises Thomas' surgical skill as being "like something the Lord made" and insists that Thomas coach him through the first Blue Baby surgery over the protests of Hopkins administrators. Yet outside the lab, they are separated by the prevailing racism of the time. Thomas attends Blalock's parties as a bartender, moonlighting for extra income, and when Blalock is honored for the Blue Baby work at the segregated Belvedere Hotel, Thomas is not among the invited guests. Instead, he watches from behind a potted palm at the rear of the ballroom.
After Blalock's death, Thomas continued his work at Johns Hopkins training surgeons. At the end of the film, in a formal ceremony, Hopkins recognized Thomas' work and awarded him an honorary doctorate. A portrait of Thomas was placed on the walls of Johns Hopkins next to Blalock's portrait, which had been hung there years earlier.
Cast
- Alan RickmanAlan RickmanAlan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
as Dr. Alfred BlalockAlfred BlalockAlfred Blalock was a 20th-century American surgeon most noted for his research on the medical condition of shock and the development of the Blalock-Taussig Shunt, surgical relief of the cyanosis from Tetralogy of Fallot—known commonly as the blue baby syndrome—with Vivien Thomas and pediatric... - Mos DefMos DefDante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
as Vivien ThomasVivien ThomasVivien Theodore Thomas was an African-American surgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s... - Kyra SedgwickKyra SedgwickKyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American actress.Sedgwick is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama The Closer. Sedgwick's role in the series won her a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010...
as Mary Balock - Gabrielle UnionGabrielle UnionGabrielle Monique Union is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama...
as Clara Thomas - Merritt WeverMerritt Wever-Early life:She graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and then Sarah Lawrence College. She trained in acting in New York and has appeared in Brooke Berman's play, Smashing and in Cavedweller with Deidre O'Connell, both Off Broadway.-Career:...
as Mrs. Saxon - Clayton LeBouefClayton LeBouefClayton LeBouef is an African American actor, best known for his recurring role as Colonel George Barnfather in Homicide: Life on the Street...
as Harold Thomas - Charles S. DuttonCharles S. DuttonCharles Stanley Dutton is an American stage, film, and television actor and director. He is perhaps best known for his roles as "Fortune" in the film Rudy and "Dillon" in Alien 3...
as William Thomas - Mary Stuart MastersonMary Stuart MastersonMary Stuart Masterson is an American film, stage and television actress and director.-Early life:Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Masterson Jr., and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the...
as Helen B. TaussigHelen B. TaussigHelen Brooke Taussig was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. Notably, she is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetrology of Fallot...
Film background
A man who in life avoided the limelight, Thomas remained virtually unknown outside the circle of Hopkins surgeons he trained. Thomas' story was first brought to public attention by Washington writer Katie McCabe, who learned of his work with Blalock on the day of his death in a 1985 interview with a prominent Washington, D.C. surgeon who described Thomas as "an absolute legend." McCabe's 1989 WashingtonianWashingtonian (magazine)
Washingtonian is a monthly magazine distributed in the Washington, DC area since 1965. The magazine describes itself as "the magazine Washington lives by." The magazine's core focuses are local feature journalism, guide book-style articles, and real estate advice.-Editorial Content:Washingtonian...
magazine article on Thomas, "Like Something the Lord Made", generated widespread interest in the story and inspired the making of a 2003 public television documentary on Thomas and Blalock, "Partners of the Heart." A Washington, D.C. dentist, Dr. Irving Sorkin, discovered McCabe's article and brought it to Hollywood, where it was developed into the film.
Awards
The film was nominated for nine Emmy Awards (including acting nominations for both principals) and won three, for Best Made for Television Movie, Best Cinematography (Don Morgan) and Best Picture Editing (Michael Brown). It also received two Golden Globe nominations, Black Reel AwardsBlack Reel Awards
The Black Reel Awards began in 2000 and were designed to annually recognize and celebrate the achievements of black people in feature, independent and television films...
for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor (Clayton LeBouef
Clayton LeBouef
Clayton LeBouef is an African American actor, best known for his recurring role as Colonel George Barnfather in Homicide: Life on the Street...
, in the role of Thomas' activist brother Harold), an NAACP Image Award
NAACP Image Award
An NAACP Image Award is an accolade presented by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and literature....
, a Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
Award for Sargent, and a Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
Award for Silverman and Caswell. The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, which named Something the Lord Made the Best Television Movie of the Year for 2004, called it "a revelation...a bittersweet story [that] is an important tool for America as it continues to search for a public vocabulary to discuss issues of race."