DVD Review: The Mystery of Eva Peron
Published April 03, 2008
I will say this for the movie: it contains interviews with people who lived at an interesting time in Argentina’s history, and do have the right to talk about Eva Peron. I found their first-hand stories are infinitely more interesting than their praise on Eva’s social work.
It's only fair to mention some of the great footage in the film. There’s plenty of filler of people in crowds cheering or protesting (clearly from a different time), but there are also little gems of Eva’s early films, her trips to orphanages, her speeches, and her hobnobbing with leaders in Europe. It’s more interesting to search the look on her face for a glimpse of humanity, for a moment she forgets she’s on camera, as opposed to her commonly seen public persona.
If you have a really deep-seated interested in Argentina’s history or in Eva Peron, this might be the hot ticket for you. But if you just like documentaries or the Evita musical, for goodness' sake, please avoid The Mystery of Eva Peron. Don’t cry for me, but don’t make the two hours I wasted in order to warn you have been in vain.
- DVD Review: The Mystery of Eva Peron
- Published: April 03, 2008
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Documentary, Video: Foreign Language, Video: Historical
- Writer: Sombrero Grande
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Interesting review. I assume you are not a fan of the real woman. Why are you so surprised that this Argentinian documentary was favorable to Eva Peron? For the millions that despise her in that country, there are even a greater number of Argentinians who worship her to no end and most if not all of Argentine documentaries on the subject portray her in a favorable light. It would be like me questioning the gazillion British documentaries about Princess Diana and wonder why they all portray her as such a flawless individual or the numerous American documentaries showing the Kennedy's as perfect human beings and glossing over JFK's numerous affairs. Those interested in this documentary should keep in mind that this was released over 20 years ago, in 1987 and several of the people interviewed like Eva's confessor, have since died. And several people here were close friends of Evita so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they would talk warmly about her.
In regards to the torture Cipriano Reyes endured, there isn't the slightest shred of evidence Eva was ever responsible for any acts of torture during the first Peronist period which is why respectable historians would never accuse Evita of it unlike the many Anti-peronist authors who have and continue to do so even if they admit that "there is no proof" as anti Peronist author Mary Main points out in her book "The Woman with the Whip". I am assuming that may be one of the reasons they decided to counter-act that ugly piece of history with a positive comment geared towards Eva since many today still blame her for basically every heinous act under the sun.
I do agree with you on the film's execution. The back and fourth between Eva's biography and the many escapades of her corpse becomes tiresome and pretty annoying at times.
If you want a more current and much shorter biographical treatment of Eva that is straightforward then I recommend the A & E documentary "Evita: The Woman Behind the Myth" (although many Pro-Peronist state that that documentary is biased against Eva- I guess you can't please everyone) and the most recently released "Evita: The Documentary".
Cheers