Kirpianuscus
a surprising film. for the recreation of an image in each detail. for the flavor of great musicals. for Madona and her impressive work. for Jonathan Pryce. and for Banderas. it is a melodramatic story, remembering, in the same measure, the soap operas and the propaganda about Evita. but it is a film who descend from a musical. and this explains everything - the side of fairy tale, the love story, the chance to become, for many viewers, the film of a song. this is all.
grantss
A musical based on the true story of Eva "Evita" Duarte de Peron, the actress who married Juan Peron and became the first lady of Argentina.Considering I generally dislike musicals on sight, the fact that I liked this says a lot. Plot is fairly linear and conventional, but the music is great, plus Alan Parker's direction gives the movie a certain vibrance without being too mainstream. The cinematography, especially, and costumes round off the movie.Performances are spot-on. Madonna, as a singer who can act (to a degree), was an obvious choice for the lead role and puts in a great performance. Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas give good support.
Jihad F Haidar
You shouldn't watch Evita if you are not a fan of musicals. Characters mainly only connect via songs, that literally there just might be an entire song for just a conversation, which is what made some people dislike this movie. Me? I loved it. Madonna is always shamed for being a bad actress, but for Madonna when acting is with singing and dancing in full force, no one can beat her at this, which is proved if you watch the movie. The movie follows the story of Eva Peron (nee Duarte), a B-Movie Argentine Actress that becomes the first lady of Argentina. When I saw the movie I didn't except to see a documentary and archive footage and interviews and historical sources, and I wasn't disappointed, because even the storyline is based on historical events, Juan Peron, Eva Peron and Argentine history and Eva's life, it is based on the musical show, hence why it's much more theatrical. All the songs are charming, the music really touches your soul, the direction is amazing, the acting is superb and the scenery and mis-en scene is flawless. The only reason I think people would hate this movie for is mainly because it features Madonna, and the public and critics ADORE firing negative flashback at her, or that the film is basically a long form music video, and it was the first legit musical in Hollywood since a long time, so people possibly expected more than just a long musical number. But if you love musicals, this is 100% for you.
James Hitchcock
Although musicals were a highly theatrical form during the last quarter of the twentieth century, the traditional cinema musical declined during this period; "Evita" was one of the few stage musicals to transfer to the cinema screen. Most cinematic musicals of the period ("Fame" being a good example and "Grease" a rare exception) generally use spoken dialogue to convey emotion, with the characters only singing and dancing in situations where people would sing and dance in real life. "Evita", however, goes to the opposite extreme. It is more like an opera than to a traditional musical, with little spoken dialogue, almost everything being sung. Eva Perón was, and remains, a controversial figure, both in her native Argentina and internationally, but there can be little doubt that she was also a remarkable one. (I cannot imagine any other female political leader from Latin America who could have inspired a hit musical). "Evita" has always had a special interest for me, both as a stage production and as a film, because I used to have an Argentine girlfriend, and our first date was to see the stage version; she was able to explain a lot of the political background to me. Eva's husband Juan Perón is often thought of, at least in Europe and North America, as a "fascist", but (as my girlfriend was quick to point out) there was a big difference between him and other Latin American leaders referred to by this term. The likes of Pinochet, Stroessner and Galtieri were military strongmen who ruled by force of arms; any support they might have enjoyed among the civilian population came largely from their countries' upper classes. Perón, by contrast, was a populist leader with links to the trade unions who enjoyed strong working-class support. Despite his military background he was distrusted by his fellow military leaders and loathed by Argentina's social elite, who saw him as a jumped-up demagogue. Although his regime was undoubtedly an authoritarian one, he was also responsible for instituting many social reforms, and the strength of his legacy can be gauged by the fact that since 1946, Peronist candidates have won eight of the ten Argentine presidential elections that they have not been banned from participating in; the current president, Cristina Kirchner, is a Peronist. Eva played an important role in her husband's rise to power, rallying his supporters when he was arrested by the military dictatorship, and during his time in office she was virtually canonised by the party faithful, who saw her as the "spiritual leader of the nation". The film, like the stage musical, traces her life from her impoverished childhood, through her rise to fame as an actress, her marriage to Perón and her time as first lady to her tragic death from cancer at the age of 33. The film essentially tells the same story as the stage show, but makes two major changes. In the stage production, Eva leaves her first lover, the singer Agustín Magaldi; in the film he abandons her to return to his wife. The reason, it seems, is to make the young Eva a more sympathetic and vulnerable character, and possibly also to give Madonna the chance to perform one of the show's hit songs, "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", which on stage is sung by Perón's mistress. The second major change concerns the character of Che, who here becomes an everyman figure and is not identified with the historical Che Guevara. (It is said that the left-leaning director Alan Parker made this change because he did not like the way Guevara, an idol of the Left, had been treated by the right-leaning lyricist Tim Rice). If anything, the "Che" of the movie is more of a disillusioned Peronist- we see him marching as one of the "descamisados" who sweep Perón to power- than a Communist. Madonna has not always struck me as the world's greatest actress, and it was a brave move on Parker's part to cast her here ahead of established actresses like Liza Minnelli and Michelle Pfeiffer. Although she had given decent performances in films like "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "A League of their Own", she had also given some lousy ones, "Body of Evidence" being a notorious example. Parker's gamble paid off; Madonna had campaigned hard for the part, describing it as a "role she was born to play", and was able to make good her boast. She gives here the greatest acting performance of her career, able to bring out all the contrasting sides of Eva's personality, making her not merely a strong and determined woman but also a vulnerable and tragic one. Madonna, of course, was a singer before she was an actress, so may have been helped by the fact that her role is almost entirely sung rather than spoken. Jonathan Pryce is also good as Perón, played here less passionate and less determined than his wife, but also a wily political opportunist. Antonio Banderas makes a charismatic Che, although I felt his singing voice was not always up to the role. The film's great strength, of course, is the combination of Rice's lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber's music, which combine to produce some of the most memorable songs in the modern musical theatre. Sometimes these are mordantly cynical ("Oh What a Circus", "Goodnight and Thank You", "Peron's Latest Flame"), sometimes lyrical and poignant.( "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"), and sometimes they manage to combine both moods ("I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You"). I should also mention Parker's direction and his ability to find striking visual images to complement the songs. "Evita" triumphantly proved that, even in the nineties, there was still life in the cinematic musical. A goof. We see Magaldi performing at a concert in 1944, which would have been clever of him, given that he died in 1938.
