Just about everything HBO Films produces is excellent, but this film rises into the higher levels of the stratosphere. Everything excellent about filmmaking can be found in this superb production. The story is one of the most compelling pieces of drama one could ever ask for. Medical history, black history --you name it --this film has it, and weaves a fact-based plot equal to any docu-drama ever made.

Needless to say Rickman and Def captivate us throughout the film--their regrets, frustrations, bonding, harmony and abrasiveness found between any two historic collaborators. What they achieved is one of the most significant advances in medicine ever! And the poignant life of Vivian Thomas who finally receives his just rewards--ah, the stuff that makes us all marvel at his steadfastness, his honor, his talent and pride!

This film will garner many rewards and will deserve every one of them. Hats off to the geniuses at HBO!

Every once in a while, HBO produces a tv-movie that doesn't feel like a tv-movie. Something the Lord Made feels like a movie you'd go see in the theaters. Hailed and given awards and nominations, this medical drama deserves the very high praise.

Mos Def stars as a young black man in the 1930s who dreams of medical school but can't afford to go. He gets a job as a janitor in a research lab at Johns Hopkins University under the demanding but brilliant doctor Alan Rickman. As Alan learns of his interest, knowledge, and capabilities, he promotes him to lab assistant and makes him a joint partner in his research. Of course, since this takes place in the South in the 1930s, there are quite a bit of racial tensions by hospital workers and fellow doctors who see a white doctor talking to his black assistant as an equal. When Mos Def first enters the hospital wearing his white coat, everyone he passes stares at him in shock, and when he follows his colleague into the "whites only" bathroom to finish their conversation, the other men leave the room.

Kyra Sedwick and Gabrielle Union play the two leads' wives, and since the movie takes place over many decades, it's fun to see them with age makeup on. For the medically-inclined audience members, there are several operations shown in detail to explain the type of breakthrough research the real people did. If you've never heard of Dr. Blalock or Vivien Thomas, you'll find the work they did incredibly interesting, and if you do know your history, you'll find a very touching story even more heartwarming. There's so much that stands out in this movie, it's difficult to highlight just one scene as the finest. You'll also get to hear Alan Rickman put on a Southern accent, and see a surprisingly effective performance from Mos Def.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic medical procedures and an upsetting scene involving an animal, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

This was one awe inspiring movie. I watched it by chance because I saw Mos Def's name and I know his work from the Chappelle Show and The Italian Job, so I just wanted to see what his role was in this. Well, needless to say I was moved. I was moved by the movie, the acting, the directing, and mostly by the true historic nature of the movie. The movie was about an African-American man named Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) who, in the 1940's & 50's, made a huge contribution to the medical field. But the movie didn't just show Vivien Thomas the "lab technician", it went into Vivien Thomas' struggle as a black man in an all white environment of Johns Hopkins, and it showed his relationship with his family and his colleague Dr. Blaylock (Alan Rickman),which was just as important as showing his contribution to medical science.

This movie was not a corny attempt to depict an historical figure, it was well thought out and well done. As an African-American myself, it was a breath of fresh air to see a movie so well done about an African-American who has contributed so much but whom we hear about so little.