Alan Rickman | Kevin Barrett's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Alan Rickman’

Scalpel and Soul

Posted in General Comments, Movie Review, Movies, Reviews, tagged Alan Rickman, Blue Baby Syndrome, Charles S. Dutton, Clara Thomas, Congenital Heart Defect, Dr. Alfred Blalock, Emmy Award, Gabrielle Union, General Comments, HBO, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University, Joseph Sargent, Katie McCabe, Kyra Sedgwick, Mary Blalock, Mos Def, Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Something The Lord Made (2004) – movie review, Strong Movie Recommendation, The Great Depression, Vanderbilt University, Vivien Thomas, YouTube on November 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Something The Lord Made” (2004) – movie review
Today’s review is for the HBO biographical drama “Something the Lord Made” (2004), starring Mos Def as Vivien Thomas (a Black carpenter turned surgical pioneer whose brilliance helped revolutionize cardiac surgery), Alan Rickman as Dr. Alfred Blalock (a white surgeon whose reputation was “somewhat” built on Thomas’s uncredited work), Kyra Sedgwick as Mary Blalock (Alfred’s wife and quiet conscience), Gabrielle Union as Clara Thomas (Vivien’s wife and emotional anchor), and Charles S. Dutton as a hospital janitor who sees what others ignore. Directed by Joseph Sargent and based on Katie McCabe’s award-winning article, the film dramatizes the true story of two men who changed medicine — and each other — while navigating the racial and institutional divides of 20th-century America. The film won the Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie and remains a landmark in medical and civil rights storytelling.

Background: This is my first viewing of “Something the Lord Made” which was prompted by a YouTube “short”. Pure serendipity…

Plot: Vivien Thomas, a young man with aspirations of becoming a doctor, is derailed by the Great Depression and systemic racism. He takes a job as a janitor in Dr. Blalock’s lab at Vanderbilt, but quickly proves himself a surgical savant. When Blalock is recruited to Johns Hopkins, he brings Thomas with him — though not as an equal. Together, they develop a groundbreaking procedure to treat “blue baby syndrome,” a congenital heart defect. But while Blalock receives accolades, Thomas remains in the shadows — uncredited, underpaid, and barred from medical school. The film traces their evolving relationship, from mutual respect to painful estrangement to a late-life reconciliation. The final scenes — Thomas walking the halls of Hopkins in a white coat, receiving an honorary doctorate — are quietly devastating.

So, is this movie any good? How’s the acting? The filming / FX? Any problems? And, did I enjoy the film? Short answers: Yes; excellent; restrained and effective; a few; absolutely.

Any Good? Yes. “Something the Lord Made” is a rare biopic that avoids overt melodrama without sacrificing emotional depth. It’s a film about legacy — who gets to claim it, who gets erased, and what it costs to be brilliant in a world that refuses to see you. The script is tight, the pacing deliberate, and the cinematic emotional payoff earned.

Acting: Mos Def (credited here under his former name) gives a career-best performance as Vivien Thomas. His portrayal is restrained and internalized — he doesn’t raise his voice, but you feel every slight, every compromise, every moment of grace. Rickman is equally compelling as Blalock, a man whose genius is matched only by his blind spots. Their chemistry is electric, especially in scenes where admiration and resentment coexist. Sedgwick brings warmth and tension as Mary Blalock, while Dutton and Union ground the film in lived experience. The ensemble is tight, and the casting feels perfect.

Filming / FX: The cinematography is clean and period appropriate, where sepia tones, soft lighting, and institutional grays dominate. Surgical scenes are handled with precision but never veer into gore. The production design captures the class and racial divides of 1930s–40s Baltimore without overstatement. The score is understated, allowing silence and breath to carry the emotional weight. The film’s aesthetic matches its subject: meticulous, humane, and quietly radical.

Problems: Minor. The film compresses decades of work into a tight runtime, which occasionally flattens character arcs — particularly in the middle of the film. Some supporting characters (notably the hospital administration) verge on caricature. And while the final act is emotionally satisfying, it leans a bit heavily on symbolic closure. As stated, minor flaws.

Did I Enjoy the Film? Yes. Deeply. “Something the Lord Made” is a film that rewards viewer attention and patience. It doesn’t pander or preach, even as it invites reflection. Watching Thomas navigate a world that refuses to see him, and still choose excellence, is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

Final Recommendation: Strong recommendation. “Something the Lord Made” is a quietly radical film about race, recognition, and the cost of genius. It’s a story of surgical innovation and social injustice, told with restraint and resonance. If you’re interested in medical history, character-driven drama, or stories that reclaim erased legacies, this film is essential. It didn’t play in theaters, but it belongs on the list outstanding medical-biographical films. Watch it for the performances, the message, and the man who made history with his hands — and who’s true legacy waited decades to be seen.

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Click here (25 November) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Experimental Weapon, Experimental Ammunition

Posted in General Comments, Movie Review, Movies, Quotes, Reviews, tagged Alan Rickman, American Western Genre, Australian Aboriginies, Die Hard, Elliott Marston, Galaxy Quest, General Comments, Harry Potter, Laura San Giacomo, Matthew Quigley, Moderate To Strong Movie Recommendation, Movie Reviews, Professor Snape, Quigley Down Under -- movie review, Quotes, Reviews, Shakespeare, Sharps Rifle, Tom Selleck on August 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Quigley Down Under” (1990) — movie review
Today’s review is for the 1990 Western-Australian hybrid: “Quigley Down Under“, starring Tom Selleck as Matthew Quigley (an American sharpshooter with a moral compass), Alan Rickman as Elliott Marston (a sadistic land baron with delusions of grandeur), and Laura San Giacomo as “Crazy Cora” (a traumatized woman with a tragic past).

Background: I frontloaded this film for viewing after a recent watch of “Galaxy Quest” reminded me how good Alan Rickman was. From Shakespearean alien to dark wizard to British “landed” gentry to colonial villain (in this film), Rickman’s range is usually worth watching a film for. I’ve never seen this film, but YouTube reminded me it is one of the few Westerns set in Australia — a genre mashup that seemed interesting.

Basic Plot: Quigley, a cowboy marksman from the American West, answers a job ad in Australia. He’s offered a job by Marston, a wealthy landowner, to use his long-range rifle skills to eliminate Aboriginal people encroaching on his land. Quigley, upon learning the true nature of the job, refuses. In turn, Marston has Quigley beaten and then (together with Cora) dropped off in the middle of the outback. What follows is a classic Western revenge arc, but with a colonial twist: while trying to survive, Quigley becomes a protector of the oppressed, a reluctant hero navigating an inhospitable land sprinkled with familiar and cruel (human) injustices. “Crazy” Cora is a woman haunted by the loss of her child and marital abandonment. Her bond with Quigley is fragile, tender, but ultimately redemptive. Together, they face Marston’s hired guns and the harsh outback.

Any Good? Acting? Filming / FX? Problems? Did I enjoy it? Short answers: Yes; solid to excellent; visually striking; a few genre clichés; and yes, I did enjoy it.

Acting: I must admit to never really being a Tom Selleck fan, but he is perfectly cast in this role. He plays Quigley as a rough gentleman of few words and appropriately violent actions. His Sharps rifle is an extension of his ethics: he doesn’t shoot unless it matters. Alan Rickman is familiarly cruel as Marston, (a bit of type casting) channeling the same disdainful arrogance he brought to “Die Hard” and “Harry Potter’s” Professor Snape. Laura San Giacomo’s Cora is the emotional heart of the film and (IMHO) she knocks this role out of the park. She’s that good! Her personal trauma is not played for laughs (although it seems that way at the start of the film) or pity — it’s raw, erratic, and ultimately healed / resolved by her facing the demon in her past. Her chemistry with Selleck is slow-developing, but the relationship is also predictable and inevitable. (aka: “happy ending”)

Filming / FX: The Australian outback is filmed like a character — vast, unforgiving, and beautifully desolate. The cinematography emphasizes isolation and scale, making Quigley’s long-range shots feel super-human. The rifle scenes are done with realism, not spectacle – whether or not they’re actually possible. There’s minimal FX. This is a Western, not a superhero flick — but the gun play is clean, the stunts are practical, and the final shootout is satisfying without being overly gratuitous (1 vs 3).

Problems: The villains are intentionally cartoonishly evil, which works surprisingly well in a “modern” Western (“modern” to us post-1990s, as opposed to “early” Hollywood pre-1970s). The Aboriginal characters are noble “savages” and their story / culture pretty under-explained — an Australian substitution representative of the Native American Indian in our Western genre films. If you accept the Western tropes, the film delivers on the “Good versus Evil” story arc and the one against many theme.

Final Recommendation: Moderate to strong. “Quigley Down Under” is a Western with a conscience. It’s not just about shooting bad guys — it’s about deciding who the bad guys are and then standing against them. The film criticizes colonialism without preaching, and gives us a hero who refuses to be complicit in injustice. If you like your Westerns with moral clarity, sweeping landscapes, and a rifle that can hit a target at a thousand yard, this is a film worth viewing.

Final Thoughts: There’s a line near the end where Marston brags about being very good with a pistol. After fatally shooting him, Quigley replies to Marston: “I said I didn’t have much use for them. I never said I didn’t know how to use one.” Up to then, Quigley had been killing most of the bad guys from a distance. At the end, “justice” is delivered to the main bad-guy up close and personal.

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Click here (17 August) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

Posted in General Comments, Movie Review, Movies, Reviews, tagged Alan Rickman, Alexander Dane, Commander Jason Nesmith, Fred Kwan, Galaxy Quest -- movie review, General Comments, Guy Fleegman, Gwen DeMarco, Movie Reviews, Reviews, Sam Rockwell, Sarris, Sigourney Weaver, SNL, Star Trek, Strong To Highly Recommended Movie, The Naked Gun, Thermians, Tony Shalhoub, Trekkie on August 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Galaxy Quest” (1999) — movie review
Today’s review is for the Sci-Fi parody comedy adventure: “Galaxy Quest” (1999) starring Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith (a pompous actor clinging to his faded fame as the TV series lead), Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco (the underused female crew member with a sharp mind), Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane (a Shakespearean actor trapped in a rubber alien suit from a TV show cancelled twenty years ago), Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan (the unflappable tech guy / engineer), and Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman (the expendable extra who refuses to be expendable).

Background: As a lad in the 1960s, I watched all of the “*Star Trek” original run. The show went into syndication and you could watch episodes two or three times a day on the various “minor” local TV channels. I believe I can reasonably claim to have watched every episode at least five times. When they eventually became available, I started buying and reading the “tech manuals”. So, yes, I am (“and have always been”) a “Trekkie” and next year will mark sixty years (OMG!). Like almost everyone, I too went through a “spoofing-satire” movie phase, but there’s only so many times you can take “Surely / Shirley” jokes and I’ve pretty much not bothered to watch many spoofs in the last twenty-or-so years. Anyway, I almost always enjoy films with Sigourney Weaver so I picked this movie up several years ago and put in the “when I get around to it” queue. After watching “The Naked Gun*” recently, I decided the time was up…

Basic Plot: The story begins with the washed-up cast of a defunct Sci-Fi show who are suddenly thrust into a real-life space battle, mistaken by a race of naive aliens for the actual crew they portrayed. It’s an intelligent, warm, and surprisingly heartfelt love letter to fandom. The Thermians — naive, squid-like aliens — have been listening to Earth’s TV signals for twenty years and mistakenly believe “Galaxy Quest” is a historical documentary. They come to Earth to recruit the cast to help defeat the villainous warlord Sarris. The actors, who are initially more concerned with their egos and residuals, must become the heroes they once pretended to be.

So, is this film any good? Acting? Filming / FX? Problems? Did I enjoy it? Short answers: Yes; good (silly, but good); the film is shot clearly / cleanly and there are loads of tacky special effects; no significant problems; and, YES – I enjoyed it a lot!

Acting: Allen, who is playing Commander Nesmith (aka: Kirk / Shatner) is better than expected, balancing acting ego and human vulnerability. I am not a fan of Allen, so this was a surprise for me. Sigourney Weaver reclaims her “queen of Sci-Fi” title, still battling aliens – but now in a comedy and she nails the “I’m smarter than this script” role. Alan Rickman steals every scene with the weary dignity of a Shakespearian trained actor in the role of an actor playing a role “clearly” beneath his talent and training. Sam Rockwell turns “red-shirt” panic into “almost” funny comedy. Shalhoub is much better than Rockwell, but not up to Rickman or the leads. And the Thermians (I can’t say I recognized any of the actors) are delightfully awkward and sincere in an “SNL” conehead kind of way.

Filming / FX: Even for a late-90s comedy, the effects barely hold interest. Then you remember it’s a spoof of a low-budget TV show and it becomes funny to see how “bad / good” the effects are. The Thermian ship design alternates between sleek and model-level tacky, the alien prosthetics are okay, and the digital creature effects (the rock monster) are serviceable. Of course, the real F/X magic is in the production design that mimics cheesy TV sets with great and loving detail.

Problems: Very few. If anything, the film’s tone feels kind, if not respectful. This film isn’t really going for the funny bone so it’s not as crude as “Airplane!” or “The Naked Gun” — and that’s also the film’s strength. It’s affectionate, not cynical.

Did I like this film? Yes! If you’ve ever been to a fan convention (tech yes, fan no) or quoted a sci-fi catchphrase (most definitely), this film is for you. It’s a humorous nod to both the power of stories and the people who believe in them.

Final Recommendation: Strong to Highly Recommended. “Galaxy Quest” is a rare parody that respects its source material while (softly) poking fun at it. It’s also unusual as it is a remarkably TV-tacky Sci-Fi adventure where the adventure works with the comedy. Whether you’re a “true” Trekkie, a casual fan, or just someone who enjoys humor that’s not 80-100% sophomoric, this film’s worth viewing. It’s smile and chuckle funny, without being stupid. It’s satire, but not mean-spirited. And in a amusing twist, it celebrates fandom and nerdiness. This isn’t a “MUST SEE” film, but it is one I wish I’d taken the time to enjoy earlier than a quarter century after its release.

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Click here (11 August) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.