08.29.08
Something the Lord Made
Something the Lord Made
Starring: Alan Rickman, Mos Def, Kyra Sedgewick, Gabrielle Union
Written by: Peter Silverman and Robert Caswell Release Date: May 30, 2004
A movie near and dear to my heart (you’ll get the joke/point later) that is just the kind of movie that depicts real people and real events that you would never had known about without watching the movie. I recommend everyone watch this movie.
HBO produced Something the Lord Made in 2004 and it plays every couple of months. I believe I’ve seen this movie more than ten times and it never fails to affect me. Rapper Mos Def plays Vivien Thomas, a gifted black carpenter from Tennessee who goes to work for an ambitious surgeon, Dr. Alfred Blalock, played by the talented Alan Rickman. Originally hired to clean Blalock’s laboratory and the kennels, Vivien Thomas displays the talent and aptitude beyond that of even college graduates leading to his becoming Dr. Blalock’s lab assistant. After succeeding at Vanderbilt in treating shock patients, Blalock and Thomas move to Baltimore to work at Johns Hopkins Medical School.
Deciding to pioneer the field of heart surgery with the help of medical students including now renowned surgeons, Drs. Denton Cooley and William Longmire both men face their ambitions, goals, detractors, and personal responsibilities. Where the movie shines is showing the relationship between a white doctor and a black layperson during a time when their relationship was defined by Jim Crow and then integration during a time each made such an impact on the field of medicine.
The movie was based on a magazine article about the blue baby syndrome leading to the first heart surgery. Vivien Thomas’s contributions to Johns Hopkins Hospital are chronicled here. Dr. Blalock’s contributions to Hopkins are found here. The best source for this inspiring story is Katie McCabe’s award winning magazine article published by The Washingtonian. Read the article here. Something The Lord Made won the Emmy for best television movie in 2004.
This qualifies as a legal movie for its subplot of Vivien’s brother Harold Thomas’ (played by Clayton LeBouef) fight for equal pay for African-American teachers in Tennessee. The case was argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP.
FIVE Gavels.
08.17.08
Summer Movie Season II
Lots of disappointing flicks starting the summer season to the point I was going to write it off. The second half has more than made up for the lackluster beginning. The only exceptions were Iron Man and Son of Rambow. See my reviews of these movies. The Indiana Jones movie was disappointing and The Incredible Hulk tried to measure up and came very close.
Now for the second season:
I consider the second season starting with The Dark Knight. Sure, Heath Ledger’s last role could be considered his greatest regardless of the fact he passed away at such an early age. That being said, the brilliance of the movie emanates from all of the actors. Christian Bale gave the best performance of anyone who has ever played Batman/Bruce Wayne. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman in limited roles gave the movie so much of its concept of right and wrong or how it cannot apply. Even William Fichtner performed memorably in a cameo role as a mob banker.
The coup goes to Aaron Eckhart who gave the best performance as District Attorney Harvey Dent/Two Face. He did show how you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Entertainment Weekly magazine came out with a list several issues ago about the new classics, the best movies of the last 25 years. It was premature. My vote goes to The Dark Knight for the best movie in this decade, the last decade, and the one before that. One of the best reasons is because there was so much hype and it lived up to the hype.
Comedies have been saving this summer. Two of the funniest movies I’ve seen in some time are Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder. After The Dark Knight, my next recommendation for movies still out would be Tropic Thunder. Just go and watch it and enjoy and laugh your butt off.
I saw a trailer for a movie to be released later this month called Hamlet 2. I think it might just continue the trend of good comedies this summer. Saw another trailer for some movie about football where a girl plays quarterback for a high school team. Based on the trailer…watch any other movie playing at the metroplex.
05.18.08
Iron Man — No Legal Theme
Ironman
Year: 2008 Release: Currently in theaters
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
What does this movie have to do with the law? Nothing. I just watched it with my 16 year old son and I enjoyed watching the movie because I remembered going to so many movies with him before girls, cars, and jobs. He picked the movie.
Another thing; the movie is just plain cool. An ordinary billionaire businessman wearing an iron suit who can fly. The hot assistant. The employee with ulterior motives. Maybe because Downey is my age and he plays a superhero. Oh, and he has a bad heart. Robert Downey, Jr. completes his comeback in this Jon Favreau directed story with Gwyneth Paltrow as Downey’s faithful, efficient, and hot assistant. (I’ve got to get me one of those.)
The effects are good but do not overshadow the acting which is good all-around. Favreau does his Alfred Hitchcock impression by doing an extended cameo in the movie as a bodyguard. And as an added bonus…one of my favorite rock songs of all time is in here. (Black Sabbath’s Iron Man of course.)
This movie kicks off the 2008 summer movie season.
NO GAVELS but a really good movie.
