Evita (DVD)

Evita

A movie version of the highly successful musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, "Evita" is the story of Argentina's most controversial First Lady, Eva Pern (1919 - 1952.) Her awe-inspiring funeral, attended by seven million devoted followers, is the opening to the musical, with the narrator then brining the story back by over a decade, explaining how a B-movie actress became the object of such controversial devotion.

Trapped and bored with her family in rural Argentina in the late 1930s, Eva Duarte (Madonna) convinces a womanising musician (Jimmy Nail) to take her with him, back to the capital city, Buenos Aires, where she is determined to become a star. After being abandoned by the musician, Eva endures humiliations and poverty before using her feminine wiles to climb the ladder of the city's entertainment scene, eventually becoming a well-paid radio and film actress.

At a benefit to aid the victims of an earthquake she meets Colonel Juan Pern (Jonathan Pryce), an ambitious politician with designs on the presidency. They fall in love and Eva encourages his plans to become dictator of the country, even using her star power to get him released from prison when his enemies order his arrest. On October 17 1945, Pern is elected president with a huge majority, but it quickly becomes apparent that its his glamorous wife who's the focus of the people's love.

Affectionately nicknamed 'Evita' by her millions of devoted followers, Eva founds a huge charity to alleviate the suffering of the nation's poor. Throughout it all, the beautiful first lady is dressed in the latest high fashion and she is accused of being a distraction for the people, rather than an aid, by the embittered and cynical narrator (Antonio Banderas.) With millions of people still utterly devoted to her, Evita continues to appear in public, dazzling her supporters and enfuriating her enemies, despite being secretly consumed with terminal cancer. At the end of the musical, she dies, aged 33, resulting in hysterical mourning throughout Argentina.

The musical is famous for a number of songs, including the satirical "Oh what a circus!" "Buenos Aires," "Rainbow High," "The Money Kept Rolling In" and the show's signature solo, "Don't cry for me, Argentina." For the movie version, a new solo was added for Evita, "You must love me."