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Plot

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.
MPAA Rating:
Genre(s):
Crime and Mystery,Drama,Thriller
Run Time:
126min.
Theatrical Release Date:
12/25/1989
DVD Release Date:
05/20/2003
Distributor(s):
Tri-Star Pictures
Director(s):
Themes:
Double Life,Fathers and Daughters
Tone:
Downbeat,Bleak,Confrontational,Earnest,Tense
Keywords:
Nazi,blackmail,daughter,father,lawyer,trial [courtroom],war-crimes
Country of Origin:
USA (12-25-1989)
Language:
English