Harold Thomas

Something the Lord Made (2004)

Actors: Joseph Sargent (director), Kyra Sedgwick (actress), Martin Luther King (actor), Christopher Young (composer), Mary Stuart Masterson (actress), Gabrielle Union (actress), Lyndon Johnson (actor), Charles S. Dutton (actor), Robert W. Cort (producer), Mos Def (actor), John F. Kennedy (actor), Tom Townsend (actor), Alan Rickman (actor), Rick Kain (miscellaneous crew), Michael Brown (editor),

Plot: Alfred Blalock (1899-1964), a cardiologist (therefore, self-confident to the point of arrogance), leaves Vanderbilt for Johns Hopkins taking with him his lab technician, Vivien Thomas (1910-1985). Thomas, an African-American without a college degree, is a gifted mechanic and tool-maker with hands splendidly adept at surgery. In 1941, Blalock and Thomas take on the challenge of blue babies and invent bypass surgery. After trials on dogs, their first patient is baby Eileen, sure to die without the surgery. In defiance of custom and Jim Crow, Blalock brings Thomas into the surgery to advise him, but when Life Magazine and kudos come, Thomas is excluded. Will he receive his due?

Keywords: 1930s, 1940s, american-history, animal-experimentation, apartment, avant-garde, baby, baltimore-maryland, blue-baby-syndrome, college
Genres: Biography, Drama,
Taglines: A breakthrough that changed the face of medicine. A unique partnership that broke the rules.

Quotes:

Alfred Blalock: They say you haven't lived unless you have a lot to regret. I regret... I have some regrets. But I think we should remember not what we lost, but what we've done.

Alfred Blalock: Where you see risks, I see opportunity.

Alfred Blalock: You can begin the incision.::Vivien Thomas: I'm not ready for that.::Alfred Blalock: If I say you're ready, you're ready.::[Long pause]::Alfred Blalock: I'll mark out the line. And you cut along it. Just like you did for your old Daddy.

[Vivien is abruptly leaving the laboratory]::Alfred Blalock: We have work to do.::Vivien Thomas: Do I have your permission, to do some work for my landlord, so I can pay my rent?

Alfred Blalock: ...I obtained a raise for you, 25 extra dollars a month on top of what you're already making. That's 300 for the whole year. Will that be sufficient?::Vivien Thomas: What job classification?::Alfred Blalock: Surgical Technician, I got you promoted.::Clara Thomas: [Politely sarcastic] Promoted, to what he already does.

Clara Thomas: You know... in 13 years, Doctor Blalock, I don't recall you ever stopping by our house.::Alfred Blalock: I don't recall ever being invited.

[Amazed at Vivien's surgical skill]::Alfred Blalock: This is like something the Lord made.

Alfred Blalock: Do you have sawdust, or just plain shit for brains?

Alfred Blalock: Vivian, that's a girl's name.::Vivien Thomas: Yes, my mother was so sure she was having a girl, she picked the name early and kept it.

Alfred Blalock: Mine was only proud of the fact that I could wiggle my ears.::Vivien Thomas: I think he'll be proud when you operate.::Alfred Blalock: He's dead.::Vivien Thomas: The dead are with us all the time, I believe. Can't separate the past from the future any more than you can a right arm and your left arm.::Alfred Blalock: Ah but you see they are separated by this, by the heart.::Vivien Thomas: Or connected.::Alfred Blalock: Or connected.