Evita Peron (1981 TV Movie) User Reviews

Solid but not poignant evaluation of Argentine icon

[alainenglish · 7/10 · 8 October 2009]

People who are familiar with Eva Peron through the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the film it spawned should definitely take a look at this miniseries with Faye Dunaway.

Although Dunaway does not make as sympathetic an impression in the role as one would like, she nevertheless captures the tenacity and ingenuity of Eva, who rose from being a poor wannabe actress to becoming the wife of President Juan Peron.

The TV series includes many details the musical leaves out, including her interactions with her family and their involvement in Peron's government; a revised look at her rise to prominence that shows she did not merely sleep her way to the top but worked hard and found people who were willing to help her. However, there are also examples of Eva's ruthlessness and the way her power lust consumes and eventually destroys her - most provocative is a scene where Eva stages an assassination attempt in order to dispose of someone who's challenged her.

The series can be viewed online or on television and is recommended for those with an interest in this fascinating and remarkable woman.

Clearly an Americanized version

[HotToastyRag · 5/10 · 21 April 2023]

If you've read my reviews, you know one of my famous phrases is that most actors have two sides to their acting; if you watch the wrong movies first you probably won't like them. Some might really appreciate all the work it looked like she put into Evita Peron, but I didn't like Faye Dunaway's performance as the famed Argentine. It felt very melodramatic, for the most part, especially once she got together with Juan Peron (portrayed by James Farentino) and entered the political realm. In the beginning, when she's young and trying to be an actress, she puts a little more subtleties into her performance when trying to convey her innocence. But after her innocence is taken away from her by José Ferrer (although no one forced her to run away from home and approach him in his private train car), she learns that she can trade sex for favors. In her quest to become a famous actress, she climbs the ladder quite easily. Then, she turns into the Faye Dunaway from Network and Mommie Dearest. I tend to feel something is lost when an actor is obviously trying to hit the back row. I considered the possibility that Faye was "trying to hit the back row" on purpose to show how Evita got corrupted by power and was always performing; but shouldn't she have given some contrast in her private moments so the audience could understand?

I do appreciate the work that went into this miniseries, and I liked seeing Katy Jurado still working into her old age, playing Faye's mother. Faye clearly studied Evita's mannerisms and gestures, but it was a constant reminder that this was a Hollywood production to hear her regular "affected" accent. She was cast to play an Argentine, and she was surrounded by a cast who mostly spoke in Spanish accents (the occasional American was very distracting), and yet she just spoke like she did in all her other movies. She was very American, and very obviously Faye Dunaway.

If she's your favorite actress, and you feel she can do no wrong, go ahead and rent this. I tend to like her subtleties better, like in Chinatown and Hurry Sundown.

not much helpful

[v-56289 · 5/10 · 21 March 2021]

I am not really sure about how to judge Evita.. Well I am here judging the movie, not her personality anyways... But the movie did not really help me to understand Evita nor the situation in Argentina, or Peronism... The movie was also not all bad... Also the quality is quiet poor... but well.. its old movie...

Cry for this one, Argentina

[Hypnotape · 3/10 · 24 November 2005]

As one who has a long-standing interest in the Peron regime, I really looked forward to the release of movie on television. I found it a big disappointment, mostly due to a bad script. It was a pastiche of scenes based on the biographies available at the time, one of which was the notoriously slanted and inaccurate Woman with the Whip. One particularly bad segment showed the Signe Hasso character who had helped Evita as a young actress. When she (Hasso) meets her (Peron) later after she is in power she refuses to take money from her, and gratuitously insults her, ending up in a jail cell. The point of the scene was that Evita was a vindictive woman (she was) who turned on those who had once been her friends (she did), but the scene as presented was pointless and contrived. Another egregious error had Peron running for president against Farrell (he did not - Farrell was his friend). It would be like having a movie about Nixon where he ran for president against Eisenhower. One thing that was interesting is that both Signe Hasso and Jose Ferrer were in the movie, and in the 1950 film Crisis they played a South American dictatorial couple who many thought more than superficially resembled the Perons. Just an interesting (to me) coincidence.

Dunaway once again as a hard-as-nails woman

[nickandrew · 4 September 2000]

Made for TV movie about the life and death of Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron and her husband Colonel Juan Peron. Dunaway does a fairly good job in the title role, but one can clearly see she overreacts (very similiar to how she does in Mommie Dearest) in many of the important scenes.

Kind of silly

[kivers · 3/10 · 22 January 2009]

Dunaway was absolutely wrong for the part of Evita Peron, from start to finish. As with nearly all her roles, she played it all with out-sized shoulder-pads and overblown line delivery. What's worse, the film looks like it was shot in some dingy Mexican border town instead of the opulent capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. The building they'd chosen for the iconic Casa Rosada looks something like an old Spanish war prison in Baja.

They have the chronology fairly correct, but little else is really accurate or even compelling drama in this adaptation of history. Peron launched a mass movement that transformed Argentina, at the time one of the biggest economic forces in the world, and his wife was a highly complex, colorful public person who worked herself to death for him and won the hearts of his political base with her naive, crypto-fascist concepts of the state's role as a mother to its people.

This film, sadly, portrays it all like a story arc on some Dynasty rip-off, set in some unrecognizable banana republic.

This is purely for die-hard Faye fanatics, and certainly NOT for any fans of the Peron story.

Joan Crawford again???

[valstone52 · 4/10 · 9 October 2020]

I watched this movie when it was first aired. Now seeing it again, for the second time, i realize how bad it really is. Faye Dunaway was waaayy to old to be playing a teenager. Hell she looked like she was in her thirties. Jose ferrer as an idol was funny as hell. Balding, over weight and in my opinion too full of himself, not a good actor. Only thing that I remember James farentino for is being married to Michelle Lee, and the short lived series Cool Million. All in all poor movie and poorer actors.

Surprising Performance by Farentino

[kayaker36 · 8/10 · 10 March 2012]

Yes, many of the clichés about Eva Peron are presented here and certainly there are errors of historical detail.

While Faye Dunnaway overacts, there is a pleasantly restrained interpretation of the role of Juan Peron by a youngish Jim Farentino, who passed away early in 2012. He makes the Colonel seem rather likable: an easygoing, mildly dissolute, somewhat corruptible and none too ambitious army officer in whom the fiercely ambitious Evita saw possibilities.

Juan Peron completely lacked his wife's bitter vindictiveness, also.

In an iconic scene it was Evita who advised him to take off his jacket when addressing a crowd of union workers in Argentina's important meat packing industry, transforming the previously stiff and awkward Colonel to a man of the people and the people to his devoted followers.

When will Eva get the respect that she deserves?

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 24 December 2021]

I love the Washington Post review of this two-part TV movie that calls this a Carol Burnett spoof of a Joan Crawford movie. Indeed, at times it does feel like you are watching a parody, and there are so many elements of it that are laughable, but you shouldn't be laughing at the plight of the poor in this document of one of the most popular first ladies in world history. When you first see Faye Dunaway as the teenage Eva Duarte, it's unbelievable how ridiculous she looks. I've never seen a teenager with such a big head. I almost felt like I was looking at Stewie Griffin in a Joan Crawford wig left uncombed since "Mildred Pierce". Then there is Jose Ferrer as the passionate singer Magaldi whom Eva leaves her hometown to be with. He's great in the part, that is if you're envisioning Magaldi being played by Bert Lahr.

Certainly Faye Dunaway is commanding in this role, but commanding doesn't mean good. Not only is she over-the-top, but she is made to look ridiculous, and the script is beyond bad. It is filled with so many old movie cliches (and I love old movie cliches, when they are used wisely) that you expect her to all of a sudden break into the Mildred's confrontation with Veda speech. Premiering 8 months before "Mommie Dearest", this is evidence of what's to come, while dancing a tango, Dunaway definitely emulates Crawford in her early films. The camp element gets even more outlandish when Rita Moreno shows up as a singer who is basically a more serious version of her Googie Gomez character from "The Ritz".

"Don't hate the rich. Use them!" a struggling older actress played by Signe Hasso tells Dunaway right before she dies her hair blonde, becoming a radio star after some really hideous stage performances. Already up to this point, her lovers have come and gone, one old fool barking at her after he has used and dumped her, so she's right for manipulating powerful Argentine General Juan Peron (played by James Farentino who easily steals the film) into making her first his mistress than his wife then his first lady.

The plot of this film sounds ripe for an actual Joan Crawford film of the early to mid 1930's, showing the rise of a shop girl up to fame (or infamy), but those films were usually under 90 minutes, and this film clocks in at over 3 hours. It is a handsome production, and you can't take your eyes off of Dunaway, but then again, you can't take your eyes off of a train crash either. Poor Katy Jurado looks like an old witch as her mother, the mistress of a wealthy man, with the efforts to make her look earthy completely unrealistic, adding to the camp value. Madonna is Katherine Cornell in comparison to Dunaway who threatens to chew up the wood on the balcony when she makes her speech. You've heard of Fractured Fairy Tales. This is fractured modern history.