EVITA: 15th Anniversary Blu-ray (Hollywood Pictures/Cinergi, 1996) Buena Vista Home Video

 

To suggest Andrew Lloyd Webber reinvented the Broadway musical is perhaps a bit much. Still, there is no denying Sir Andrew his place in its firmament, nor the titanic and enduring impact of his creations. Webber’s gift to stagecraft, apart from his showmanship, remains his ability to write instantly recognizable music with his longtime collaborator, Tim Rice. The pop opera is perhaps the toughest nut to crack, not so much for the endurance of its all-pervasive score, virtually, to carry the audience on a groundswell of marathon music steeped in even more epic tragedy, but rather for the precise balancing act required to write something meaningful to surpass the artifice of its own time while remaining so incredibly true to life itself. Too heavy on the libretto and you have a clunky, heavyweight entertainment, trying too hard to be highbrow. Too light on the re-telling of a good story through uninterrupted song and you wind up with just another musical ‘review’ full of bright and bouncy tunes, instantly forgettable as soon as the houselights come up. Webber’s contributions on Evita neatly fit somewhere between these polar opposites.

Lest we forget, Evita began its lifecycle as a rock/opera concept album released in 1976. Its success paved the way for Webber to launch London's West End production in 1978, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical, and then, crossing the Atlantic on Broadway a year later to win the Tony, a first for a Brit-based musical. In retrospect, Evita was Webber’s first major work of cultural significance. However, turning the rather sordid life of Eva Peron into a song spectacular was a prospect not immediately embraced. Indeed, producer, Robert Stigwood had hoped to entice Webber and Rice to write a new musical version of Peter Pan. That project was abandoned. But it was almost immediately replaced by an idea Webber had after hearing a radio dramatization of Eva Peron’s life on the BBC. Alas, even with a presold score and accolades to boot, Webber’s first opus magnum was overshadowed by ill-timing; Hollywood, to have turned its back on the big and splashy stage to screen musical hybrid, once to have been a seemingly indestructible hybrid genre and the movies’ bread and butter throughout the 1960s.

Miraculously, the appeal of the stagecraft only seemed to mature as the years folded into a decade of absence from the big screen. How could it not? Before there was a Princess Diana or Grace Kelly, there was Eva Peron…or rather, Eva Duarte de Perón. By the mid-70’s, Eva’s presence on the world stage as Argentina’s First Lady, activist and philanthropist had managed to eclipse her more unseemly pre-political days as a prostitute, radio personality and bad film star in her native land – so to be eventually described by Webber’s glib prose as “the greatest social climber since Cinderella.”  Eva’s childhood was as sordid, illegitimate and born into poverty in Los Toldos. At age 15, she departed the dusty pampas for Buenos Aires at the auspices of a married nightclub singer who quickly pitched her to the curb upon their arrival in the gritty city. Plying her feminine wiles to ascend from this squalor, Eva was introduced to ‘then’ Colonel Juan Perón at a charity event to benefit the victims of an earthquake in San Juan. Within a year of this cute meet, Perón proposed and the couple wed. As they used to say, behind every great man is a great woman. For the next 6 years, Eva invested every ounce of her formidable fiber in support of her husband’s trade unions. And Perón, secure in his presidency, increasingly diverted to the wild popularity of his wife with the masses to get the job done. Eva ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded the Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage and promoted the first feminist political party in the nation: the Female Peronist Party. Alas, at the height of her political clout, capped off by a brief run for Vice President in 1951, Eva Perón was felled by cancer, succumbing to the illness, age 33. And thus, her reputation as the spiritual leader of the nation was forever lionized by the public outpouring of grief and a state funeral (an honor usually reserved exclusively for reigning presidents).

Tapping into the collective consciousness of Eva’s enduring legacy proved gold for Andrew Lloyd Webber. While classic American movie musicals generally functioned best when the proverbial ‘happy ending’ remained intact, American theater had frequently fulfilled its quota of hits from dramatized grand tragedy. The life of Eva Peron certain fit that bill. Broadway diva, Patti LuPone made the Broadway version of Evita almost as celebrated as its subject matter. But in the interim between the Broadway smash and its even more lavishly appointed motion picture debut from the legendary, Alan Parker in 1996, pop culture had given birth to an even bigger pop star, arguably, as capable to immortalize this great lady on celluloid. Madonna’s reputation for raunch having preceded her, there was nevertheless nothing to detract from her meteoric rise in the 1980’s as a major recording artist. Alas, the Argentine population was not at all convinced of Madonna’s caliber to overcome this ‘reputation’. Eva Peron had remained the country’s uncrowned princess, much more so since her passing, and certainly held in the highest esteem by the Argentine peoples - no less a deity than Princess Grace of Monaco or England’s Princess Diana.

Screen heartthrob, Antonio Banderas assumed the role of Che – a sort of one-man Greek chorus who bookends the play and the film’s narrative as our master of ceremonies. Che is a curious creation. In fact, Andrew Lloyd Webber had no interest in immortalizing guerrilla fighter, Che Guevara when he began to write Evita. It was only after producer, Harold Smith Price became associated with the project that Guevara was incorporated into the story. And while artistic license has oft liberated art from historical accuracy, the main objection to making Evita in Argentina stemmed from the nation’s staunch defense of Eva’s past, pre-vivacious First Lady, as the scheming social climber, risen from a brothel.  The stagecraft was reworked by Andrew Lloyd Webber with an assist from Oliver Stone to satisfy the conventions of a big budget Hollywood musical. But the aegis of the project was repeated fraught with near catastrophes and chronic delays.

Interesting to consider what Evita might have been on screen had it been produced a decade earlier at the absolute rage of its theatrical popularity. Regrettably, the film rights created a frenzied bidding war between Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures. Producer, Robert Stigwood sold his share to EMI Films for a cool $7.5 million with plans to cast Barbra Streisand.  Alas, when this deal fell through, EMI lost interest. Paramount picked up the tab in 1981 and Stigwood was again attached to the project as its producer. Budgeted at $15 million, Stigwood hired Ken Russell to direct, the pair holding auditions in New York and London to cast the lead. Russell thought he had his star in a blonde-wigged Liza Minnelli. But Rice, Stigwood and the studio were adamant to cast Elaine Paige who had originated the part in London. At this impasse, Russell was fired and Paramount tempted Herbert Ross to replace him. Ross declined.

Seemingly in an endless turnaround, Stigwood then went after Richard Attenborough, Alan J. Pakula and Hector Babenco. None wanted to do the film. By 1986, the popularity of the Hollywood musical had faded into near obscurity. It was becoming more difficult to convince any studio’s executive brain trust to invest in them. Madonna, already a pop sensation, pitched her clout as the picture’s star, encouraging Stigwood to consider Francis Ford Coppola to helm the shoot. Although Stigwood was impressed, Paramount had run out of time and patience, selling off the rights in 1987 to the Weintraub Entertainment Group. At this juncture, Oliver Stone approached producers to partake of the exercise. WEG agreed and Stone flew to Argentina to soak up the local color and immerse himself in his subject matter. Only now, Madonna proved her own worst enemy, suggesting to Webber he rewrite the score to suit her artistic temperament. Instead, Stone approached Meryl Streep who not only leapt at the opportunity, but actually recorded the entire score as a demo for Webber, Stone and Stigwood.  WEG green-lit the project with a budget of $29 million. But production hit yet another snag when the1989 riots in Argentina threatened to topple the reigning regime. Production moved to Brazil, then Chile, before settling in Spain, with a newly revised budget of $35 million. Ill-timing again, as WEG was badly hemorrhaging from a series of high-profile flops at the box office and could not see their way clear to fund the project. Stone then took Evita to Carolco. However, Streep was making some weighty demands for a pay-or-play contract with a 48-hour deadline. By the time an agreement was reached, Stone had departed to direct The Doors (1991) and Streep decided the movie was not for her.

In 1990, the Walt Disney Company acquired the rights to Evita, hiring Glenn Gordon Caron to direct under their Hollywood Pictures’ banner. Disney spent a cool $3 million to develop the project, then dropped it entirely as company chairman, Jeffrey Katzenberg could not see his way clear to spend more than $25 million on the film. In 1993, Stigwood sold the rights yet again, this time to Andrew G. Vajna's Cinergi Pictures with Regency as a co-financier. Oliver Stone returned – briefly – but left after another dispute. Now, it was Alan Parker who re-entered the frame, nearly 30 years after having left it. Like Stone, Parker immersed himself in Eva Peron’s life and times. Arbitration by the Writers Guild of America would eventually result in both Parker and Stone sharing screenwriting credit. Parker approached Webber and Rice to pen new material to accommodate for his revisions to the original stagecraft. With assistance from the United States Department of State and senator Chris Dodd, Parker was granted permission to shoot in Argentina, though not at the Casa Rosada – the executive mansion, once home to Peron and his bride. Instead, photographs of the structure were taken and a replica of the Casa Rosada was built at Shepperton Studios in England. Owing to protests taking place against the shoot in Argentina, Parker would eventually make Evita in both Buenos Aires and Budapest.

Evita is told as one gigantic flashback.  After patrons inside a local cinema are alerted to Eva’s passing, thereby plunging the country into collective mourning, Che opens the musical program with ‘Oh What A Circus, What A Show’ – a deconstruction of the deity know as Evita, transformed back into ‘Eva Eduardo’ whom we first discover as a child being rejected from attending the funeral of the man who fathered her. We then meet up with 15-yr.-old Eva, infatuated with cabaret singer, Agustín Magaldi (Jimmy Nail). He begrudgingly takes his paramour from her dingy little hovel to Buenos Aires, where she quickly discovers he already has a wife and child. From this inauspicious revelation, Eva plies her body in a seedy brothel (Another Suitcase in Another Hall). Determined to rise above her circumstances, Eva uses each new contact to climb the social ladder of success (Goodnight and Thank You Whoever), becoming a model, then a radio star, and finally, a bad film actress. At a charity benefit, she garners the attention of Gen. Juan Peron (Jonathan Price), also ascending in the political arena. Perhaps recognizing the similarities in their desire to succeed, Juan courts Eva, raising the dander of Argentina’s military as well as its upper classes (Peron’s Latest Flame).

At first, Eva sees Peron as just another opportunity. But then, something miraculous occurs. The pair falls in love. Both the play and the film make no apologies for each using the other to get what they want. Eva exploits the power of the radio to sell Juan to the people as their savior. Her campaigning works (A New Argentina). Peron becomes President and Eva, his First Lady, much to the chagrin of the Argentinian aristocracy, who shun her at every opportunity. It doesn’t matter. The people are with Eva (Don’t Cry For Me Argentina). Using her profound popularity, Eva usurps the upper classes, creating her own ‘foundation’ to procure clean water, electricity and other luxuries for the poor and underprivileged (And The Money Kept Rolling In). Recognizing her as a phenomenal asset to his presidency, Peron affords his wife unprecedented latitude. Juan also sends Eva on an international goodwill trip across Europe (The Rainbow Tour). This begins on a high note. But then, Italy snubs the First Lady and, while touring in France, Eva becomes ill and is rushed home to recuperate. Stricken with fatal cancer, Eva makes one final stab at immortality, opening the floodgates to provide the impoverished with rare opportunities. While attending a midnight mass, she collapses and is rushed, first to hospital, then back to the presidential palace where she bitterly accepts her fate (You Must Love Me). Our story concludes with Eva’s death – Che, bitter and tormented, and, Peron utterly distraught, acknowledging his wife’s death as the knell also for his Presidency.

Evita is a monumental undertaking, daring in its delivery and breathtaking in its scope and presentation. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic score pulls no punches - a brutally honest, richly detailed tapestry of the life and times of Eva Peron. Despite Madonna’s initial demand to have the score rewritten to her strengths, virtually all of the original stage hits survive this big screen translation, with Madonna contributing ‘You Must Love Me’ as the penultimate highlight, marketed as a single, months in advance of the film’s debut. Despite the misgivings of the Argentines, Madonna evokes the quintessence of Eva Peron, integrating the emotional content of her character into the melodies that, on stage, were belted out with the strength of a soprano, but herein, take on a subtler ballast in spite of Madonna’s more thin and occasionally strained stylings. Madonna’s interpretation of the score is a departure from the stagecraft, though ironically, impressive on its own merits. More importantly, it works for cinema storytelling.  Antonio Banderas is in very fine voice. His Che is torn between conflicted admiration/contempt for the girl he once knew and an oft frosty reception from the woman who now shuns his affections to better her circumstances. Vocally, Banderas captures the essence of Che’s frustrations, translating the Webber/Rice melodies into fiery diatribes that seer themselves into our collective memory. Jonathan Price is adequate, though not nearly as exceptional as Peron. In fact, he is something of a disappointment, though hardly awful. 

At almost 134-minutes of wall-to-wall music with very brief interludes of dialogue to dramatically link together the powerhouse score, Evita soars as its ‘high-flying adored’ alter ego, on a mesmeric and almost trance-like daydream of a bygone era, much too epic and too regal to last. Parker has ‘opened up’ the stagecraft with interpolated inserts devoted to the turbulent rise and lamentable fall of our heroine. It all works spectacularly, abetted by Darius Khondji’s evocative, almost sepia-tinted cinematography. This unobtrusively hints at the magnificence of Gordon Willis’ memorable work on The Godfather trilogy without ever aping it. In the final analysis, Evita remains one of the best Hollywood musicals made in the last 40 years. Tragically, Buena Vista Home Video’s 15^th anniversary release of Evita is a mixed bag. True to Disney Inc.’s lackluster commitment to virtually any movie it owns outside of its animated catalog, Evita, rather predictably, could have used a bit more TLC to ready it for its hi-def debut. In a perfect world, it would have already received a 4K upgrade. But I digress.

Color saturation is adequate, though occasionally anemic, without ever rising to a level of exceptional quality Blu-ray is capable of delivering. The same can be said for fine detail and contrast, the former, toggling between moments of being almost acceptable, to intermittently dark and fuzzy, to downright soft and blurry. See Eva’s death scene as a fine example of bad video mastering; Madonna’s facial features are practically obscured in a homogenized haze with sallow flesh tones and grey looking whites. There is also a lot of built-in video flicker scattered throughout this 1080p transfer. When it appears, it is distracting. The 5.1 DTS is mostly satisfying. Evita’s score is a bombastic cornucopia of highs and lows. The bass is fairly aggressive and the songs, for the most part have been expertly reproduced to deliver a solid workout for your speakers. For an ‘anniversary’ edition, we are decidedly very light on extras. There is a retrospective ‘making of’ documentary with Parker, cast and crew going to Buenos Aires to affectionately wax about their involvement. We also get Madonna’s music video for ‘You Must Love Me’ and a very badly worn teaser trailer. Despite its video mastering flaws, I am still going to recommend Evita on Blu-ray – mostly, for content. Is its video master shear perfection? Decidedly not – not even close, and that is a sincere shame, given the movie’s recent vintage and, therefore, the availability of archival first-generation elements that ought to have been used to author this disc. Bottom line: recommended with caveats.  

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3 

EXTRAS

2