Miss Evers' Boys

Director: Joseph Sargent Joseph 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 soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo, and a Spanish soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital Mono. Subtitles are accessible in all three of those languages as well. Supplemental materials include biographies of the cast and director. This is a fine release from HBO/Rysher.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/08/2002
UPC:	0026359138928
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	PG
Source:	Hbo Home Video
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[stereo, monaural]
Time:	1:58:00
Sales rank:	31,640

Special Features

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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alfre Woodard	Actor
Laurence Fishburne	Actor
Craig Sheffer	Actor
Ossie Davis	Actor
Joe Morton	Actor
E.G. Marshall	Actor

Technical Credits

Walter Bernstein

David Feldshuh

Joseph Sargent	Director
Dwight Douglas Andrews	Score Composer,Choreography
Robert Benedetti	Executive Producer
Charles C. Bennett	Production Designer
Charles Bernstein	Score Composer
Walter Bernstein	Screenwriter
Michael Brown	Editor
Jackie Brown	Casting
Michael Fedack	Camera Operator
David Feldshuh	Screenwriter
Laurence Fishburne	Executive Producer
James Edward Griffin	Asst. Director
Shay Griffin	Casting
Derek Kavanagh	Producer
Kip Konwiser	Producer
Kern Konwiser	Co-producer
Shirley Libby	Sound Mixer
Dianne McIntyre	Choreography
Susan Mickey	Costumes/Costume Designer
Robyn Mitchell	Casting
Donald M. Morgan	Cinematographer
Matthew Mungle	Makeup Special Effects
Edwin Myers	Camera Operator
Wynona Y. Price	Makeup
Peter Stelzer	Co-producer

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.

All Movie Guide - Brian J. Dillard