Evita (5 Stars)

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Dancer's Top Films #51

This is a film that ticks all the boxes to make it a film that I like.

• It's a musical.
• It's a true story.
• It has hundreds of extras.

There are certainly many other things in the film's favour, but these are three factors that bias me in its favour. According to Wikipedia, 40,000 extras were used. That's not a world record – "Ghandi" had 200,000 extras – but it's still an impressive number.

Does the brilliance come from the musical score or the film director? I'd say both. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote an amazing musical, initially only intended for vinyl release. Alan Parker, who had already directed three other musicals, did an amazing job bringing it to film. Can it be faulted? I think not. It's a perfect musical that stands head and shoulders above all other musicals.

The three main actors are ideal for the role. Madonna is the tragic woman from a poor family who rises to become a president's wife. Antonio Banderas is the Vox Populi, unnamed in the film itself, who critically watches her rise to fame. Jonathan Pryce is the stoic, silent president who shows his affection only through small gestures.

The film doesn't give a history lesson. Much is left out, particularly concerning President Peron himself, but whatever's included is correct. The amount of research that must have gone into the original musical is phenomenal.

Earlier today I wrote a post about mistakes. I omitted a category. I'm sure that there are many mistakes in my top 100 film list. I finalised the list before I started my countdown in January, but as I climb up the list I'm regretting placing some films too low. This is one of them. It's too difficult to decide between films when my choices are so subjective. If I watch a horror film and a comedy, how can I say which is better? There's no comparison. It depends on my mood. I shan't do another countdown after this one, but maybe I'll have a rolling top 100 that I'll continuously update. Let's see.

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