Speaking of Alan Rickman (aren't we always?) Have you seen

[Tuesday Afternoon]

Something the Lord Made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmiRohBSy5Y

A breakthrough that changed the face of medicine. A unique partnership that broke the rules.

Tells the story of the extraordinary 34-year partnership which begins in Depression Era Nashville in 1930, when Blalock hires Thomas as an assistant in his Vanderbilt University lab, expecting him merely to perform janitorial work. But Thomas' remarkable manual dexterity and scientific acumen shatter Blalock's expectations, and Thomas rapidly becomes indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his first daring forays into heart surgery. The film traces the groundbreaking work the two men undertake when they move in 1941 from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins, an institution where the only black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door. Together, they boldly attack the devastating heart problem of Tetralogy of Fallot, also known as Blue Baby Syndrome, and in so doing they open the field of heart surgery. The film dramatizes their race to save dying Blue Babies against the background of a Jim Crow (Racial Segregation) America, illuminating the nuanced and complex relationship the two sustain. Thomas earns Blalock's unalloyed respect, with Blalock praising the results of Thomas' surgical skill as being "like something the Lord made", and insisting that Thomas coach him through the first Blue Baby surgery over the protests of Hopkins administrators.

Vivien Thomas was a carpenter that wanted to be a doctor, un able to attend college he works for a real doctor as a janitor. Realising what this young man is capable of the doctor gives him real tasks and as a team they go to conquer what other people though impossible. Based on a true story.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/cmRICKMAN_ARTICLE_wideweb__470x375,2.jpg

[dropkickpa]

1. I love that movie

Thankfully it replays on cable al the time. Mos Def is awesome in it, too.

[sarge43]

3. There's a DVD

That's how I saw it.

[NNadir]

2. It was a great movie, a great story, and a true story.

The whole thing was kind of outrageous in a way.