Musical Mondays Week 35 Evita (1996)

[Cameron H. 23786]

^^^I love Renaissance Man...

 

ETA: In fact, I like most of those movies...

 

[Cam Bert 8145]

^^^I love Renaissance Man...

Is that the movie in which Danny Devito teaches Marky Mark and a bunch of soldiers the joy of rapping Shakespeare in order to win the love of his daughter by buying her a telescope? If so, yes I enjoyed that movie.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Is that the movie in which Danny Devito teaches Marky Mark and a bunch of soldiers the joy of rapping Shakespeare in order to win the love of his daughter by buying her a telescope? If so, yes I enjoyed that movie.

There's no pasta robot in that one tho...

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

There's no pasta robot in that one tho...

I did a GIS because I wanted to make a "What is its mission?" joke. The GIS turned up this. I'm not sure i want to know what scene this was from. (It also turned up a still from Johnny Mnemonic. WTH?)

[tomspanks 9039]

I solved my own mystery. They dropped 2 whole steps in "A New Argentina" so instead of E5 Madonna sings C5 as the high note. You're welcome, me.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I solved my own mystery. They dropped 2 whole steps in "A New Argentina" so instead of E5 Madonna sings C5 as the high note. You're welcome, me.

 

You can really note the difference here.

 

 

Honestly, I think I like the versions in the movie better, which seem scaled down to better fit Madonna and Antonio Banderas' ranges. The original gets screechy unless you have Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, but who the hell else can sing like that?

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

This film is also one of the few hits produced by Cinergi Pictures (along with "Medicine Man", "Tombstone", "Die Hard with a Vengeance" and "Up Close and Personal"), which wasn't able to help the company from dissolving after a string of box office flops ("Renaissance Man", "Color of Night", "Judge Dredd", "The Scarlet Letter", "Nixon", "Shadow Conspiracy", "Deep Rising", "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn").

At least six or seven of those are worthy HDTGM movies (including ones already done).

[tomspanks 9039]

You can really note the difference here.

 

Honestly, I think I like the versions in the movie better, which seem scaled down to better fit Madonna and Antonio Banderas' ranges. The original gets screechy unless you have Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, but who the hell else can sing like that?

 

Oh gosh no, I wouldn't expect her to go higher than she can. Actually I was watching clips of Patti LuPone singing songs from Evita and I noticed a difference so I just wanted to figure it out.

 

ETA: They "only" lowered it a step in Don't Cry for Me Argentina

[tomspanks 9039]

In "Don't Cry for me Argentina," Evita says

 

You won't believe me, all you will see is a girl you once knew

Although she's dressed up to the nines

At sixes and sevens with you

 

Wtf does this mean? What does it mean to be at 6s and 7s?

[Cameron H. 23786]

In "Don't Cry for me Argentina," Evita says

 

You won't believe me, all you will see is a girl you once knew

Although she's dressed up to the nines

At sixes and sevens with you

 

Wtf does this mean? What does it mean to be at 6s and 7s?

 

According to Wikipedia:

 

"At sixes and sevens" is an English idiom used to describe a condition of confusion or disarray. An ancient dispute between the Merchant Taylors and Skinners livery companies is the probable origin of the phrase. The two trade associations, both founded in the same year, argued over sixth place in the order of precedence. In 1484, after more than a century and a half of bickering, the Lord Mayor of London Sir Robert Billesden ruled that at the feast of Corpus Christi, the companies would swap between sixth and seventh place and feast in each other's halls. Nowadays, they alternate in precedence on an annual basis."

 

I found there to be a lot of British-isms in this. Which makes sense, of course, but is still kind of weird when talking about Argentina.

[tomspanks 9039]

I found there to be a lot of British-isms in this. Which makes sense, of course, but is still kind of weird when talking about Argentina.

 

Is it also a British-ism to refer to Buenos Aires as the Big Apple? I've never heard that nickname for any other city than NYC.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

Is it also a British-ism to refer to Buenos Aires as the Big Apple? I've never heard that nickname for any other city than NYC.

 

OMG! I HATED that. Like, what even...

[Cam Bert 8145]

With this and the recent massive success of Hamilton, what historical figure would you want to see a musical about?

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

what historical figure would you want to see a musical about?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Mine's already been done.

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[EvRobert 1684]

been MIA so much lately and that pains me, but real life has been stupid busy for me.

 

But I'm watching Jesus Christ Superstar right now and I'm like "I need to make the time for the HDTGM Forum crew"

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

So I watched Evita last night. I am happy to say it holds up much better than I remember. I am sure that is more due to my maturing from this group. I can see now how the original stage show is screechy and hard to keep up with. However I was easily singing along with most of the movie since I have listened to the original Broadway soundtrack so often.

 

I absolutely agree Antonio Banderas killed it in the role of Che. The right amount of snark, fourth-wall breaking yet participating when needed. I've only seen Evita on stage once but I don't remember Che's role being as clear as it is here in the movie. Most of my thoughts about the show are from listening to the soundtrack. I'm not sure I agree with the very ending of the movie. It was unclear to me the full point of it. It appeared to be aimed at Juan, something like "OK, now you're on you're own. Do something with your life." I did like that the "council" told Juan Evita was responsible for him being where he was. Jonathan Pryce was "ineffectual" enough to make that seem possible. Bob Gunton seemed stronger as Juan and less needing of Eva to succeed.

 

The lyrics were changed a lot for the movie and I felt it blunted some of the barbs. However, knowing now how Patti LuPone felt about the role makes it easier to handle. Plus a lot of people viewing the movie because of Madonna might not have gotten the points so I have no real problem with them. My one exception is during Rainbow Tour. I wish they had left the line "She's a New World Madonna with a golden touch" as is instead of "She's our lady of the new world with a golden touch." I don't think that would have distracted from the overall point and been a nice little wink.

 

Thanks for picking this!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

The stage soundtrack ends with a creepy line: "Money was raised to build a tomb -- a monument to Evita. Only the pedestal was completed and Evita's body disappeared for 17 years." Apparently this is quite a story.

 

Here's a How Stuff Works link. (Side note. There's an error in the beginning of the movie if I heard it right. I think the theater manager said she died at 8:35 p.m. when it was 8:25. The stage show uses the 24-hour time, saying "20:25 hours today".)

 

Also Juan Peron's body was desecrated in 1987, having his hands cut off and held for ransom. They've never been recovered.