Product Details

• Actors: Jessica Lange, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Frederic Forrest, Donald Moffat, Lukas Haas
• Directors: Costa-Gavras
• Writers: Joe Eszterhas
• Producers: Hal W. Polaire, Irwin Winkler, Joe Eszterhas
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, Hungarian
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Live / Artisan
• VHS Release Date: December 14, 1993
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301681037
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,647 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When the past comes knocking, it isn't always Teleflora, December 11, 2000

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Music Box [VHS] (VHS Tape)

What if your Dad, the loving and beloved head of your middle-class American family, was suddenly charged with war crimes? This is the scenario for THE MUSIC BOX, a 1990 release, in which Jessica Lange plays a criminal defense lawyer asked by her widower father to defend him against such charges being brought by the US government on behalf of Hungary. The father, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, is alleged to have committed multiple atrocities as an officer of a neo-Nazi police unit in Budapest during World War II. A complicating element is the father's vocal anti-communism, for which, he claims, the Red regime back in the old country is masterminding a frame-up. (Remember, we're talking about bad ol' days of the Cold War here.) Anyway, the Old Man needs a hotshot attorney, so his dutiful and devoted daughter takes the case.

Another reviewer has concluded that the plot is "far-fetched". Hmm. I would think that those aging American residents who've actually been charged with Nazi war crimes during the past couple of decades might not find it so far-fetched at all. Some have even been deported. Perhaps he's referring to the storyline that calls for the accused to be defended by his own offspring. OK, that probably wouldn't happen in real life. But, what is an otherwise idle Hollywood screenwriter to do when called upon to help fabricate a box office success?

The plot's arguable implausibility aside, both Lange and Mueller-Stahl give forceful and bravura performances as two people caught up in the fading echoes of receding history. The final scene between the two should have earned Lange that year's Oscar, but sadly didn't. There're also some quite good visual images of Budapest, which, at the end of the Cold War when this film was shot, was probably the Eastern Bloc's most beautiful capital city.

Notwithstanding that I've always been a little in love with Jessica Lange ever since TOOTSIE, I liked this film a lot. "They" say you can't go back. But, sometimes past history comes to visit uninvited.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Huge disappointment at the quality!, November 21, 2005

By 

filmlover for 71 years "newyorkgal33" (Hendersonville, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Box (DVD)

Having originally seen the film when it was released, and owning the VHS version ( which by the way has captions) I could not believe the extremely poor quality of the DVD. I have slowly been replacing my videos w/DVD versions. In this case I will keep the VHS and get rid of my just purchased DVD copy. The film, the director, actors, are all incredibly good. I would give it 10 if there were such a number available, but certainly a 5. However the quality of the sound is so poor that if there were minus numbers, I would use them. Others have already written of the format, etc. so I will not repeat all that, but I agree that it should have had the option of widescreen,etc. But for the sound, there is NO excuse. It is not only poor, but at times, when the actors are speaking in a low voice, the DVD is inaudible. There is NO such problem on the VHS, and if there were there is captioning to resort to. Since there is no problem w/the sound on the video, it never occurred to me that the DVD would have such a big one.
If you can find a VHS copy, I would recommend it over this DVD.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Entertaiment, February 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Music Box [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Jessica Lange gives a great performance as the hungarian daughter who's father is accused of war crimes. Well plotted and suspensful, this film was overlooked at oscar time. It should have won a few.