Product Details

• Actors: Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, Craig Sheffer, Joe Morton, Obba Babatundé
• Directors: Joseph Sargent
• Writers: David Feldshuh, Walter Bernstein
• Producers: Laurence Fishburne, Peter Stelzer, Derek Kavanagh, Kern Konwiser, Kip Konwiser
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: April 14, 1998
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783110901
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,072 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nurse's Perspective on "Miss Evers' Boys", January 11, 2003

By 

Dianna Lipp Rivers (Beaumont, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Evers Boys [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Story, Well-Told!, June 1, 2002

By 

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Evers Boys [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every race responds to disease in the same manner, March 16, 2008

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Miss Evers' Boys (DVD)

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.