DIRECTOR
Alan Parker
SCREENWRITERS
Alan
Parker
Oliver Stone
based
on the musical by
Tim
Rice
Andrew Lloyd Webber
PRODUCERS
Alan Parker
Robert Stigwood
Andrew G. Vajna
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Darius Khondji
MUSIC
Andrew Lloyd Webber
EDITOR
Gerry Hambling
CAST
Madonna (Eva Perón)
Antonio Banderas (Ché)
Jonathan Pryce (Juan Perón)
Jimmy Nail (Agustín Magaldi)
Victoria Sus (Dona Juana)
Julian Littman (Brother Juan)
MPAA rating: PG
Running
time: 134m
U.S. release: December 25, 1996
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Other Alan
Parker movies
reviewed on this website:
- Angela's Ashes
|
For
all the sound and fury of Evita, I had a tough time staying
awake. Visually, the movie is gorgeous. Director Alan Parker
and the great cinematographer Darius Khondji (who shot Seven)
make glorious use of the wide screen. But I'd rather see a crappy-looking
film with some heart and soul. Evita comes dangerously
close to being a parade of beautiful hollow images, like Parker's
other rock-opera adaptation, Pink Floyd: The Wall.
That said, I doubt any director could have made a good movie
from Andrew Lloyd Webber's baffling and shallow musical. Except
for Cats, which has T.S. Eliot's poetry and some luscious
costumes and lights going for it, Lloyd Webber's work leaves
me cold. Those who enjoy his brand of pompous pop may not mind
the numbingly repetitive Evita; at times, I felt as if
I were trapped inside a jukebox that only plays three songs.
The basic story whizzes by. The poor but ambitious Eva Duarte
(Madonna) sleeps her way to the top, marrying Juan Perón
(Jonathan Pryce), future president of Argentina. Eva becomes
a sort of ab-fab representative of the people, though the movie
suggests that it's merely another career move by a woman who
craves love and acceptance. Meanwhile, the cynical narrator Ché
(Antonio Banderas) keeps rolling his eyes and singing a series
of "Get a load of this" commentaries.
We get a load of it, all right. Alan Parker actually can do small,
enjoyable human stories (Shoot the Moon, Birdy,
The Commitments); he works best with material that doesn't
require him to push so hard. Here he's in his overbearing razzle-dazzle
mode, where slick technique and surface excitement are everything.
After about an hour you get jaded: "Gee, another painstakingly
composed crowd shot." To be fair to Parker, Evita
probably couldn't have been filmed any other way, which raises
the question of whether it should have been filmed at all.
It's no compliment to Madonna to say that this is the role she's
been waiting for. She's in decent voice, and she handles her
deathbed scenes deftly, but most of her performance is a pose
-- again, a problem originating with the material. Eva is vogueing
through history. A real actress might have brought some slyness
and depth to Eva's machinations. Banderas (who sings surprisingly
well) and Pryce seem to be having more fun; unlike Madonna, they
don't feel they have anything to prove to us, and they have a
natural elegance that the expensively-attired star lacks.
Yet the screening I attended was packed, and there was scattered
applause at the end -- something I haven't heard at a movie in
years. It's easy to see why. Evita is noisy and blunt,
and it presents itself as a serious musical epic (the illusion
is often trashed by Lloyd Webber's dated disco-rock orchestrations).
No question, it's the event movie of the season. The applause
also says that Madonna is now respectable. The ridiculed sex
priestess has become a pop icon your grandma could approve of.
You don't have to like Madonna to be disturbed by the homogenization
our culture imposes on provocative women. In Evita, the
controversial but redeemed Eva Perón ascends to Hollywood
good-girl heaven, and Madonna is right beside her. |
