Something the Lord Made (2004): Movie Review
This acclaimed docudrama is about the story of Vivien Thomas, an African-American wannabe doctor in the 1930’s who takes a janitorial position for a forward thinking research doctor, Alfred Blalock, to finish saving up enough money to go to University. While working for Blalock in his lab, the bank lost all of his savings, and Blalock quickly found Vivien irreplaceable as a lab partner, so Vivien continued on with Blalock. He also followed Blalock to J. Hopkins Hospital in 1941. Facing racism and segregation laws, Vivien and Blalock forge forward to attack ‘Blue Baby Syndrome’ and create a technique to fix it via heart surgery. Because Vivien has no degree in medicine, and because of his colour, he is not allowed to receive recognition for his contribution, and at one point leaves the work for a time due to being under- appreciated by Blalock, before returning later because he knows how important the work is, and he loves it. And finally later in life, after the death of Blalock, he is finally recognized for his phenomenal work in teaching and surgical techniques, as well as to his work with Blue Baby Syndrome and he receives an honorary doctorate.
This movie highlighted the challenges faced by African-American’s during the Great Depression and WW2. How they were 2nd class and had to struggle with racism and fear, and lower wages than white people in a time that was even extremely financially difficult for the white population of America.
But it also highlights a man who saw great potential in a man, he didn’t see Vivien as a janitor for very long, if he even paid attention to his colour at all, all he saw was what Vivien could help him accomplish. And this started Alfred Blalock to push the boundaries and laws to help his research move forward, ultimately helping Vivien as well. We start out by seeing an egotistical doctor with a temper and a habit for verbal abuse, only caring about himself and his precious work, to having his eyes opened to the man helping him, his potential and his plight. By the time the first surgery is to take place, Alfred Blalock defies rules, laws and hospital policy to have Thomas assist and talk him through the first open heart surgery procedure, taking backlash from his jealous peers and risking his reputation because he knows Vivien is better at the actual operation procedure than he is.
This movie impacted me as I saw Vivien Thomas’ character and how he dealt with a calm and collected head, all that he went through. It might have been partly because he had no choice, the standards for black and whites were different and he probably couldn’t afford to ‘lose his temper’, but then even at his home he was calm and collected, he cared, but he wasn’t a hot head, and this helped him to navigate very treacherous waters that could have had him beat up and attacked or worse if white people thought to ‘teach him his place’.
