Salve, No Salve Evita

Last night, I waslearning to cook Menudo and as I cook I found myself singing Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Well the latest Glee Episode reminded me of this beautiful song (though I still think that Lea Michelle and Chris Colfer murdered the song, I still love Glee though) and as I cook I think of writing about the film adaptation of the musical Evita (1996). As of this writing, I'm listening to the song and also my favorite High, Flying, Adored.

With Madonna casted for the title role and Antonio Banderas as Che the narrator/critique, the movie is performed where everything is sung except for a few lines. I first watched this movie when I was in third year high school, utterly bored in a hot weekend, and found the copy on my father's DVD collection (I still wonder why my father have this copy. I never bothered to ask) . Madonna is simply amazing in the movie as she believingly portrays Eva Peron. However, what interests me in this movie is Banderas' character.

Che is a random person in the story line. He appears out of nowhere. In fact, he's everywhere and he narrates the "slutty" past, critics every move and sometimes acts as the conscience of Eva Duarte. Che puts me in a position if I could admire Evita being the woman of the masses-- the descamisados-- or see her as somebody who nurtures her own personal agenda while hiding to the cloak of being the saint-like. (Sounds familiar? If not, watch the show on TV5, 6:30 Pm on weekdays.). The presence of Antonio Banderas's character makes it hard to empathize fully with Evita Peron. It makes me wonder if Evita is just another victim of the well-established social class in Argentina or she is a conniving social climber very hungry of power.


Evita works in a way that it puts me in a position seeing every facet of Evita Peron. Moreover, Madonna is great and because I'm gay, the word great is underrated to describe Madonna to me. Here are my favorite scenes from the movie:





I love the sarcasm in this song:


This movie is great. highly recommended.