SoTrumpBelieve
Must See Movie...
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
david-alkhed
Evita is a musical from 1996 directed by Alan Parker and based on two things: the life of Argentine First Lady Eva Péron, and the 1978 Broadway musical Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Both the movie and the musical tell the same story: the life of Eva Péron from being a businessman's illegitimate child to being the wife of Juan Péron, the president of Argentina and becoming the most beloved and the most hated woman in the country.Now hearing that story, it might sound like an original screenplay from Hollywood, but I think that the very fact that it's based on a true story is part of the appeal, proving that truly anyone can rise to power, just look at Donald Trump :(The first question of quality for the movie, being a musical is, are the songs any good? And the answer is yes. They are very good. One of the things that strike me about the songs is that whenever the film needs to show a very long span of time, you can show it with a song and a montage, for example Eva's multiple lovers and the political history of Argentina in the 40s. This would be much harder to make compelling and interesting and related to the plot in an ordinary biopic. But Rice or Webber or Parker of whoever realized that they could use the songs to their advantage. So, congratulations!Another important thing about musicals is, can the main actors sing, and the answer is again yes. No matter what you think of Madonna, you have to admit that the can sing. And I want to really show my respect for Madonna, because this wasn't a case of the producers going "We need a star! Get Madonna, because people know her and will help at the box office". It was actually Madonna who was really pushing to get the role, she took vocal lessons, she did research on Evita and Argentina, and I think that demands respect. The rest of her filmography may not be that impressive, but she did very well in her role, and that's all I ask.So we knew that Madonna could sing, but what was really surprising to me was Antonio Banderas as the narrator Che (yes, in the play it was supposed to be Che Guevara, but they changed it for the film). Man, can he sing, and sing well. One thing that I also really liked about Banderas portrayal of Che is that he can be really funny and entertaining as Che. I honestly think that his performance was Oscar worthy.Parker's direction and production was also really impressive, especially because it was a musical made on such a grand scale. You can tell that they spent a lot of money on the production, especially with regards to the extras. This I think is some of the best work from movie extras, it appears as if they actually care about what they're doing and how it's going to look on the big screen.If I could criticize anything, I think it would be with some of the lyrics in the songs that I find questionable. For example, at one point in the song "Peron's Latest Flame" about peoples misgivings of Juan's relationship with Eva, the soldiers sing about officers and sing "as long as they're discreet and keep clear of disease", like what do they mean? Are they talking about syphilis?So besides some lyrics that I was not fond of, the film is overall an entertaining musical with good performances, an impressive big scale and good songs.My final score, 7/10.
cia-96187
I am a person who hates musicales and I was about to leave the movie in the middle of it. That said and my personal bias out of the way, if I critique this movie I have to be fair. As a Musical and for people who like musicals this is a great film, keep in mind that most of the film is Madonna singing and that there is very little dialog, the only place that there was any dialog in the film we all had to clap in the movie theater just because they spoke and not sing. OK OK time for the truth, the movie is well filmed, it has a coherent historical story, and as for Madonna I think it is one of her best acting movies I have ever seen, she should have at least been nominated for her acting in addition to giving the film an Oscar for the music. The songs especially "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" I think we would all agree it is a classic hit, I loved it. A lot of people did object to Madonna representing Evita Peron, in my opinion whether you like Madonna's life style or not you cannot pull it into the movie it is her life. As for the movie she did act very well and sang even better. Looking back at the movie this movie is definitely thumbs up for anyone that likes musicals, and such style of movies. This is not an action movie it is a musical and one of the best musicals, so please love it as a musical and not as any thing else.
Max Younger
Good heavens! This film lasted 135 mins - 120-odd mins too long!(there were a couple of good songs). What possessed someone to think, "Hhmm, let's get the cast to tunelessly 'sing' their lines ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE FILM"?!?!? Don't get me wrong, it was quite visually stunning, a great snapshot of a tumultuous historical turning point and all that, but PLEASE, how did people sit through two hours of that?? Despite the film's saving graces (and there were a few), this still makes it into my worst films of all time list, purely because I found it impossible to sit through from start to finish without wanting to pour red-hot magma into my ears!
tavm
I had first heard about Evita through a parody: "SCTV" did a parody ad for a musical called "Indira" about Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi (portrayed by Andrea Martin) which had her singing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" with Slim Whitman (Joe Flaherty) warbling the male part before segueing to another song. I then saw the actual commercials for "Evita" with, I think, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin doing those songs I previously saw spoofed on that "SCTV" spot. So over 30 years later, I finally watched the film version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical with Madonna essaying the title role. She's quite good singing songs different from her set list especially on the one original song for the movie-"You Must Love Me". Having her veer from caring to shallow and back was also partly natural especially considering the contradictory versions of Evita's life I read about recounted on Wikipedia after seeing the movie. So, yes, she deserves high praise for taking this role and gets much help from both Antonio Banderas as Che and Jonathan Pryce as Eva's eventual husband, Juan Peron. In summary, I highly enjoyed Evita.
