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Music Box

Music Box

Drama · Thriller · Mystery · 1989

A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.

Movie details

Music Box

“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?”

1989 Drama · Thriller · Mystery 2h 4m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.4 / 10

9.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

75 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Music Box?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Costa-Gavras

Written by

Joe Eszterhas

Jessica Lange

Jessica Lange

Ann Talbot

Armin Mueller-Stahl

Armin Mueller-Stahl

Mike Laszlo

Donald Moffat

Donald Moffat

Harry Talbot

Lukas Haas

Lukas Haas

Mike Talbot

Cheryl Lynn Bruce

Cheryl Lynn Bruce

Georgine Wheeler

Mari Törőcsik

Mari Törőcsik

Magda Zoldan

Frederic Forrest

Frederic Forrest

Jack Burke

Court is in session

Put Music Box on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.