Product Description

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Something the Lord Made (DVD)

Two men--one a wealthy white chief surgeon, the other a poor black lab technician--achieve a monumental medical breakthrough that earned one accolades...and the other a painful lesson in racism and unequal opportunity. Working in 1940s Baltimore on an unprecedented technique for performing heart surgery on "blue babies," Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman - Love Actually) and lab tech Vivien Thomas (rapper Mos Def - Monster's Ball) form an impressive team. But even as the two invent a new field of medicine--saving thousands of lives in the process--social pressures threaten to undermine their collaboration and tear their friendship apart in the historical drama Something The Lord Made.

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Something the Lord Made recounts the relationship between Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) and Vivian Thomas (Mos Def). It begins in 1930s Nashville when imperious cardiac surgeon Blalock hires Thomas, an African American carpenter, as his janitor. When the latter reveals a passion for medicine and facility with surgical instruments, Blalock promotes him to lab tech. Thomas isn't given a raise, works side jobs to make ends meet, and is expected to be grateful. Along the way, he follows Blalock from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins, where they save thousands of lives through their pioneering work, but will Thomas ever get any credit? The film provides a satisfying answer to that question. Joseph Sargent (A Lesson Before Dying) directs with subtlety and intelligence, while Rickman and Mos Def are in top form, often underplaying where most actors would do otherwise. Something the Lord Made won the 2004 Emmy for outstanding made-for-TV movie. --Kathleen C. Fennessy