Miss Evers' Boys

Director: Joseph Sargent, J. Sargent

Overview

"Joseph Sargent's historical drama Miss Evers' Boys comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. A closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Surround, a French soundt

Product Details

Release Date:	05/26/2009
UPC:	0026359138928
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	PG
Source:	Hbo Home Video
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[monaural, stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:58:00
Sales rank:	29,762

Special Features

Interactive menus; Chapter selections; Languages; Subtitles; Cast and director bios

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alfre Woodard	Miss Evers
Laurence Fishburne	Caleb Humphries
Craig Sheffer	Dr. Douglas
Joe Morton	Dr. Brodus
Obba Babatunde	Willie Johnson
Thom Gossom Jr.	Ben
Von Coulter	Hodman
E.G. Marshall	Chairman
Ossie Davis	Mr. Evers
Robert Benedetti	Senator
Peter Stelzer	Senator
Donzaleigh Abernathy	Nurse Betty
Tommy Cresswell	Dr. Larkin
Judson Vaughn	Dr. Davis
Larry Black	Dr. Hamilton
Bill Coates	Old Man
Gerald Brown	Announcer
Joan Glover	Clinic Nurse
T.S. Morgan	Patient
Kiki Shepard	Sadie

Technical Credits

Walter Bernstein

Robert Benedetti	Executive Producer,Producer
Jaki Brown-Karman	Casting
Laurence Fishburne	Executive Producer,Producer
Derek Kavanagh	Producer
Kip Konwiser	Producer
Dianne McIntyre	Stunts
Robyn M. Mitchell	Casting
Walter Bernstein	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Side #1 --
0. Chapters
1. Main Title/Prologue [8:32]
2. Syphilis - A Negro Disease? [4:49]
3. Spreading the Word [9:04]
4. And So They Came... [5:14]
5. Miss Evers' Boys [6:53]
6. Healing Hands [2:51]
7. Stepping Out [5:28]
8. Budget Cuts [4:00]
9. No Treatment [6:07]
10. Back for Her Boys [9:55]
11. Back Shots [10:06]
12. Being Taken up Over the Hill... [9:57]
13. The Tuskegee List [3:56]
14. Taking the Cure [10:18]
15. Paying the Consequences [6:05]
16. Doing What's Right; Then and Now [11:21]
17. Coda/End Credits [3:08]

Menu

Side #1 --
Play
Cast/Crew
Eunice Evers - Alfre Woodard
Caleb Humphries - Laurence Fishburne
Dr. Douglas - Craig Sheffer
Dr. Sam Brodus - Joe Morton
Willie Johnson - Obba Babatundé
Mr. Evers - Ossie Davis
The Senate Chairman - E. G. Marshall
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Written by Walter Bernstein
Languages
English Dolby Surround
Spanish Mono
French Stereo
Subtitles
English
Español
Français
Subtitles: None

Editorial Reviews

Beautifully acted and chilling in its depiction of woefully misguided medical ethics, this docudrama attempts to portray both the facts of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study and the personal stories that underscore its horror. Fascinatingly enough, the experiment began as an attempt to procure better health care for poor, rural African-Americans; its lasting legacy, however, is a lingering mistrust of the entire biomedical community. Playwright David Feldshuh and screenwriter Walter Bernstein take dramatic license in ascribing motives to their title character, who was based on the real-life nurse Eunice Rivers. Although such liberties may rankle, they ultimately give shape to what might otherwise have become a dry quasi-documentary, or, even worse, an overwrought movie of the week. In the title role, Alfre Woodard gives a typically rich performance, chronicling the noble intentions, moral compromises, and abiding guilt of the local woman who served as the primary point of contact between the study and its participants. Laurence Fishburne, who as executive producer helped shepherd the material from stage to screen, is also strong in the role of a patient who romances Miss Evers but eventually seeks treatment elsewhere and leaves both the study and her behind. Ossie Davis, Craig Scheffer, Joe Morton, and Obba Babatunde help round out the fine supporting cast, while the photography (by Donald M. Morgan) and the music (by Dwight Andres and Charles Bernstein) capture both the beauty and the squalor of the rural South. The fiery rhetoric of Woodard's closing monologue may seem overblown (and fly in the face of the historical record), but otherwise Miss Evers' Boys ranks among director Joseph Sargent's most compelling fact-based dramas.