Evita (5 Stars)

I'm continuing my top 100 films with "Evita", which is currently in 45th place. It's a film that hits me hard emotionally every time I watch it. The story is framed between the two funerals, of Eva Peron's father and Eva herself. This gives the film a gloomy nature, even if there are happy moments.

Eva genuinely loved Juan Peron. I don't doubt that. He wasn't like the many men she'd had before. She was attracted to him because he loved Argentina. They both loved Argentina. Was their love for Argentina genuine? That's a difficult question to answer. They wanted to do good for the country, but they were corrupted by wealth and power. In her early years Eva spoke out against the middle and upper classes, but as the president's wife she adorned herself with diamonds and opulent clothing. She said it was what the people wanted to see, but this was a poor excuse. It's what Eva wanted to see in the mirror.

Juan Peron comes off lightly in the film. Apart from his suppression of the press, we don't see him acting badly. It's mentioned twice that he modelled himself on Mussolini, but we don't see much of this in the film. "Evita" is a film about Eva Peron; if we want to know about Juan Peron we have to read the history books.

I wouldn't say that I feel attracted to Eva Peron or the way Madonna portrays her. There's too much in her life that's negative. She slept her way to the top, and once she was at the peak she pretended to be a saint. The film shows her collapsing when taking communion in church, as if God is striking her down.

What I'm attracted to is the film's atmosphere and its dramatic backdrops. 40,000 extras were used, which isn't a record, but it was probably the last ever film that was made with thousands of extras. Nowadays computer software creates large crowd scenes for a much lower price.

Success Rate:  + 0.6

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