Evita 1996 Film Version Thoughts? — Page 2

What exactly did they eliminate that was in the musical?

adamgreer said: "What does bother me is the sanitization and deification of the title character. Madonna played her like a saint, and the film either glossed over or in some cases eliminated the less savory aspects of her rise to power.

That said, there is some glorious cinematography in the film."

I think there are some very hard/brutal scenes when it comes to her character. For example the whole "good bye and thank you" sequence, where she is basically portrayed as a sl*t/gold digger. I know there was a lot of uproar in Argentina at the time the film came out, it was almost like a boycot because their "holy" Evita was being portrayed like this. She is also portrayed as a talentless actress in the film and I love the scenes where, for example during the afternoon tea in the garden, how the elite treats her like crap/worthless. Also, I believe during the Rainbow Tour, she sings something along the lines of "did you hear that, they called me a whore, they actually called me a whore". Also the way she approaches Peron can be seen as dubious. There are also some hard lines in the movie as a reaction to when other characters actually call her a saint, like the very sarcastic tone of Che.

I think the film walks a very fine line with handling this and audiences are forced to look at things from both sides.

It's very clever in my opinion. You can already see the opposite opinions, one seeing her as a saint and the other one seeing her as the complete opposite. If there's discussion like this, the filmmakers have done it right.

Edit: There is also this dubious scene where she has this job interview and then comes out of the room looking all messed up. God knows what happened in there.

Updated On: 10/8/17 at 05:48 AM

I loved the film when it first came out, I recall going Christmas day to see it AND bought t he VHS copy of the movie. I watched it a few months ago on demand and couldn't believe (IMHO) how bad it was and how bad Madonna was. My initial critique with the movie (when I loved it) was that they cut away from Eva during "Don't cry of Me Argentina" when I felt it should have been more dramatic and focused on her. Now I just feel that Madonna was way over her head and the director cut the sh*t out of the film to distract from her poor acting abilities.

I always thought Michelle Pfeiffer would have been perfect for this film (Yes, I loved Grease 2) especially after her performance in Scarface.

i thought EVITA was beautifully filmed and staged by Alan Parker, and wonderfully acted by Madonna and Antonio Banderas...and i was surprised it didn't make more money at the box-office and that it wasn't nominated for more Oscars!...Madonna was a real pop star and i thought with this movie she became a movie actress...

I will say that when the film opened it felt like a real event. I saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and it carried all the excitement of going to a live theatre production. At the time, I liked the film, though I remember feeling (somewhere around "I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You" that the film suddenly disconnected and it never got back on track (this happened for me in the film of PHANTOM too around halfway through the title song).

But I do think the first ten minutes are dazzling film making. The first ten minutes of the film of PHANTOM are dazzling too. But neither film is anywhere near what 'could have been.'