Miss Evers' Boys

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.

Customer Reviews:

Miss Evers was not a victim of the white establishment.......2007-07-26

"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?

SAD TRUTH.......2007-05-10

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR TRUTH AND CAN STAND IT WHEN YOU SEE AND HEAR IT, HERE IS SOMETHING FOR YOU TO WATCH. MASTERFULLY DONE....

black guinea pigs.......2007-05-07

i think all people of african descent should see this movie. this movie gives the true yet tragic story of how the u.s. government treats its african-american citizens. how dare the government feel that it has the right to use live human-beings in a experiment to study the effects of a disease. the very thought of giving a deadly disease to an innocent,unsuspecting group of people. this movie lets you know just how far the government of the u.s. will go to get what it wants.

boys who became men's.......2007-04-12

all young adult men and women need to watch this movie. it was a Great Movie.about things that happen in life.that is not your fault.

Miss Evers' Boys review.......2007-01-11

The movie was an assignment for school. I still found it very interesting and well done. It's a great example of the importance of laws governing the use of human subjects in research. Good information on an ugly piece of US history. Hopefully the lessons reach further than dealings in our own country.

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