Product Details

• Actors: Antonio Banderas, Gary Brooker, Adrià Collado, Andrea Corr, Martin Drogo
• Directors: Alan Parker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: March 25, 1998
• Run Time: 135 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (321 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304806418
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,726 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Evita" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After more than a decade of false starts and several potential directors, the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical finally made it to the big screen with Alan Parker (The Commitments) at the helm and Madonna in the coveted title role of Argentina's first lady, Eva Perón. A triumph of production design, costuming, cinematography, and epic-scale pageantry, the film follows the rise of Eva Perón to the level of supreme social and political celebrity in the 1940s. Like Madonna, Perón was a material girl (she was only 33 when she died); she was instrumental in the political success of her husband, Juan Perón (Jonathan Pryce). But Eva was also a supremely tragic figure whose life was essentially hollow at its core despite the lavish benefits of her nearly goddess-like status. The film has a similar quality--it's visually astonishing but emotionally distant, and benefits greatly from the singing commentary of Ché (Antonio Banderas), who serves as a passionate chorus to guide the viewer through the elaborate parade of history. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Few times in the history of Hollywood has a film been released with the scope and daring of EVITA! Now, experience this landmark achievement as entertainment megastar Madonna -- in the role of a lifetime -- joins Antonio Banderas (ASSASSINS, DESPERADO) for the year's most talked about motion picture event! Directed by award-winning filmmaker Alan Parker (MISSISSIPPI BURNING), EVITA is the riveting true-life story of Eva Peron (MADONNA), who rose above childhood poverty and a scandalous past to achieve unimaginable fortune and fame. Despite widespread controversy, her passion changed a nation forever! Winner of the coveted Academy Award(R) for Best Song (1996) and 3 Golden Globe Awards (Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Song) -- critics nationwide hailed EVITA as a triumphant must-see masterpiece -- and so will you!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 128 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great movie... November 10, 2004

By R Glasgow

Format:DVD

I just purchased this DVD and I remembered instantly why I enjoyed this film so much when it came out. I would just like to answer some of the critiques listed here.

1) The character of Ché was always meant to be a nemesis to Evita, but not the real character as such . In the stage production that I saw, it was a man with the typical beret and machine gun singing to the side of the action. It would have been ridiculous and historically inaccurate to portray Ché as such in the movie version. Ché Guevara was still a medical student when Eva died. I think it is very effective to blend Ché into various characters because it represents the silent and not so silent opposition to the Perón Revolution. The only time the two characters meet for real interaction is when Evita is having delusions. The song argued in that moment perfectly clashes Ché's "idealism" with Evita's "realism." Ché is always there in some form, yet Evita is oblivious to his presence, brushes him off with a quick lyric or purposely chooses to ignore him. This adds a metaphysical dimension to the plot as if Evita were increasingly self-justifying her growing power as a simple tool to help the impoverished.

2) The soundtrack to the movie is not an operatic stage version but the songs are presented using the operatic techniques of repetition. This was done on purpose, not due to a lack of creativity.

3) When I saw this off off broadway, the people that were with me were straining to understand the singing beside the fact that they had no idea about the history of post WWII Argentina. I don't think they enjoyed it as much as they wanted to let on.

4) Madonna sings very well and is completely understood.... I had the argument with some friends that heard the soundtrack and thought she was singing off key on the last couple of tracks... Ummm. Not really. She was about ready to pass away in those scenes which in the movie are close-ups. It would have been ridiculous to have anyone belt out the lyrics in such an intimate moment before passing on. It sounds like she is dying, because she is...

5) The cinematography is simply amazing. The funeral scene at the very beginning was incredible as well as the scene where Eva puts her foundation to work. Pictures of the real Evita meeting the Pope and others perfectly match the costumes used in the movie.

6) For me, the main focus of the movie is the strategy of propaganda and how it can dominate reason. The mystery lies in how much of the persuasion was authentically from the heart of the Peróns and how much of it was naked manipulation. The movie captures both aspects and yet leaves them unanswered...Much like the historical analysis of Eva Perón.

This movie is an awesome production ... Read more ›

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT Adaption of the broadway show - have an open mind. January 28, 2000

By bilahn

Format:VHS Tape

Boy do people miss the point on this movie. You can't present a movie like a broadway show. Everytime this has been attemped, historically, the results are bad, most adaptions of famous shows are only OK at best, some are awful. The medium is totally different, the demands are different, the singing is different, the acting style is different. Yes, the shows usually are "better", in a sense, that's how it was originally written, as a stage play. You have got to really change things to make a successful movie.

So how good an ADAPTION is this? Very good indeed. The story was changed to very effectively fit the medium. Madonna stretched herself unbelievably to do this role, and I think she did very well. You may quite validly prefer the stage version of Evita (I like both), but its almost like apples and oranges. As good as Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin were, they would, if they played it the same way anyway, come off mannered and absurd in a movie context. All the conventions of the stage would be laughable. (unless it was simply, of course, an actual filmed stage production). On the other hand, Madonna and Banderas are not nearly strong and polished enough for a stage. Most of the changes (a few I don't understand), make a lot of sense, when you consider how a movie has to flow.

As for this movie not being deep or historical, its a musical for Pete's sake, not "Saving Private Ryan." I don't know enough about Eva Peron to really say, but I don't see how you could present a real historical drama in a musical context. I think the problem is people don't like or understand opera, which this essentially is. Most of the great operas have ludicrous story lines!... Also if you are going to go in knowing you "hate" musicals, "hate" Madonna, then fine, this is not to your taste. Banderas is not a polished singer, but his rough edged singing is very appealing and effective in this context.

The cinematography, costumes are outstanding, and serve the story well. Only as the dying Evita, do I find Madonna not very believable. I think Evita is thrilling, its one of my favorite movies of recent years.

I love the show Evita, and I love this too, but in a very different way. Read more ›

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars certainties disappear April 9, 2006

By Robert D. Harmon VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Worth noting that Evita is wall-to-wall music with virtually no spoken lines: not an opera so much as an extended music video, so the pop-music motifs need not be an anachronism.

I'm not a fan of Madonna, I find Andrew Lloyd Webber's music a bit obvious .. and yet -- and yet. Here everything seems to come together. It's a visually gorgeous film, the added songs (The Lady's Got Potential, You Must Love Me) are strong enhancements. The Che character's change from Che Guevara in the stage version to an Argentine Everyman here (desk clerk, bartender, cabinet minister, union activist) is an improvement over the stage musical and Antonio Banderas is a smoldering presence who carries the movie. Jimmy Nail is perfect as the oily tango singer; Jonathan Pryce capable in an equally slick role. The montage songs are splendid, like Goodnight and Thank You, that bucket-brigade sequence of Eva's lovers that she uses (and the film uses) to get her from the street to the Casa Rosada, or like A New Argentina, in which Eva takes Juan from jail to the presidency. The faux-English country house lawn where Eva faces down upper-class disdain (Peron's Latest Flame, The Actress Hasn't Learned the Lines You Like to Hear) is another brilliant staging. It all rings true, visually.

I've had others tell me the lyrics seemed shallow. "Don't cry for me, Argentina, and don't forget to get milk and bread at the store ... " Well, yes. That's the point. She didn't say much more than that. Banality often suffices in public life; politics are shtick in a media age; actors can leverage elections. The lady couldn't act but she could, as others have said, seduce a nation. She won't be the last actor to do so.

Recommend owning the DVD for the cinematic values at the very least.... It's a dark vision of public affairs but the times probably affirm it. And it was the best role of Eva's lifetime. And Madonna's. Read more ›