Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4624 in DVD
• Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2002-01-08
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

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

Customer Reviews

A Nurse's Perspective on "Miss Evers' Boys"
From my perspective as a professor of nursing, I would say the movie depicted well ethical issues of the most serious type. In this fact-based story, nurse Eunice Evers (Alfre Woodard) was drawn into the Tuskegee syphilis research study by promises that treatment would be coming, hopefully in six months to a year. Her responsibilities included recruiting African American subjects. They were screened for being syphilis positive and then brought into the research study without full disclosure that no actual effective treatment was being provided. Even when penicillin became available, "Miss Evers' Boys" would not be given the life-saving medicine. Only one of the "Evers'Boys", Caleb Humphries (who was expertly played by Laurence Fishburne) escaped the ravages of progressive syphilis by receiving penicillin immediately upon joining the military during World War II. Miss Evers' was portrayed sympathetically, even as she used all of her cultural skills to do the wrong thing -- recruit and retain subjects in this unethical study spanning 40 years. The HBO movie is excellent for students, nurses, medical researchers, doctors, and the general public interested in ethical issues in medicine.

A Powerful Story, Well-Told!
It's no secret that Hollywood has backed off of traditional socially conscious dramas. Oh, sure, issues of race and class are often touched on in cinematic releases, but in recent years, it has been pretty much up to cable channels such as HBO and TNT to produce meaty fact-based dramas with socio-political heft. We can only be thankful that someone has picked up the slack and that such work is still being done. "Miss Evers Boys," a dramatization of what has become the now-scandalous Tuskegee Negro Syphilitic Study, is a case in point. It is as powerful an indictment of racism as you are likely to see. It is also a nuanced and complex a statement on same. It is hard to see how any viewer could remain unmoved by this film.

Much of "Miss Evers'" impact stems from Alfre Woodard's astonishing performance as the title character. Had this actually been a theatrical release, she would likely have walked off with an Academy Award. She had to settle for an Emmy, which was certainly well-deserved. I have seen Alfre Woodard in roles in which she did not appear comfortable, but she inhabits the role of Nurse Eunice Evers totally (or perhaps, Eunice Evers inhabits her). Her performance alone would be enough to recommend the film. But it does indeed have much more to offer--including a great supporting cast (including producer-leading man, Laurence Fishburne, Joe Morton and Craig Sheffer), an intelligent and complex script, and capable direction. Thanks be unto the heavens that someone is still producing powerful, fact-based social drama. We need them now more than ever.

An American Tragedy
This is a made for cable drama based upon true events. As such, historicity takes a back seat to drama. That being said, there is no real reason to complain about this film. It depicts a despicable human experiment that took place near Tuskeegee, Alabama, beginning in 1932 and continuing for several decades. In a government study, black men with syphilis were offered treatment and records were kept on their progress. They got better. Suddenly, the funding for the program was cut. Some time later, a new program was begun. In this one, the black syphilitic men were studied and treated but the treatments were placebos. They served as a control group. Originally, the promise was that, upon completion of the program, the patients would be given the real treatments. In actuality, so much data was derived from these men that the program continued and continued for years with no real treatment. Eventually, the men began to die off and their minds an bodies succumbed to the devastation of the disease.

One might well wonder why men would agree to take part in a study like this. The key was, they were never told that they were not being treated. They thought they were getting good health care but the system considered them expendable.

One might well wonder why caring medical practitioners would agree to be involved with this study. They did not think they had any real choice. If the study was not done, the men would get no care at all. At least with the study, other health care treatments were given.

This story is told from the point of view of a black nurse who was a part of the study from the beginning. It deals with her interactions with the patients and with her personal battles with her conscience. It is well done which just makes the film all the more distressing.