Two doctors create breast implants, but when success and money come their way, they separate and follow different paths.
A young plastic surgery intern tires of watching exciting developments in other fields (artificial hearts, etc). He finds a current, safe type of breast implants. He just needs to convince his supervising surgeon that it will work--and find a volunteer for the first patient. They gain immense financial success as cosmetic breast-augmentation surgeries become accepted and frequented in American culture, but follow different paths. One becomes a narcissist interested in developing and implanting larger-sized implants popular with erotic dancers and female porn stars. The other continues to pursue a more serious, clinical approach for the everyday woman.—<[email protected]>
This film follows the two Texas doctors who invented the modern breast implant and its surgical procedure. Cosmetic breast augmentation surgeries soon become accepted and frequented in American culture. However, when success and money come their way, they separate and follow different paths. One becomes the surgeon of the everyday woman while the other's career freefalls and has to settle with strippers and actresses. This film covers their history, and their invention's, from the 1960s until the present.—Steve Richer <[email protected]>
Dr. Kevin Saunders (David Schwimmer) and Dr. William Larson (Chris Cooper) pioneer the usage of silicone breast implants.Kevin practices plastic surgery on turkey dinners and is a small-time surgeon at the Texas Medical Center. He assists senior surgeons like Larson at the hospital and modifies medical devices as a hobby, to make them more effective. Kevin notices how women are obsessed with breast sizes. Kevin hates Larson as Larson doesn't like the modifications which Kevin makes to instruments. Kevin is not satisfied with his profession as cosmetic surgeons are knows as beauticians. He is looking forward to leaving the hospital once he completes his rotation, so he can get away from Larson. Kevin believes that he should shift to the thoracic section as the doctors there have numerous patents to their name and the field is continuously innovating.Kevin secretly watches his next-door lady apply lotions and creams on her breasts in an effort to increase their size.
Kevin tells Larson about women's obsession with breasts. Several devices exist in the market, such as a padded bra, or a breast pump to increase the bust-line, creams and so on.Kevin tries to convince Larson to build a better breast, but Larson is skeptical since many materials (like paraffin and glass balls) have been tried before, and only succeeded in ruining the patient's breasts. Kevin is adamant that this can open up a whole new field of medicine. Kevin takes inspiration from the material used to store blood.Kevin scours the swimming pool (Rena Riffel) and finds a woman with perfect breasts and pays her to make a mold. The woman is excited that all the women in the world will be walking around in the future with her breasts. He uses a rubber material filled with salt water to build the first breast implant.
Larson is also fed up with the ridicule of his fellow medical professionals who are making great strides in their chosen fields. Larson takes Kevin seriously and suggests an inert material and an injection molding press to make it smooth. Larson enlists a design company who comes up with a silicone-based product, filled with liquid silicone gel material instead of salt water. It is named after Larson.Larson goes to the hospital medical board, and they refuse to authorize this procedure or insure it. So, Larson decides to put up his own money and do it himself with Kevin. They need a patient. Kevin hits the streets, but every woman he speaks to, thinks he is a pervert.
Kevin and Larson get a volunteer, a mom with 6 kids with saggy breasts who came in for tattoo removal and is sold on bigger breasts. Larson presents the findings to the scientific community. He has put all his money to open a new clinic with Kevin as partner, but there are no patients. Kevin says they should advertise and does. Larson wants to fire Kevin and gets to his clinic, which is full of patients. It is clear that women care about their breasts, and it is linked to how confidently they perceive themselves, and also how they believe that the world perceives them. Women want large breasts. The doctors get to work.
Saunders and Larson gain immense financial success as cosmetic breast augmentation surgeries rise in acceptance and frequency in American culture. Kevin even operates on a nurse from his old hospital Laura Pierson (Emily Procter) whom he used to have a crush on. Kevin starts dating Laura, operates on her (now that she is divorced) and finally ends up marrying her. Laura works at his clinic and convinces new patients that the procedure is completely safe.Differences start surfacing when Kevin suspects that Larson is keeping his royalty checks away from him.
They have a public spat on live TV where Kevin accuses Larson of stealing his idea and walks away from the partnership. The original royalty agreement was with Larson and so now Kevin is cut off. Gerald Krzemien (Matt Frewer) is a salesman with the implant producing company but can't help Kevin with the royalty issue. He introduces Kevin to the whole seedy world of porn and strip clubs which have the clients that Kevin desperately needs. Kevin makes a deal to share 10% of the revenues as fee with the club owners if they direct their girls to him.
They follow different life paths thereafter: Dr. Saunders becoming a narcissist interested in developing and implanting the exaggeratedly larger-sized types of implants popular with a mostly erotic dancer and female porn star clientele.Doctor Larson, Saunders' former mentor and business partner, is portrayed as continuing to pursue a more serious, clinical approach (e.g., reconstructive breast surgeries for female breast cancer survivors, etc.).
Kevin gets into drugs and one day Laura finds him having sex with a prostitute. She leaves him the next day. Many years later, Kevin works for the playboy mansion. Things start going wrong when the implants start to fail and patients get auto immune diseases due to the implants. Class action lawsuits follow, and Kevin and Larson are almost finished. Larson has a heart attack and dies. Kevin loses his clinic and his house.One day Laura comes to Kevin to remove her implants and Kevin discovers that removals are covered by insurance. Kevin makes more money with the removal surgeries, than by putting the implants in. He dies later in a car accident, while gawking a woman's large breasts driving in the next lane.The silicone implants went bankrupt.
