Miss Evers' Boys | 
 enlarge | Director: Joseph Sargent
Actors: Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, Craig Sheffer, Joe Morton, Obba Babatundé
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.43
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 5028
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D91389D
ISBN: 0783120117
UPC: 026359138928
EAN: 9780783120119
ASIN: B00005RDAN
Theatrical Release Date: February 22, 1997
Release Date: January 8, 2002
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Amazon.com essential video
Laurence Fishburne helped shepherd this Emmy Award-winning exposé from American medical history books to the small screen. Anchored in the 1973 Senate inquiry into the infamous Tuskegee Study, the film uses a flashback structure to take us back 40 years as Nurse Eunice Evers (played with honest conviction by Alfre Woodard, who also earned an acting Emmy for her powerful performance) describes how a program designed to treat syphilis among blacks in the South was twisted into an inhuman study. Evers's conscience is torn between leaving her position on principle or remaining to give the dying men what comfort she can while they are systematically refused life-saving medicine at every turn. Fishburne costars as Caleb, a easygoing but ambitious young fieldhand who discovers the cold reality of the study while courting Miss Evers. Adapted by Walter Bernstein from a play by David Feldshuh, the film rises above the TV Movie of the Week mold with a complex moral structure that eschews (if you'll pardon the expression) black and white polarities for shades of gray as the doctors' initial compromises become a lifetime of lies. Ultimately that tone becomes the most disturbing facet of the drama: doctors and nurses so enmeshed in what is tantamount to a conspiracy they can find no way out, and a government that searches for scapegoats for its own cold-blooded research. --Sean Axmaker
Description
Based on the shocking true story, Miss Evers' Boys exposes a 40-year government backed medical research effort on humans which led to tragic consequences. It is 1932 when loyal, devoted Nurse Eunice Evers (Alfre Woodard) is invited to work with Dr. Brodus (Joe Morton) and Dr. Douglas (Craig Sheffer) on a federally funded program to treat syphilis patients in Alabama. Free treatment is offered to those who test positive for the disease included Caleb Humphries (Laurence Fishburne) and Willie Johnson (Obba Babatunde). But when the government withdraws its funding, money is offered for what will become known as "The Tuskegee Experiment", a study of the effects of syphilis on patients who don't receive treatment. Now the men must be led to believe they are being cared for, when in fact they are being denied the medicine that could cure them. Miss Evers is faced with a terrible dilemma-to abandon the experiment and tell her patients, or to remain silent and offer only comfort. IT is a life or death decision that will dictate the course of not only her life, but the lives of all of Miss Evers' Boys.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 great! May 9, 2008
Quran S. Sabir
I was impressed and pleased with the speed of delivery and the quality of the product.
 Miss Evers Boys April 9, 2008
Evane (California, USA)
I enjoyed it tremendously. (You'll have to watch out that it doesn't depress you). However, I found it to be noteworthy as it was historical and shed a bit of light on a situation that maybe some did not know ever existed. I would have liked it if the story would have dealt more with the government's ivolvement with the Tuskegee Project in preventing medicine to be given to the black men that were unknowingly used for this experiment. This story focused more on Miss Ever's commitment to the men, instead of the government's decision that these human beings were expendable. Excellent acting by Alfred Woodard & Laurence Fisburne.
Follows Historical Details March 30, 2008
S. Jones (Bookworm)
I had to be involved in a debate for school about the Tuskegee Incident. This video seems to follow history fairly accurately, unlike some of Hollywood's other 'based on real life' stories.
Every race responds to disease in the same manner March 16, 2008
R. Kyle (USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Unfortunately, the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphillis in the Negro Male", which began in 1932 in Alabama, is strong proof that clinical studies were not created equal. In this experiment, poor African American males were not treated for syphillis and not told of their true condition.
When penicillin became available as a treatment, the subjects were not afforded the option of getting the shots. (NOTE: Depending on the stage of syphillis, penicillin may not be a safe treatment option)
As a result of unethical treatment on the part of the experimenters in this study, the US National Health Investigation Board was developed in 1979. This board promulgated Institutional Review Boards and ethical guidelines for the conduct of clinical research studies. None of the clinical staff of this study faced any criminal charges.
"Miss Evers Boys" is a made for television dramatization of the Tuskegee Study from the point of view of Nurse Eunice Evers (Woodard).
The film details the RN's enthusiastic enlistment into the study because she believed The New Deal was for everyone and was going to help African Americans.
According to the film, the original study offered treatment for syphillis patients--who were told they had 'bad blood' because the doctors believed most of the men would not understand the physiology of their disease.
Later, when treatment funds dried up, researchers were encouraged by the National Health Service to continue the study to determine the effects of the disease. At the time, they believed that monies for treatment would be available within six months to a year, tops. The experimenters were depicted as sympathetic and trapped in an unfortunate situation. The Congressional Hearing panel who conducted the expository hearings on this study apparently felt similarly because no researchers were charged with cruelty regarding this study.
The film is an excellent study in medical ethics. It's impossible to watch this movie without tears in your eyes and anger in your heart. I believe "Miss Evers Boys" would be a good education for students of Black History as well as medicine, nursing, and ethics.
Miss Evers was not a victim of the white establishment July 26, 2007
David Thomson (Houston, TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Miss Evers Boys" is very difficult to watch. At times, you may have to stop the movie to regain your composure. One scene in particular shows a victim screaming in awful pain. This HBO made for TV story is too sympathetic towards Miss Eunice Evers. As matter of fact, it goes so far as to hint that she was a victim of the white establishment. Nothing could be further from the truth. The woman was truly a vile human being. She freely chose to betray her friends and neighbors infected with syphilis. Her constantly reiterated rationalization that "the doctors know best" is laughable to say the least. At the end, we learn there were never any indictments handed down regarding these Nazi like experiments. Why weren't Miss Evers and Dr. Broadus arrested? Was it because it might damage the politically correct narrative describing them as victims?
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