The movie Evita, starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas and Johnathan Pryce is a musical account of the life of Eva Peron. An adaptation of the original rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, the film is told as a flash back with the narrator, Antonio Banderas as Che, recounting the events that have lead to the opening scene: the announcement of Evita's death.

Evita, played by Madonna, was born into poverty in rural Argentina. She was able to climb the social ladder through her numerous male relationships and acting career. Eventually she marries Juan Peron, played by Jonathan Price, who is an up and coming Colonel in the Argentine military. Evita then becomes the first lady when a military lead coup makes Peron President. As first lady, Evita is extremely popular with the general Argentinean population because she is considered to understand the needs of the lower class, as she came from a poor background herself. Peron exploits his wife's popularity by having Evita tour the world and run charitable foundations. As the story develops the narrator portrays Evita as increasingly more negative and aloof to her husband's repressive actions and policies.

From a historical standpoint Evita has many inconsistencies, however, the general storyline is factual and based on Mary Main's biography of Eva Peron. Unfortunately, Mary Main's biography has been criticized as biased because much of her evidence was attained from anti-Peron sources. As a result the movie also shares this historical criticism, and many of the events and portrayals in the film have been disputed. The films' suggestion that Evita was a terrible actress who slept her way to the top has been disproved by historians. Likewise, the film's portrayal of Evita's arrival in Buenos Aires as mistress of a married man has also been proved false. Nonetheless, the core historical events portrayed in the film are on the whole extremely accurate. The movie does a particularly good job of illustrating the social unrest and governmental corruption rampant in Argentina during the 1940's and 1950's. The film also correctly addresses the large gap between the rich and poor during the time period and its relative implications on society. All the dates, events and characters are based on historical fact, except for Che the narrator. This gives the movie a pseudo-realism that is unique from other musicals. As an educational film, Evita could be very helpful in depicting the events surrounding Peron's rise to power, as long as one notes the biases and alleged inconsistencies ahead of time.

From an entertainment perspective, Evita is thoroughly enjoyable. Antonio Banderas in particular, does a fabulous job in his role of Che. Madonna, in the role she was "born to play", is spotty at times, but on the whole is very commendable. The music, already famous from the play, is well incorporated into the movie and generally well sang by the cast. The simple cinematography allows the movie to progress very smoothly and incorporate Che in scenes the play never could. The story is widely held as a classic and is quite entertaining. Evita's realism allows viewers to associate themselves with aspects of Evita or any of the other characters lives, while the music makes the movie easy to follow and family friendly.

Clearly Evita is worth watching as it is both entertaining and educational, a rare combination. Although, one must be preemptively warned that the movie has been criticized from a historical viewpoint as being unfairly negative toward Evita. The movie also portrays the many charitable and positive actions lead by Evita. The movie makes no claims to be entirely historically accurate, and subsequently must be understood as entertainment first, and history second. Still, the movie provides a strong background in Argentine history and politics that are relevant even today. On a scale of one to ten I would rate the movie a nine for entertainment and a seven for historical accuracy.

When I first saw this movie, I initially thought it was alright, but not to par. . I thought Madonna was just PERFECT for the role, but I felt it was just missing something.It was confusing at times, and some parts are unexplained What it did however do, is get me wondering about Eva Peron. So, I watched a documentary on her and was blown away. Not by the documentary of course. But Alan Parker. As the documentary showed the real Eva Peron, I noticed how amazing accurate Alan Parker wanted to make his film.

I then watched the film again having higher hopes and was completely taken out of seat. Every outfit, every word, every event. every picture, has historical reference or the way the people perceived her. Every single of one of Madonna's outfit's is a replica of an outfit that Eva Peron wore. Alan Parker clearly had spent YEARS researching Eva Peron. And it shows, The news (If you know Spanish and look in the background) is what was going on at the time. Everything is spot-on. I think my favorite thing is tho, is that certain melodies, constantly show up in another song. "Don't Cry for me Argentina" if you listen to the beats and melodies, constantly shows up in many of the songs. These and many other small details make this movie one of my favorites. The music is fun, the cast in one word, is brilliant and the sets perfectly fit the time-frame. Although, I do feel like it missed the energy of the on-stage version by an inch. So, all-in-all, good movie. Not a 'must see'. Good, if you're not familiar with the story. But downright brilliant if you're either willing to sit down and learn about Eva Peron, or already know about her

I used to think that there were a couple of absolutes in this world other than the standard issue ones. One is that I will always hate Andrew Lloyd Webber and another is that Madonna will never be a good actress. After seeing Alan Parker's 1996 musical "Evita" however, starring Madonna and featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, I have had to amend those two statements slightly.

"Evita" tells the true story of Eva Peron, the wife of Argentina's former president (and dictator) Juan Peron. In a story that was ready-made for Hollywood, she started out as the illegitimate and poor daughter of a man who dies when she is very young, sleeps with a mediocre nightclub singer at the age of 15 in order to gain passage to Buenos Aires, and from there begins her struggle to reach whatever achievements her ambitions require (which is a lot). Using her body to gain important friends (because, frankly, she didn't have any acting talent) she becomes an actress and radio star before she meets Juan Peron, at the time, an up and coming politician. They get married and the two work to get him elected as the president of Argentina on the platform that "they are workers too". When he is elected, Evita's popularity grows even more, to the point where her dreams of becoming the vice president of the country could be realized, until she is stricken with cancer and dies, essentially with the image of a saint, at the age of 32.

"Evita" is a gorgeous, lush film, full of thousands of extras, great location scenes and features a very talented cast. It acts almost as an incredibly big budgeted and elaborate music video, mainly because it features almost constant singing, and well, it stars one of the most visible music video stars of all time. Madonna finally found her part in this film, and no, it wasn't just easier because she didn't have a lot of speaking lines. It is clear that not only did she take voice lessons (which actually is true) because her voice quality was better than "normal", and has stayed that way since the making of this film, but she was able to knock off some decent dramatic moments. Banderas, though he spent a lot of the film looking pretty furious with the camera, doesn't have to prove any acting mettle (anyone who has seen him in an Almodovar film can attest to this) but did come up with a surprisingly good singing voice. Jonathan Pryce, who was curiously cast as Peron also did a good job, though his part was fairly minor, and even at that he was relegated to giving Evita a lot of loving looks. All in all, however, the slick production, some catchy music (I cannot believe I am actually saying that I actually really like a film featuring the music of the insipid, mainstream, gnome-like Webber) that is good enough to listen to extra-curricularly and performances that weren't bad made for a pretty good and very entertaining viewing.

Don't get me wrong – there are more than a few eye-rolling moments in "Evita", but the good definitely outweighs the bad, exponentially. The story, while coherent, was pretty mediocre, and I found that I felt that there were some things that were glossed over or trivialized with a cute musical number. Admittedly, however, this IS a musical and you don't sign up for a hard-hitting knowledge fest when you watch one. This wasn't the first time I had seen this film, and yet I still end up getting so wrapped up in the action that I end up bawling a couple of times, and this viewing was no exception. More importantly, though, I didn't feel like a doofus when I recommended it as a movie that three guys and I should watch together, because while it's slick and a musical, (and therefore, traditionally, a chick film) there's enough compelling elements to the film that will keep some guys happy as well. Good job, Parker and thanks a lot for blowing two of the absolutes I normally stand by. 6/10 --Shelly