Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great movie..., November 10, 2004
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 ...
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20 of 21 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
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.
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57 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful to watch but unfulfilling, April 12, 2004
One of the interesting sidelights to this movie is the fact that Oliver Stone wrote part of the screenplay. While watching it I kept wondering what part? Stone, whose edgy, over the top indictments of oppression, corruption and especially military stupidity, wouldn't seem to be one to celebrate the elevation of Eva Peron to something close to sainthood, which is what this movie does. Maybe all his work ended up on the cutting room floor. Or maybe it was obscured by Andrew Lloyd Webber's music. Certainly we do not see the decamisados (Peron's version of his friend Mussolini's Blackshirts) torturing anyone, and although the "disappeared" are mentioned in passing, there is no retrospective that allows us to see just how widespread and horrific were the murders committed by the Peronists.Anyway, Madonna, who certainly fits the part like a glove, stars as Evita, and she gives the performance of her life. Yet somehow it is unconvincing, or I should say, somehow the film doesn't really get to the essence of the woman who rose from poverty to the pinnacle of power in Argentina, a woman extravagantly loved by the common people of Argentina even while she was a party to the fascist oppression. I don't think this is Madonna's fault. Her voice is good, not great, of course, but her dramatic skills are very much in evidence, skills that have always been underrated, although I'm not sure why. If you watch her in this and in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) you can see that she has a range easily exceeding that of most actresses. I think that ironically it is the very quality of common origin and common appeal that the Argentines so loved in Evita that the critics hold against Madonna. Antonio Banderas plays Che, who narrates and attempts to objectify the events while symbolizing both Evita's alter-ego and the man who would really be her proper mate were it not for her rapacious political appetite. Che's character and his dramatic role (from the play by Tim Rice) is perhaps the most important artistic achievement of the musical after Webber's beautiful and inspiring music. Banderas is winning and enormously vivid in the part, and he sings well and expressively. Jonathan Pryce plays Peron with more dignity and humanity than history might allow. His sensitivity as an actor combined with a modest demeanor seemed to me so unrealistic as to be almost a miscasting. Yet he is perhaps as compelling as anyone on the screen and he certainly looked the part. Interesting is Jimmy Nail as the cabaret singer Magaldi. He combines sleazy good looks with a kind of vulnerable persona that seems exactly right. Well, what can be said about the music except that it is one of Webber's great triumphs and so very typical of his work. It is beautiful, stirring, moving, enchanting and memorable. Who can forget the haunting, plaintive refrain of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" or the gorgeous simplicity of "You Must Love Me"? While Madonna's voice would not fill up a concert hall or take her by itself to the Broadway stage, she does an outstanding job with Webber's songs. A natural performer (Madonna's key talent), her expressive interpretations range from the ordinary to the transfixing. I very much enjoyed her efforts and predict that critics in the future will be kinder to her than today's critics. The ending seemed too drawn out and then when the screen faded to black and the credits began to run it seemed almost abrupt and without resolution. I also did not like the way that Madonna (38 at the time) seemed no younger in the earlier scenes with her hair dyed pitch black. I think director Alan Parker should have given us more of an illusion of youth, perhaps spared her some of the closeups and fuzzed out the lines under her eyes. Strange how the golden blonde hair and exquisitely applied makeup in the remainder of the film made her look younger. All directors should know what Madonna learned many years ago: blonde hair usually makes a woman look younger because those with naturally light-colored hair are their blondest as children. Like big eyes and relatively big heads, blonde hair is a signal of youth that arrests our eyes. Despite the flaws this is an engrossing cinematic experience, and for Madonna fans, Banderas fans, and in particular fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it is a film not to be missed.
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