The true story of two men who defied the rules of their time to launch a medical revolution, set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow south.  Working in 1940’s Baltimore on an unprecedented technique for performing heart surgery on “blue babies,” Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) and Vivian Thomas (Mos Def) for an impressive team.  But even as they race against time to save a dying baby, the two occupy very different places in society.  Blalock is a wealthy white Head of Surgery at Johns Hopkins; Thomas is black and poor, a skilled carpenter.  As Blalock and Thomas invent a new field of medicine, saving thousands of lives in the process, social pressures threaten to undermine their collaboration and their friendship apart.

CRITIQUE

“Blue baby” was a term given to children with cyanotic heart disease, a condition that limits the amount of oxygen traveling from the heart to the lungs.  For thousands of children over an untold number of years, this was a killer; the mortality rate was 100%.  Conventional wisdom of the day said that operating on the heart was impossible.  Thankfully for the rest of humanity, Dr. Alfred Blalock and Vivian Thomas dared to challenge the old ways of thinking.  The two overcame much, inventing not only the procedures, but the very equipment used to perform the surgery.

The medical quest is the most interesting part of this story.  The racial backdrop is interesting, but it has been done so many times that it is easily overshadowed by the struggles of two men in a laboratory.  Everything is well balanced.  When Blalock’s colleagues tell him that a heart operation cannot be done, the fact that he is partnered with a black man is almost never mentioned.  The other doctors doubt Blalock simply because they have no reason to believe that cardiological surgery can be successful.  The racial politics are kept low key: Vivian has to enter through a different door, use a different bathroom, et cetera.  Perhaps this is for the best.  When Vivian and Blalock are in the lab, they are thinking about medicine, and politics are of little importance.

This leads to some interesting medical drama.  In order to cure the blue baby syndrome, the two must first figure out a way to recreate the condition in a dog (they experimented on strays), and then they had to figure out how to cure it.  All the while, actual children with the condition were just down the hall, never allowing the two to forget the stakes.  Their work was truly groundbreaking; there was absolutely no precedent for what they were doing.  Vivian and Blalock had no way of knowing it would work until it actually worked.

The scene where they perform the first human procedure is thick with tension, as it should be; it is the strongest scene in the film.  Not surprisingly, when the procedure is a success, it is the white Blalock that gets all the credit, the adulation of the medical community, the cover of Life magazine, and everything that goes with it.  Blalock may not have forgotten Vivian, but the rest of the world did, if it ever knew he existed in the first place.  As the years wore on, times changed, and politically things improved.  Johns Hopkins heaped praise on Vivian, including an honorary doctorate, and they hung his portrait next to Blalock’s.

In the lead roles, Alan Rickman and Mos Def are great together.  Their chemistry works, and it comes off well on screen.  The writing is solid and the direction assured.  The biggest problem with this film is that, medical history aside, it all seems so familiar, so straightforward.  A film like this probably cannot help but to repeat the same themes, and when the story and the characters are this good it is hard to complain.  One just wishes the whole thing came off as anything other than a foregone conclusion.

THE VIDEO

Something the Lord Made is presented in the original 1.85:1 shooting ratio.  The transfer is sharp, with no grains or defects present.  The color levels are properly transferred, and the overall picture is crisp.

THE AUDIO

This DVD offers several audio options: English 5.1, English 2.0, French 2.0 and Spanish 2.0.  The audio presentation is solid.  While there are no big sound effects here to push your surround sound system, the clarity is sharp, and all levels come through as they should.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary by Director Joseph Sargent, Writer Peter Silverman, and Executive Producers Robert W. Cort and Eric Hetzel: The men responsible for the film talk about how the project came to fruition and what their intentions were.  They talk about working with the actors and give a little insight into the real life events that inspired the film.

Featurette: A short behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film.  The actors talk about creating their roles and some basic information about the real Thomas and Blalock is given.  This feature is not that interesting.  Aside from not even having a title, it is barely four minutes in length, and what the principals have to say is superficial.

Making History Slideshow: Photos of the real Blalock and Thomas with captions describing what they went through.

The features on this disc are not bad, but they add nothing to the film.  The slideshow is too short to be of much interest, and the other two features are standard fare.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Something the Lord Made is a good film, and that is about the best that can be said about it.  The story is straightforward, and it is one that, aside from the moment in history in which it takes place, is one that we have seen many times before.  Of course, when the story and the actors are this good, one can only complain so much.  The features on this disc leave something to be desired, and little would be missed by not indulging in them.  This is a well-made film if you have the time.