Music Box (1989)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Costa-Gavras

Writer (WGA):

Joe Eszterhas (written by)

Release Date:

January 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

As a lawyer all she wanted was the truth. As a daughter all she wanted was his innocence. How well do you really know your father?

Plot:

A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.

Plot Keywords:

War Crime | War Criminal | Budapest | Communism | Holocaust

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jessica Lange	...	Ann Talbot
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Mike Laszlo
Frederic Forrest	...	Jack Burke
Donald Moffat	...	Harry Talbot
Lukas Haas	...	Mikey Talbot
Cheryl Lynn Bruce	...	Georgine Wheeler
Mari Töröcsik	...	Magda Zoldan
J.S. Block	...	Judge Silver
Sol Frieder	...	Istvan Boday
Michael Rooker	...	Karchy Laszlo
Elzbieta Czyzewska	...	Melinda Kalman
Magda Szekely Marburg	...	Judit Hollo
Felix Shuman	...	James Nathanson
Michael Shillo	...	Geza Vamos
George Pusep	...	Vladimir Kostav

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-10 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:12 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

Carolco Pictures

Trivia:

Both Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau wanted to play the father (Michael Laszlo) and were in contact with director Costa-Gavras. He picked Armin Mueller-Stahl for the part, who a couple of years earlier had said he would love to work with Costa-Gavras after seeing his movie Missing (1982) at the theater.

Quotes:

Jack Burke: You trust your heart, you gonna get it broken.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Blonde Poison: The Making of 'Basic Instinct' (2001) (V)

Holds up a decade later for its fine performances

Excellent performances by Armin Mueller-Stahl and Jessica Lange (and even Michael Rooker in a thankless role) make "The Music Box" well-worth seeing (and seeing again). I also appreciated Costa-Gavras's establishing shots such as the dizzying image in a large building as Lazlo and his daughter go up an elevator to meet with federal prosecutors, pigeons on the window sill of the court room, etc. I liked the way Chicago and Budapest are used in the movie as two poles of the story. It is true that a few things do not make sense. Ann Talbot (Lange) accuses the US prosecutor (Frederick Forest) of letting the Hungarian government dictate his case, and the US does seem to rely entirely on Hungarian evidence, never bothering to look for any evidence west of Budapest. There is something to be said, however, for the suspension of disbelief. If the US prosecutors were not so incompetent, then it would not be entirely up to Talbot, the moral center of the movie, to uncover the truth and carry the responsibility for it entirely by herself. It is, by the way, the Hungarians and not the Russians whom Lazlo accuses of trying to frame him.