Today’s movie is a drama with a scene that happens on November 29. Watch and enjoy this film tonight.
SOMETHING THE LORD MADE
Vivian Thomas, an unemployed African-American carpenter, who dreams of going to medical school is hired by the white Dr. Alfred Blalock, a medical researcher at Vanderbilt University to perform menial tasks. Thomas impresses the Doctor with his intelligence and dexterity and eventually becomes a junior partner in his research into the causes and cure of traumatic shock. Thomas experiences set backs in his plan to go to college when he loses all his money in a bank failure. When Blalock is made head of surgery at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Medical School, he takes Thomas with him. Blalock decides to work with Dr. Helen Taussing on finding a cure for “blue baby” syndrome, where the body does not get enough oxygenated blood due to a heart defect. Blalock becomes so dedicated to this research that he ignores his family, while Thomas has to deal with the subtle and not so subtle racism that permeates the society of the time. Thomas devises a way to create the condition in dogs. Blalock gets Thomas more money and promotion. Together they devise a surgical plan to cure the condition. On November 29, 1944[1:09:34 to 1:20:00] the pair performs the first “blue baby” open-heart surgery. Thousand of parents whose children have the condition invade the school, but Thomas gets no recognition for his work, since he is black. Thomas quits working for Blalock for a time but eventually returns. When Blalock is invited to Columbia University, he asks Thomas to join him, but he declines. Thomas stays at Johns Hopkins and trains generations of surgeons. He is eventually honored with an honorary doctorate.
Producers - Robert W. Cort, David Madden, Eric Hetzel, Julian Krainin and Mike Drake
Director - Joseph Sargent
Screenwriters - Peter Silverman and Robert Caswell
Awards – This film won the Outstanding Television Movie, Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special Emmys. The film was nominated for Outstanding Casting for a Mini-Series, Movie or a Special, Outstanding Directing for a Mini-Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or a Movie (Def and Rickman), Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing For a Mini-Series or a Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special at the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Released - May 30, 2004
Runtime – 1 hour 50 minutes
Starring – Alan Rickman as Dr. Alfred Blalock, Mos Def as Vivien Thomas, Kyra Sedgwick as Mary Blalock, Gabrielle Union as Clara Thomas, Merritt Wever as Mrs. Saxon, Clayton LeBouef as Harold Thomas , Charles S. Dutton as William Thomas, Mary Stuart Masterson as Helen B. Taussig
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015
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