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 Criminal | War Crimes | Torture | Mother Son Relationship | 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:

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

Jessica Lange in one of her best performances

This film is of course a dangerous experiment with ingredients like: a court drama, holocaust 40 years after and absolute no action at all. But because of the great performances by the actors, it ends up as a deeply moving experience.

And at the very center, Jessica Lange does a tremendous job as the lawyer and daughter of a Hungarian war criminal - or is he? She appears in almost every picture of the film, and I find her very convincing in her emotional ups and downs throughout. She does it with no glamour, but alone her incredible personality.

Most of the other actors does a great job as well, and the only reason for not voting it in top is, that the plot is not too convincing - but it first became obvious some time after I watched the film, simply because of the fine acting.

I voted 9/10.