Music Box
by Costa-Gavras
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Donald Moffat, Frederic Forrest, Jessica Lange, Lukas HaasDirector: Costa-Gavras
Brand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Published)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 126 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Music Box
Movie Review: Remembrance of things past and horrific
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Music Box" was a slow yet suspenseful build-up, and when the climax came, it packed such a wallop, making it one of the most memorable human dramas that I've watched. Jessica Lange [in an Oscar-nominated performance]plays a successful criminal defense attorney who finds herself defending her Hungarian immigrant father, Michael Laszlo [Armin Muehller-Stahl in a powerful role] who is accused of lying about his world war II activities to get into the US and become a citizen. Specifically, he is accused of being Mischa, a member of the Arrow Cross, a far-right pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic national socialist party who committed crimes against humanity during WW II, especially against the Jewish populace of Hungary.
Michael's daughter [Lange] refuses to believe the accusations and builds up a strong defense for her father, even though her composure is seen being shaken during some of the harrowing testimonies by Holocaust survivors [and also a Gentile woman who was gang-raped by "Mischa" and his fellow Arrow Cross goons]. Her faith in her father is so strong that she refuses to accept any evidence proving the contrary, even when the evidence stares her right in the face [produced by her industrious secretary]. It is only when she goes to Hungary to hear the testimony of a witness who is terminally ill that she begins to have serious doubts, and she returns to the US with a pawn ticket that may hold the key to the entire drama.
The suspense is built up very credibly - even as Lange scores point after point against the prosecution, the viewer gets the sense that the defence may be winning, but is it really the truth that is being represented, and who exactly is getting justice - the victims of Mischa or Michael Laszlo, the accused? And the final scene between father and daughter is poignant, harrowing and horrific all at the same time.
This is a multi-layered movie - of a daughter's unwavering love for her father, of a man running away from and not facing a tainted past, of the lack of repentance, the power of memory decades after the war, and of justice being served in a most ironic manner.
The performances by the key players all deserve accolades - Lange as the defendant's daughter is compelling, Muehller-Stahl as the father is stoic and unwavering, and Frederic Forrest as the Prosecutor Jack Burke is credible in his performance. Even the brief appearances by the actors portraying the survivors are memorable - each testimony felt real and was painful to hear. All in all, "The Music Box" is a well-directed and credibly acted movie that packs a punch for the message it delivers.
Summary of Music Box
Music Box provides celebrated director Costa-gavras another opportunity to weave a story of nail-biting suspense with frightening political overtones. In this intense courtroom thriller, Chicago attorney Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) agrees to defend her Hungarian immigrant father mike Laszlo (Armin Mueller-Stahl) against accusations of heinous war crimes committed 50 years earlier. As the trial unfolds, Ann probes for evidence that will not only establish his innocence, but also lay to rest her own agonizing doubts about his past. When a hospitalized witness is suddenly located in Budapest, the trial moves to her father's homeland. Here crucial testimony plus Ann's personal investigation lead to astonishing results.This 1989 drama penned by pre-Basic Instinct screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is a powerful tale of family identity and loyalty threatened by a ghost from the Third Reich. Jessica Lange stars as a Chicago criminal attorney whose beloved immigrant father (Armin Mueller-Stahl, in his American film debut) is accused of once having been a monstrous SS officer for Hitler. While Lange's character does a good job defending the old man in court against witnesses who charge him with numerous unspeakable acts, her own certainty that he is innocent slowly crumbles, leaving her with a horrifying personal dilemma. Directed by Costa-Gavras (Z), the film displays some of his distracting tendency toward unnecessarily broad storytelling, but Eszterhas's script is disciplined and moving, and Lange and Mueller-Stahl are stunning in their depiction of a loving relationship deeply shaken by history. --Tom Keogh
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