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:

Mack Jones: What do we know about our parents?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 62nd Annual Academy Awards (1990) (TV)

Intense Court Drama

Greek director Costa Gavras is the one that gave us such strong and impressive films as "Z" (based on the kidnapping and murder of CIA agent Dan Mitrione by pro-Cuban Tupamaro's urban guerrilla in Ururguay in the late 60's) and "Missing" (about the disappearance of a young American citizen during General Pinochet's military government in Chile in the 70's). No doubt the man liked to enter compromising and complex movies.

In "Music Box" he delivers a sort of court film drama about a lawyer in Chicago that defends her father when he is accused of being a war criminal in his youth as a member of the Hungarian branch of the German SS troops. Though perhaps sort of predictable, the film is intense and catching right from the start. Jesicca Lange renders one of the best performances of her career and so does Armin Mueller-Stahl in the main roles both most convincing.

With no major bumps along its 2 hours run, "Music Box" is an enjoyable and highly recommendable product in its genre.

Just for the record: in Argentina "Music Box" was renamed as "Mucho màs que un crimen" ("Much More than Just a Crime").