Music Box (1989)

Music Box (1989)
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Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Jessica LangeArmin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
Director(s):
Costa-Gavras
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
PG13
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Music Box

Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Complete Cast of Music Box


Director(s):
Costa-Gavras
Writer(s):
Joe Eszterhas
Producer(s):
Irwin Winkler
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
PG13(Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity)
Categories:
Mystery & Suspense
Music Box Awards:
  • 1990 - Berlin International Film Festival - Golden Bear
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    Ron C.

    This is an interesting court drama with the added punch of the attorney also being the daughter of an accused war criminal. Muller-Stahl is excellent as usual. My only beef is that the ending is unrealistic in that an attorney would not do that ethically. The audio, especially in the beginning, is out of synch, so that it looks like a foreign film dubbed in English, even though it's an English language movie. They could have included captioning to make the dialogue easier to understand.

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    Richard and Mary K.

    A good movie with an interesting ending. The audio could have been better. Sometimes the character, Mike Laszlo, spoke so low that it was difficult to hear.

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    William S.

    Disappointing performance by Jessica Lange as a lawyer who defends her father who turns out to be guilty of war crimes. Her outrage seemed to mailed in.

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