MISS EVERS' BOYS is an eye-opening drama that blends top-shelf performances with a touching story line. This made-for-HBO movie scored five Emmy awards.
In 1972, retired nurse Eunice Evers (Alfre Woodard) testifies to a Senate Subcommittee about her experiences in the early 1930s working on a government research project.
1932. Nurse Evers joins Dr. Brodus (Joe Morton) and Dr. Douglas (Craig Sheffer) on a government-sponsored project to study a syphilis epidemic in the primarily black town of Tuskegee, Alabama. She becomes personally involved with a quartet of local men who come in for treatment of the disease: Ben
(Thom Gossom Jr.), Hodman (Von Coulter), Willie (Obba Babatunde), and her childhood friend Caleb (Laurence Fishburne). They name their group "Miss Evers' Boys." Evers and Caleb begin to date, but they are diverted when the funding for the project is cut.
More than a year later, a new project--the Tuskegee Study--is funded to study the disease, but not to provide treatment for it. Caleb refuses to join the test group. Years later, he becomes a soldier and informs his friends that he was cured of his condition by a pencillin shot that he received in
the armed services. This discovery enrages Evers who wasn't aware that pencillin could cure the disease and honestly believed that the study group would eventually be given treatment. Caleb heads to WWII, while Miss Evers' remaining boys grow sicker. Ben dies first, followed by Hodman, who kills
himself in a fit of madness even after Evers secretly gives him penicillin. Caleb returns with an offer to marry her and move north, but she sadly declines.
1972. Evers and Willie are seen walking from the graves of Ben and Hodman. It is revealed that Caleb moved north and never married while the Subcommittee declared the Tuskegee Study "outrageous and intolerable." Lawsuits were awarded to survivors, who were finally treated with penicillin without
adverse reactions.
Inspired by the actual "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male," this film was based on David Feldshuh's play. Penned by former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein (THE FRONT), this is a tight, deeply felt work that supplies significant characteristics for each of its characters.
Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, and Joe Morton dig into their parts, revealing the emotional centers of their characters. Obba Babatunde, Thom Gossom Jr. and Von Coulter supply both comic and tragic moments as Fishburne's music partners, while Craig Sheffer does passable work, despite some
wooden moments. The direction by veteran television and feature helmer Joseph Sargent (THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, MANDELA AND DE CLERK) is assured, as is the exceptional camerawork by Donald M. Morgan (CHRISTINE).
The film was a big winner at the 1997 Emmy Awards, nabbing five honors including Best Made for TV Movie and Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special (Alfre Woodard). (Adult situations.) leave a comment
