This 1989 drama penned by pre-<I>Basic Instinct</I> 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 (<I>Z</I>), 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. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews While the specific story is about Nazis, Jessica Lange's portrayal of a daughter struggling to maintain her high opinion of her father in the face of mounting dark evidence does justice to such a terrible dilemma. This is a truly remarkable, if disturbing, film.
