"Evita" (1996)

Nine years ago I watched EVITA and loved it. I thought it was thoroughly entertaining, and Madonna was a great actress and singer. A lot has changed since then. I've learned much more about films, acting, singing, and musicals. I decided to watch this movie again to see how I would feel about it.

Surprisingly, I still enjoyed it a lot, and much more than many other movie musicals. Director Alan Parker knew how to make every scene visually appealing, so that the film was captivating from beginning to end. As for Madonna, she may not be a great singer, but her singing is more than adequate here. The score might have been written for the show-stopping voices of Elaine Page and Patti Lupone, but on screen such quality is no longer necessary. Madonna is an attractive woman; whatever she lacks, she makes up for it all with her charisma. She's got, well, more than "just a little touch of star quality." (snort) It was what made her Madonna, and it probably was what made Eva Perón Evita. Is she a good actress? I don't know. But do I believe her as a manipulative seductress? Someone so naive she truly believed she was a saint when she was corrupting the country? Definitely. 

Let's not forget her co-stars who are no less charismatic. Antonio Banderas as Ché serves as the narrator and the juxtaposition to Eva, and Jonathan Pryce as Juan Perón. They played the characters well, and they complemented Madonna. There isn't anything else that the job is asking of them. They also sang well.

The greatest achievement of the film is that it manages to be somewhere between decent and good despite the score. Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn't write good musicals. While he had turned out many hits, many beloved songs, he had yet to turn out a really well constructed score. With EVITA, you hear the same melodies over and over until they rot your brain. I admit I enjoyed a few of these songs, like the famous "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Buenos Aires," or the song written specifically for the movie, "You Must Love Me." But this is not good music, people. It's cheesy, catchy crap. Lyrics by Tim Rice, though far from genius, aren't dull. With lines like "I'm their savior, that's what they call me / So Lauren Bacall me, anything goes / To make me fantastic, I have to be Rainbow High / In magical colors," you wouldn't fall asleep.

And that, essentially, is what EVITA is: far from genius, but no sir, not dull.

Writing

When I was younger I read books and felt inspired to write them. Then I wondered why other people who read didn't want to write too. I couldn't see how enjoying books wouldn't naturally lead you to wanting to write one. Now that I'm working on a book I realized why that might be.

It's hard.
It's fucking hard.
It's really really fucking hard.

So I suppose that's why not everybody writes books.

You can learn a lot from about writing from taking courses, joining writers' groups, reading, going to retreats, etc. But the best way to learn to write is probably just to write. You will encounter new challenges in every corner. Most of my writing time is spent overcoming these challenges, which is, I confess, more fun that the actual writing itself. If I were equally or more passionate about other vocations, I probably would have quit writing long ago and pursued them instead. But I'm not.