Well Deserved Praise

Not even bad in a good way

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Madonna gives it her all, and the tunes are definitely memorable and widely well-covered. The direction is interesting. Were some of those scenes taken from real life documentary news-films ? The fairly low site rating puzzles me a little, but for some reason I don't think it deserves 8 stars. Can't really say why. Perhaps it was the vacuity of the plot, politics-wise. There was no real explanation of Evita's political significance. She just went around singing and being charismatic and adored. I couldn't quite see what she'd done to deserve all this adoration. Then she died.This film reminds me of another, plot and politics-wise. This was a film modelled on Huey Long, which I found equally puzzling. The Huey character went around waving his arms about, instead of singing, but the politics were just as vague as in Evita. Sean Penn was the actor, who got murdered in the story, and I suppose it is merely a coincidence that he was the sometime husband of Madonna.

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.

Evita (1996): Dir: Alan Parker / Cast: Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce, Jimmy Nail, Olga Merediz: Almost every aspect of this film is musical with dialogue expressed beautifully by lyrics. Madonna stars as Evita, the wife of a political leader and how she pulls her way to the top. Expertly crafted and executed brilliantly by director Alan Parker who has made great musicals before with Fame and Pink Floyd: The Wall. Madonna's voice compliments the material as she pours emotion through song. She is an aid to her political significant other but all attention falls on her even up to her death through illness. This is easily the best performance from a musician whose critics have not been kind to her in the past. Antonio Banderas is also effective as the narrator who expresses his views through lyrics and makes a great musical counter to Madonna's veteran skills. He will be there until the end just as he is in translating it all to us. Jonathan Pryce is well cast as a political figure overshadowed by her presence but ultimately benefiting greatly. Jimmy Nail as a tango dancer she has an affair with could have been less predictable but at any rate it further skirts Evita under the radar. Spectacular art direction and massive production highlight a message of manipulation. Madonna is not accustom to great films but here she is at her best in a role she was born to play and she sparkles. Score: 9 ½ / 10

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!