Cape Fear (1991) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON TV a list of 30 titles created 25 Mar 2012 a list of 49 titles created 29 May 2014 a list of 33 titles created 13 Mar 2015 a list of 32 titles created 18 Nov 2015 a list of 29 titles created 27 Nov 2015 Search for " Cape Fear " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 15 nominations.

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Director: Robert De Niro Haunted by the patients he failed to save, an extremely burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three fraught and turbulent nights. Director: Martin Scorsese A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail. Director: J. Lee Thompson Greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends, a mafia underboss and a casino owner, for a trophy wife over a gambling empire. Director: Martin Scorsese A Puerto Rican former convict, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of N.Y.C. Director: Brian De Palma An egotistical saxophonist and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long, up-hill climb. Director: Martin Scorsese Edit Storyline Sam Bowden ( Nick Nolte )is a small-town corporate attorney/"Leave It to Beaver" type family-man. Max Cady ( Robert De Niro ) is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, rapist. What do they have in common?

Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss. Written by James Craver The Bowden family has moved to New Essex. See more » Genres: Rated R for strong violence, and for language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 15 November 1991 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Cabo de miedo See more » Filming Locations: Reese Witherspoon auditioned for the role of Danielle Bowden. See more » Goofs When Sam Bowden is first confronted by Max in his car, he offers to buy Max off. Max counters Sam's hypothetical $10,000 offer with, "Let's say $50,000--$50,000 into [about] 5,000 days" equals $10 per day.

He meant to say 5,000 days into $50,000, which would give his daily pay rate. (The first calculation equals 1/10th of a day per dollar.) See more » Quotes [first lines] Danielle : My reminiscence. I always thought that for such a lovely river the name is mystifying: "Cape Fear". When the only thing to fear on those enchanted summer nights was that the magic would end and real life would come crashing in. See more » Crazy Credits At the start of the film, when the Universal Pictures logo appears on screen, instead by studio's theme, sounds from the thunders and rainy is heard, and the logo changes of Egyptian ripple waters. See more » Connections Don't Mess with the Voodoo Written by Graham Drout, Bob Hamphill, Nick Kane and Joe Smith Performed by Iko Iko (NC) – See all my reviews Robert De Niro is one of those actors that just melts into a role. His performance as rapist, convict, and all-around not-a-very-nice fellow Max Cady is certainly one of his most memorable performances for its stamina, strength, and excessiveness.

The film by Martin Scorsece is a remake of the classic film starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck. Although Scorsece keeps the spirit of the film intact, he does make some very modern changes. He changes the role of Sam Bowden and family from one of harmony to dysfunction. No character is the epitome of a universal good, but rather flawed(very flawed) goodness. Nick Nolte does a fine job as Bowden and Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis both give deep, emotional performances. The film is really a sea of emotion...most of that emotion being fear. Scorsece adds some arty touches with the camera, but it is his gritty style that really dominates the film's impact. Scorsece also is ever the protector of film as he gives cameos to Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam(all in the original film). The other acting standout goes to Joe Don Baker as a hired private investigator. But make no mistake....this is De Niro's film all the way. He has some of the best lines as he harasses the Bowden family, terrorizes the Bowden family, and strips the Bowden family of all civility, pretense, and dignity.

This film is definitely a keeper! 42 of 54 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Compare/Contrast: Cape Fear (1962/1991) Compare/Contrast: Cape Fear (1962/1991) 0 Compare/Contrast takes a look at the similarities, differences, and overall cinematic experiences of films that were remade or adapted from other films. How much can a seemingly normal human being take before it’s too much? How far can he or she be pushed before the person pushes back? And if he or she pushes back, what are the consequences? These themes are explored in varying detail in the two versions of Cape Fear—the first film from 1962, directed by J. Lee Thompson and staring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum; the remake from 1991, directed by Martin Scorsese and staring Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte. Adapted (loosely) from John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners, both films tell the story of lawyer Sam Bowden (Peck in ’62, Nolte in ’91).

Bowden’s entire life begins to unravel when ex-con Max Cady (Mitchum ’62, De Niro ’91) begins stalking and terrorizing the entire Bowden family. Cady is so crafty and careful with his crimes, however, that he’s virtually untouchable by the law, to the point that Bowden has to resort to criminal means in a desperate attempt to save his family. Both Cape Fears are alike in their plotting and overall character usage, but they’re entirely different beasts. While the ’62 Cape Fear is pretty subversive for its time period, filmmaking wise, the ’91 adaptation is, at times, an over-the-top nightmare of brutality, which makes it all the more ironic that it’s one of the most “mainstream” films of Scorsese’s career. I. CAPE FEAR 1962 “You’re just an animal: coarse, lustful, barbaric.” With the original film, director J. Lee Thompson leaned heavily on inspirations from Alfred Hitchcock. Much like Hitchcock had done with Psycho in 1960, Thompson planned Cape Fear as a black and white film in an era of color movies.

Cape Fear is rooted in film noir conventions, heavy on shadow and tough men in wide-brimmed hats. As the villainous Max Cady, Robert Mitchum is a bundle of sleazy charm and menace, puffing his chest out and talking with a lazy Southern drawl in between chomps on a cigar. When we first meet Cady, he’s walking down a city street and stops as he ascends court house steps in order to ogle a pretty young lady walking by him. This is immediately followed by him passing a much older woman carrying a heavy stack of books. She drops one of her books, and Cady doesn’t take even the slightest pause to help her—he keeps climbing those steps, and right away we know exactly what kind of character Max Cady is; if that woman carrying the books had been younger, and prettier, he would’ve stopped instantly and turned on his snake-oil salesman charm. Cady is in a courthouse to see Sam Bowden, played by Gregory Peck. Peck made a career out of playing just, stoic men, and his character in Cape Fear is no exception.

His Sam Bowden is so composed and polite that when Cady starts terrorizing him, Bowden at first seems more flustered than outright worried. Peck was unquestionably a great actor, but the way he plays Bowden is just a tad wooden. Part of this is intentional, since as the story progresses Bowden becomes more and more desperate, so that his calm veneer begins to crack; but even so, Peck’s take on the role leaves a little to be desired. It makes for a slightly one-sided movie, because as dull as Peck is, Mitchum is consistently entertaining. Even at his most vile, Max Cady is fascinating. He has an almost machine-like drive for ruining Peck’s life. Cady is gunning for Bowden because eight years ago Cady was “attacking” a woman when Bowden happened to be walking by. Bowden broke up the attack and testified against Cady, thus landing Cady in jail. There is an overall theme of sexual assault blanketing Cape Fear, but to keep the film from the wrath of ratings boards, the filmmakers go to great lengths to never use the word “rape.” Despite this sugarcoating, it’s painfully obvious what Cady’s intentions and crimes are.

The plot point of Bowden just happening to stumble upon Cady committing his crime rings a little hollow to me; the fact that Bowden happens to be a lawyer seems almost inconsequential to the plot of this film— which is why the 1991 film’s interpretation of the material—that Bowden was in fact Cady’s lawyer, and intentionally withheld evidence to let Cady get convicted—seems a much better way of handling the lawyer angle. With the ’62 film, it’s almost an afterthought that Bowden is a lawyer. Bowden’s calm reserve starts to wane as Cady sets about ruining his seemingly perfect life. Cady starts stalking the Bowden family, he poisons the family dog, and he makes it abundantly clear that he wants to rape Bowden’s wife (Polly Bergen) and his 14-year-old daughter Nancy (Lori Martin). Martin was 15 when she made this film, but she appears and acts much younger, which is essential to the film’s uncomfortable feeling.

It’s shocking, especially in a Hollywood film from the early ‘60s, to see Cady be so blunt in his advances towards Nancy; at one point he literally says, “She’s getting to be almost as juicy as your wife!” There’s an incredibly thrilling and disturbing sequence where Nancy encounters Cady on the street and flees from him through an empty school building. The tension is ratcheted up as she frantically tries to escape, with the film cutting back again and again to who we, the audience, think is Cady. The shot of the purser is always at waist level—focusing on the man’s crotch; the intention of this is to disguise the fact, eventually revealed, that this is not Cady but instead some harmless janitor. However, the implication is clear, with Nancy’s terror growing and the film frequently cutting to close-ups of a man’s crotch as he follows her. It’s a brilliant scene, heightened—as is every scene in this film—by Bernard Hermann’s eerie, intense, string-based score. The film is peppered with colorful supporting characters played by dependable character actors.

Martin Balsam, who famously got his face slashed before falling down some steps in Psycho, plays a police chief Bowden is friends with. The chief bends the law as far as it will go in an attempt to run Cady out of town, but Cady continues to not outwardly break any laws—and when he does, there’s no proof. There’s a private detective, played by Telly Savalas, that Bowden hires to tail Cady. Savalas has a perfect hardboiled pulp novel feel to his performance, but the film makes very little use of his private detective character; the remake would fare better with its private detective. And there’s a flirty young woman named Diane Taylor, played with a perfect femme fatale quality by Barrie Chase. Cady encounters Diane in a bar, constantly making eyes with her as she drinks with another man. It’s a chilling and seductive scene, mostly wordless, as a jazz band plays on and Diane can’t take her eyes off Cady. Near the end of the scene the police actually arrive to bring Cady in for questioning, and even that isn’t enough to scare Diane off.

Cady ends the scene by asking her out for a date right before the police haul him away, and she actually takes him up on the offer. Her motivations become a little more clear when she delivers the following lines, in a dulcet, sultry tone: “Max Cady, what I like about you is you’re rock bottom. I wouldn’t expect you to understand this, but it’s a great comfort for a girl to know she could not possibly sink any lower.” She doesn’t know how right she is, because later in the movie Cady beats her. The acting and subtle framing of the scene make the beating seem extra intense, though the final result just appears to be some smeared makeup on Diane’s cheek. This is a scenario the remake would take to the uttermost extreme in a disturbingly graphic sequence. Things eventually come to a head as Bowden tries to use his family as bait to draw Cady out and kill him once and for all. But Cady, who seems to possess almost preternatural knowledge, is onto Bowden’s ruse. The climax is set on the titular Cape Fear river, aboard the Bowden’s house boat.

Through most of the film, Polly Bergen, as Bowden’s wife Peggy, makes very little impression; she’s mostly just there to wring her hands and ask Bowden what’s going on. However, the finale gives her an intense moment of acting as she and Cady come face to face on the boat. Cady is more animal than man at this point, having already murdered a police deputy Bowden had brought with him. He’s shirtless and a mess, and he physically and virtually assaults Peggy to the point that she’s willing to agree to let him have her if he’ll leave her daughter alone. Again, for a film from this time period, this scene is impressive in how disturbing it is, and how much the film is able to get away with. Cady eventually comes painfully close to finally having the young Nancy all to himself, but Bowden arrives in the nick of time. And here the film cops out. The film has gone to great pains to show how far a good man like Bowden can be pushed before he snaps. In the novel that inspired the film, The Executioners, Bowden, with no resort left, finally kills Cady. Cape Fear doesn’t let that happen.

Instead, Bowden says he’d rather Cady spend the rest of his life in jail. This is of course a much more noble ending, and in the “real” world I would in no way, shape, or form condone murder. But in the universe the film inhabits, Bowden finally killing Cady just makes sense. Besides, Cady is so crafty with the law that who’s to say he won’t find some incredible way to wiggle out of all this and come after Bowden again and again? Perhaps Bowden not killing Cady is a more commendable ending, but it also just feels like the film pulled back at the very last second. II. CAPE FEAR 1991 “…the only thing to fear on those enchanted summer nights was that the magic would end and real life would come crashing in.” Whereas the 1962 Cape Fear relied heavily on things happening in the noirish shadows, and on restraint, Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake takes the opposite approach, relying on bombast and an almost relentless intensity that magnifies itself with graphic violence and occasionally over-the-top performances.

Scorsese has made a career of films about violent men, and violence is nothing new to him, yet the violence in his adaptation of Cape Fear somehow feels more disturbing and more explicit than usual. And despite this, it also feels like one of his most mainstream films. Scorsese and screenwriter Wesley Strick work hard to elevate the pulpy trappings of the plot, but in the end the film still has all the foundations of your standard ‘90s Hollywood thriller. Steven Spielberg was originally going to make the film, but found the material too violent. Scorsese at the time was actually attached to Schindler’s List, but Scorsese felt a Jewish director should handle the material, so he and Spielberg swapped projects. While Cape Fear undoubtedly feels like a Scorsese movie, it oddly feels like a Spielberg one as well. The style of framing and use of closeups is reminiscent of Spielberg’s shooting style, as is the overall look of the film. The bare bones of the story are synonymous with the ’62 film, but there are also key changes that enhance the characters and their motivations.

For one thing, in this film Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is now the former lawyer of Max Cady (Robert De Niro). Instead of merely stumbling upon Cady committing a crime as in the original film, Bowden ends up pulling a move that would get most lawyers disbarred: he deliberately throws the case so Cady will be found guilty. He buries evidence; it seems the girl Cady raped and beat was known as “promiscuous,” and Bowden knew full and well that lawyers can easily manipulate this and disgustingly make it seem as if the victim “had it coming.” In jail, Cady becomes a tattooed monstrosity. He teaches himself to read, and studies up on the law, and knows that Bowden buried evidence. Once out of jail, Cady is out for revenge, and he cuts a much more destructive path than Mitchum did in the original. De Niro’s performance is magnificent. It would be easy to call it over-the-top, and it is at times, but it all fits perfectly with his interpretation of Max Cady.

Speaking with a thick, ignorant-sounding hillbilly drawl, De Niro is muscled and crass, braying obnoxious laughter at a movie theater while puffing up mushroom cloud-like cigar smoke. By the end of the film, he’s mutated into something akin to a slasher movie monster—his face burned and scarred as he violently tries to kill everyone. As Bowden, Nolte gets a little more meat to work with than Gregory Peck did. Whereas Peck’s Bowden was an almost flawless man, Nolte’s Bowden seems to have nothing but flaws. The marriage between the Bowdens in the original film was idyllic; here, Bowden’s marriage to his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) seems always in turmoil. Bowden had an affair a while ago, and while the couple seems to have worked to improve their marriage, it doesn’t stop him from openly flirting with a woman who works for him named Lori (Illeana Douglas). As the Bowdens’ daughter Danielle, Juilette Lewis is able to develop a real, fleshed-out character, rather than just the intended victim that Lori Martin was in the original.

Lewis was 18 when the film was made, and though she physically looks older (and certainly older than Martin in the original), her acting conveys a childlike naiveté that works wonders for the character. She gets along with her parents, but, in true teenager fashion, cannot seem to begin to fathom them as people. This leads to one of the remake’s most compelling scenes: whereas the original film had the daughter character being chased by Cady, the remake features a seduction. Cady is pretending to be a teacher of Danielle’s, wooing her with talk that while her parents may not understand her, he does. And though she buys his ruse at first, it’s not long before she catches on that this man in front of her is actually the person who has been terrorizing her family. But rather than flee, she stays, fascinated and oddly drawn to him. Cady touches her cheek seductively, and she hesitantly sucks on his thumb, and then they kiss. It’s a creepy and strangely sexy scene, and it perfectly illustrates how far Scorsese is willing to go with the complexities of the characters.

While the ’91 film doesn’t have a Diane Taylor character slumming it with Cady, it lets Ileana Douglas’ character Lori fill that role for a scene that fully reveals how monstrous Cady can be. Cady, knowing exactly who Lori is, seduces her in a bar. Bowden has stood her up for a drink, and she decides to go home with Cady—having no idea who he really is—as a way of getting back at Bowden. Back at her house, Cady handcuffs Lori, which at first she drunkly takes for kinky foreplay. But it descends into utter chaotic madness as Cady breaks her arm and bites off a huge chunk of her cheek before raping her. This scene is terrifying in its brutality. Douglas’ performance is gut-wrenchingly convincing, and the gory makeup effects mixed with Elmer Bernstein’s carried-over-from-the-original score wraps the entire sequence up in a chilling little package. The result of this attack is similar to the first film. In the original, the Diane character left town, unwilling to testify against Cady.

Here, Lori decides to keep quiet about who attacked her, because she also knows how lawyers can turn rape victims into women “asking for it” on the stand — just another example of Bowden’s evidence tampering coming back to haunt him. Desperate, Bowden turns to a private detective. While Telly Savalas, as the detective in the original film, had a nice swagger to his character, he had no meat to sink his teeth into. The ’91 film, however, beefs up its private detective considerably. Joe Don Baker plays private investigator Claude Kersek as a slob of a man; when we first meet him, he’s guzzling Pepto Bismal at his desk. Despite his sloppy nature, however, Kersek seems to know what he’s doing. He suggests Bowden hire some thugs to beat up Cady to run him out of town. Again, the remake magnifies what the original film did. In the ’62 film, thugs are also hired to beat up Cady, but the scene is mostly soundless and not very convincing.

The remake takes it further; the scene with Cady and the hired goons is full of painful bone-breaks and beatings that might kill someone, if this weren’t a movie. In keeping with the complex nature Scorsese is trying to bring to his characters, he actually has Bowden come along to the beating, pitifully cowering behind a dumpster as Cady gets the upper hand and defeats all his attackers. Kersek then suggests trying to fool Cady by using the family as bait and making it look like Bowden has gone out of town. The plan is that if Cady thinks the Bowden women are alone, he’ll break in, and then Bowden can legally murder him as a trespasser. Just as in the original, however, Cady is always one step ahead of the game, and Scorsese throws in a nice little Hitchcock-by-way-of-Brian De Palma touch as Cady actually dresses in full drag, posing as the family maid, before strangling Kersek to death with piano wire. Just as in the original, the climactic events happen aboard a houseboat on the Cape Fear river.

The film descends into chaos as Cady just keeps coming after the family, again and again, as if he were Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kruger. His head gets set on fire, and even that doesn’t stop him! The remake does not pull back at the last minute. Bowden handcuffs one of Cady’s ankles to a piece of sinking ship and watches as Cady slowly drowns to death. As he dies, De Niro throws in one last flourish as he has Cady begin babbling in tongues as if he were a man coming face to face with God. The performances are what elevate everything in the ’91 film. De Niro and Nolte do great work; De Niro is endlessly threatening and Nolte is suitably unhinged as De Niro ruins his life. Jessica Lange, as Bowden’s wife, is strong and commanding in her performance, and Juliette Lewis turns in probably the best performance of her career, seeming to lose whatever acting gift she had in this movie with every other performance she took on.

There are even a few nice cameos from the original film: Gregory Peck pops up as Cady’s shyster lawyer, Robert Mitchum plays the police chief role that Martin Balsam played in the original, and Balsam himself plays a judge. All in all, it’s a remake done right: adapting the material while also adding something new to it. Too many modern remakes seem to think if you just recreate a bunch of scenes from the original without doing anything unique it’ll be good enough; this film doesn’t make that mistake. It has a reason to exist. Back to back, the Cape Fear films are a unique reflection of their eras. Even with its subversive nature, the original film was still a product of its time. The ’91 film, in comparison, is a hell-child of the cocaine-binged 1980s, fully embracing its excess and wearing its grandiose nature on its sleeve. They are films that are both remarkably similar and yet strikingly different, and both are excellent in what they are trying to do. That is the sign of a story told right, and we could use a few more of those these days.

Max Cady | Villains Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia You're gonna learn about loss. „ ~ Max Cady to Sam Bowden in Cape Fear (1991). Maximilian Cady, often shortened to Max Cady, is the main antagonist in John D. Macdonald's 1957 psychological thriller novel The Executioners, which has been adapted into a film named Cape Fear. He is portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the 1962 film and Robert De Niro in the 1991 remake. Contents [ show ] Biography Cady is an ex-convict who comes back after several years (eight years in the original film and fourteen years in the remake) in prison to take revenge on Sam Bowden, the lawyer who helped put him in jail, and his family. It must be noted that in the original film, Bowden testified against Cady in court, while in the remake he was in charge of his defence, but buried a report that could have kept him from serving time. The charges were of sexual abuse and battery (in both films). Also, during his confinement, Cady dedicated himself mostly to studying law, so he won't be caught off guard next time.

In the 1991 film, he also takes a keen interest in the bible and uses it to justify his actions as that of a man of God. Cady's wife and kid left him while he was convicted, and since he blames Bowden for the loss of his family, he wants him to know what it's like to experience such a loss, which is why he targets the counselor's teenage daughter, presumably with both sexual and criminal intentions. Upon leaving jail, he meets Sam Bowden outside the court and has a little chat with him so Bowden can remember who he is and become aware of the fact that it won't be the last time they see each other. Shortly after he starts stalking the lawyer's family, he kills their dog by poisoning it. A few days later, he rapes and beats a young woman (in the 1991 film, she was close friends with Bowden), but she refuses to go to court and press charges against him out of fear and shame. In the 1962 film, he stalks Bowden's daughter at school to give her a scare.

In the 1991 film, he calls her, pretending to be her drama teacher and invites her to the school auditorium. She figures out that he is Max Cady once they meet, however he manages to convince her he didn't kill her dog and that he doesn't mean her any harm-as well as that her parents are holding her back. The two then kiss, and she runs out of the auditorium. Bowden find out about this, and his relationship with his daughter deters for a bit because of it. In both films, Bowden becomes so desperate to be rid of Cady, he hires three men to beat him however Cady overpowers every one of them. In both films, Bowden and his family eventually travel to their houseboat on Cape Fear to escape from Cady. In the 1962 film, they have their private investigato come over, who is unfortunately killed by Cady once he and Bowden get there and stay up all night to watch out for him-in the 1991 film, they leave after Cady kills there maid and there pi at their home. In both films, Cady secretly tracks them to the boat, climbs aboard and attacks them.

In the 1962 film, Cady rapes Bowden's wife on the boat so Bowden will go to her, while he left just in time to try to rape their daughter, Nancy. Bowden is able to get to him before he can rape his daughter and they engage in a fight. Bowden manages to grab his revolver and shoot Cady in the leg. Once he has the upper hand, he decides to have him arrested again instead of killing him, feeling killing him is what he wants and that prison is more painful. In the 1991 film, Cady attacks all three of them on the boat at once. After Bowden's daughter, Dani, sprays him with lighter fluid while he's lighting a cigar and sets him on fire, Cady leaps off the boat into the water to extinguish the flames. However, he manages to pull himself back on board and forces Bowden to engage in a mock trial. A storm causes the boat to rock and catches Cady off guard, allowing Bowden to tackle him and handcuff him to the boat. Bowden's family escapes onto the riverbank and the boat is destroyed when it hits a group of rocks.

Bowden grabs a large rock and prepares to drop it on Cady's head, but the current suddenly pulls Cady back out into river while he is talking rapidly in tongues. As Bowden and Cady lock eyes, the piece of debris Cady is still handcuffed to sinks into the water, taking him with it and causing him to drown. Gallery Cape Fear (1991) - Movies & TV on Google Play Cape Fear (1991) Item added to wishlist. Item removed from wishlist. You will receive an email when your movie becomes available. You will not be charged until it is released. ( 209) Synopsis Fourteen years after being imprisoned, vicious psychopath Max Cady (Robert De Niro) emerges with a single-minded mission: to seek revenge on his attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte). Cady becomes a terrifying presence as he menacingly circles Bowden's increasingly unstable family. Realizing he is legally powerless to protect his beautiful wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and his troubled teenage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis), Sam resorts to unorthodox measures which lead to an unforgettable showdown on Cape Fear.

Visually stunning images and brilliant performances from a talented cast highlight this roller-coaster ride through relentless psychological torment. My review 1 8 Jonathan Rosenbaum It's hard to understand why Martin Scorsese wanted to remake a nasty, formulaic 1962 thriller whose only "classic" credentials are a terrifying performance by Robert Mitchum and a Bernard Herrmann score. Smart and stylish. Overblown horror-schlocker. Vincent Canby Stay away if you're squeamish but, if you do, you'll miss an essential work by one of our masters, as well as two of the year's most accomplished performances, those of Mr. De Niro and Ms. Lewis. Peter Travers Though Scorsese doesn't always transcend the pulp in Cape Fear, watching him try allows us to share the exhilaration he experiences behind the camera. Desson Thomson Critic reviews Jonathan Rosenbaum It's hard to understand why Martin Scorsese wanted to remake a nasty, formulaic 1962 thriller whose only "classic" credentials are a terrifying performance by Robert Mitchum and a Bernard Herrmann score.

Full Review Vincent Canby Stay away if you're squeamish but, if you do, you'll miss an essential work by one of our masters, as well as two of the year's most accomplished performances, those of Mr. De Niro and Ms. Lewis. Full Review Peter Travers Though Scorsese doesn't always transcend the pulp in Cape Fear, watching him try allows us to share the exhilaration he experiences behind the camera. Full Review Hal Hinson It's a brutal, demonic film with a grip like a vise; it grabs you early, its fingers around your throat, and never lets go. Tina Martinez April 13, 2015 Cape fear De Nero movie never disappointed Chris Hines May 11, 2016 They sure don't make them like they used to Old school props Full Review Cameron Doerr July 4, 2015 One of best films of all time. Like many other people reviewing this film, I loved it and cherished each minute!

The film, despite being a remake, is sincere, intriguing, and character development is great Full Review Jeremy Code April 11, 2014 Classic One of the greatest films I've ever seen , I've seen this movie dozens of times and it never gets old . The acting the score the direction are all flawless. True classic Gina Alich November 27, 2016 Takes me back. . . Loved it then, love it still. Just a fantastic, under-your-skin creepy kind of film. Cheryl David-Bailey January 4, 2015 For some reason it didn't blow my skirt up. Devin Andres December 11, 2014 Best remake Scorcesse's remake is one of the best films of all time. Linda Marie Fernandez July 17, 2016 Juilliett Lewis is sensational the direction Scorsese is brilliant. ..I could go on & on... Kelsey H August 30, 2016 Cape Fear Awesome movie Paul Riddle July 17, 2013 Good movie!!!!!! Not much more to say.

Lonnie Elliott August 31, 2014 IOn One of my favorite movies Melissa San Pedro September 22, 2016 Cape Fear lisa petrocca June 20, 2014 Superb! Deniro is CHILLING! Derrick Faulkner January 7, 2015 Great Movie! Movie Review - - FILM; Martin Scorsese Ventures Back To 'Cape Fear' - NYTimes.com FILM; Martin Scorsese Ventures Back To 'Cape Fear' By JANET MASLIN Published: November 10, 1991 When Gregory Peck, playing the upright lawyer Sam Bowden in the 1962 thriller "Cape Fear," proclaims the ex-con Max Cady a "shocking degenerate," Robert Mitchum, playing Cady, simply laughs. With sociopathic glee he has stalked the Bowdens, a stalwart husband, white-gloved wife and innocent daughter who represent an early-60's vision of clean-cut American life.

"I must say I hoped that Max would've killed them," observes Martin Scorsese, who has just remade "Cape Fear" in his own turbulent fashion, one that has absolutely nothing to do with the earlier film's white-picket-fence world. As originally directed by J. Lee Thompson, "Cape Fear" pitted the wholesome Bowdens against the unsavory Max, a convicted rapist intent on exacting revenge against Sam, who years earlier had testified against Max at his trial. Despite the sexy insolence of Robert Mitchum's performance, that film's struggle was essentially a one-note one between good and evil. Mr. Scorsese, not being prone to such oversimplifications, has done his best to muddy the waters. In his remake, which opens Wednesday, he has invested the Bowdens (now played by Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange) with a history of marital infidelity, turned their daughter into a rebellious nymphet, altered the circumstances of the rape trial and given Max's vengeance a biblical dimension. But can any story about a middle-class suburban family, which the Bowdens remain, really suit a director whose interests so obviously lie elsewhere?

"Two people sitting in an office and talking -- now that's rough!" says Mr. Scorsese, for whom such a plain image is indeed a challenge, and who has only reluctantly accommodated his whiplash, impressionistic style to the demands of conventional storytelling. Venturing even further into alien territory, he has this time employed special optical effects, wide-screen cinematography and a vast, watery indoor set containing a houseboat, all of which lead him to describe the remaking of "Cape Fear" as "a very nerve-racking process." Nerve-racking is nothing new for the man who made "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Raging Bull" (1980) and who, for that matter, lives on the dizzying 75th floor of a Manhattan tower. (Asked about a pile of rawhide dog toys that lie ominously close to an open window -- with no dog in sight -- Mr. Scorsese says of his pet, "I tell her, 'No sense in barking. Nobody to hear you. Forget it.' ") In a corner of the living room sits a movie projector, which Mr.

Scorsese says is "only a 16," for showing 16-millimeter prints; in a closet there are film prints, perhaps "only 30" of them. And sitting on the floor are three Academy Awards, which are only British (from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts). Mr. Scorsese, arguably the most innovative and influential film maker of his generation, has never won an Oscar. The subject of the Academy Awards prompts Mr. Scorsese, who has asthma, to reach for his inhaler. "Excuse me; you mention that and I get too excited," he jokes. But in fact, his treatment at the hands of the academy has made a difference to Mr. Scorsese -- and it has had an effect on some of his career choices, including, perhaps, his decision to remake "Cape Fear." Last year he sat by and watched as his direction (of "Goodfellas") was deemed less successful than Kevin Costner's (of "Dances With Wolves").

And 10 years earlier, "Raging Bull" lost to another film directed by an actor, Robert Redford's "Ordinary People." "I have to go back to that night 10 years ago, because that was when I understood that the kind of pictures I would be making would be outside the mainstream of Hollywood production," Mr. Scorsese says. "I guess because my stuff is not nice, the people aren't nice -- I don't know what it is. Still, Hollywood's highest honor is the Oscar, and you can't just say it isn't given accurately -- John Ford had six." Mr. Scorsese's awareness of himself as a Hollywood outsider may have made him more amenable to taking on mainstream projects, like his latest. "Cape Fear" is so Hollywood that at one time it was a prospective film for Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Entertainment has a production credit on the film. Wesley Strick, who wrote the screenplay based on James R. Webb's earlier version (which is itself adapted from John D. MacDonald's 1958 novel "The Executioners"), started out with Mr. Spielberg very much in mind.

"I wrote it as an Amblin thriller, essentially," Mr. Strick says. "It was big-budget and conventional, and it concentrated more on plot invention than it does now." Mr. Scorsese was quick to zero in on these aspects of the screenplay -- and he didn't like them. "Marty had quite a radar for every bit of slickness and hyperbole," Mr. Strick says. "Anything that smacked of television, all the dialogue he perceived as being 'clever,' everything that was too well reasoned, too neat, too clean, with ideas that were somewhat predigested -- he wanted it gone." In any case, Mr. Scorsese's interests were elsewhere. At the time he planned to direct "Schindler's List," from Thomas Keneally's book about a World War II German industrialist. But he had second thoughts after his "Last Temptation of Christ" was boycotted by exhibitors, and even "Goodfellas" proved controversial when it was accused, in some quarters, of glorifying organized crime. Suddenly, the job of staging concentration camp scenes became daunting -- and the domestic mayhem of "Cape Fear" looked relatively tame. It happened that Mr.

Spielberg was having his own reservations about "Cape Fear." "I wasn't in the mood; it's as simple as that," he says. "I just couldn't find it inside me to make a scary movie about a family being preyed on by a maniac." So the two directors considered trading projects and agreed to do so after Mr. Spielberg pinned down Mr. Scorsese on his ultimate plans for the Bowdens. "Steve said, 'If you do this, what are you going to do with the family?' " Mr. Scorsese recalls. " 'Is the family going to live at the end?' I said, 'Yes, they'll live. Otherwise there's no point to it.' And he said, 'Well, then you can do anything you want up to that point.' " So Mr. Scorsese, Mr. Strick and Robert De Niro, who had become drawn to the Max Cady character early in this process, began to rearrange the principals' inner lives while remaining faithful to the story's framework. Max evolved from a coolly insinuating rapist into a Bible-quoting, heavily tattooed "walking vengeance machine," in Mr. Scorsese's phrase.

Sam and Leigh Bowden became a combative couple with a troubled marriage. Their daughter, Danielle, played by Juliette Lewis, became a pouty teen-ager whose nascent sexuality unnerves her parents. "A lot's been written about Marty's Catholicism, about his ideas of blood guilt and expiation of sin and all that," says Mr. Strick, "but I think his immediate connection to this material was as a domestic melodrama." In depicting how the Bowdens feel the increasing effects of Max's presence, Mr. Scorsese does not express such tensions in ordinary ways. He conceived one striking moment in which Leigh rises from the bed after she and Sam have made love and sits at her dressing table, applying lipstick in a peculiarly girlish shade of pink as the image changes from color to black-and-white positive to negative; meanwhile Max, unbeknown to Leigh, lurks somewhere outside. "At that moment, I think she feels a dissatisfaction with everything she's surrounded herself with," says Ms. Lange. "She really looks at herself, takes a moment to sit down and try to figure out why she's there." As for the lipstick, Ms.

Lange says, "I always imagined it to be a longing for another time, for something that's faded." Mr. Scorsese adds: "It's as if the husband doesn't exist and she's going out on a date -- but unfortunately, the date is with Max." Images as mysterious as that come easily to Mr. Scorsese, but standard exposition does not. It was hard work for him to spell out the plot of "Cape Fear" as methodically as preview audiences thought necessary, and only a few weeks ago he was reshooting part of a scene involving Max Cady and the houseboat on which the film's final confrontation takes place. Max falls off the boat and then returns to it, but Mr. Scorsese had never bothered to explain how he got back on. So a shot of Max's arm grasping a rope was quickly added, and the sight of him falling into the water was played back in reverse. "Audiences want to be led by the hand that way," Mr. Scorsese says, noting that the phrase "skips around a lot" kept turning up on audience preview cards.

"And I think, 'For God's sake, especially with exposition, there must be a way to get it over with as fast as possible.' " Although Mr. Thompson, whose other credits included "The Guns of Navarone" and "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes," moved the first "Cape Fear" along in simple, linear fashion, Mr. Scorsese did not rely heavily upon the original. "It would have been very hard for me to remake a film I think of as a classic, but this one is too black and too white," he says. Mr. Strick adds, "A lot of people consider it a minor classic, and I must say I didn't." Seen today, though, the first "Cape Fear" holds up well as a tense, workmanlike thriller. In homage to the earlier film, Mr. Scorsese made ironic use of Gregory Peck, who now makes a cameo appearance as Max Cady's defense lawyer. He also included a cameo role for Martin Balsam, who was originally a police chief and this time plays a judge. Mr.

Mitchum, the single best thing about the original "Cape Fear," turns up on the right side of the law in a version of Mr. Balsam's former role, but he still has a line or two that betray the old Max Cady's chilling persona. Another notable holdover from the first "Cape Fear" is the piercing Bernard Herrmann score. Among the most startling contrasts between the two films are their different versions of a sequence in which Max seeks out Danielle at her school. Initially, it was a suspenseful but ordinary cat-and-mouse episode as Max seemingly hunted down the young girl. Now it involves a seductive, uninterrupted nine-minute exchange between Mr. De Niro and Ms. Lewis, which has Max persuading Danielle to read Henry Miller and culminates in a haunting kiss. "Something happened between the two of them, and it was just great," says Mr. Scorsese. Here, as with several of the film's most impassioned moments, the actors' spontaneity was so effective that the director wound up using the first take of the scene. Mr. Scorsese relished the opportunity to try out certain cinematic tricks, some of them peculiar to the thriller genre.

He still chuckles at the memory of the way the London-born Freddie Francis, his cinematographer, positioned a fluorescent light to be reflected in a pool of blood. "That final British touch," Mr. Scorsese says admiringly of Mr. Francis's flourish. An image of Ms. Lange emerging from mud was also filmed backward, to make it even spookier. And a device called a panatate, usually used to simulate rocking-boat effects, was rocked so hard that it flipped over to follow Max as he hung from the ceiling in one scene. Mr. De Niro, who worked out five hours a night during filming, suggested that the director save the shots of his new musculature for last so he would look as pumped-up as possible. Mr. De Niro also helped to develop a wardrobe -- consisting mostly of outfits pre-dating Max's jail term -- that would be as violent and scary as the man himself. But for Mr. Scorsese, who will next be venturing into even more foreign terrain with an adaptation of Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence," the best tricks are those that can be accomplished on a wide screen.

Working in Panavision, he can achieve effects that remind him, he says happily, of big-screen classics like "The Robe" and "The Ten Commandments." And he can even contemplate working in 70 millimeter, though that thought only underscores this film maker's idiosyncrasies. "If I ever shoot in 70, it'll be another hallway picture," he says. "Just two people in a hall, speaking. But I'm telling you, they'll look great." THE SECOND TIME AROUND Can there be too much of a good thing? For some movie makers, the answer is clearly no. Every so often, one of them is tempted to tinker with success by remaking an esteemed or popular old movie. Sometimes the remake is a labor of love, and sometimes it's an exercise in commerce. Sometimes the endeavor is a homage to the earlier film or its director. Sometimes there is an effort to update an old story. Sometimes the idea is to apply new techniques -- color and wide-screen -- to a film that once unfolded in black and white on a small screen. And sometimes the remake is pervaded by a challenge -- to take the old movie and make it bigger, better, gaudier than before.

Hitchcock even remade Hitchcock. The master of suspense made "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in England in 1934 with Leslie Banks, Edna Best and Peter Lorre. And he did it again in the United States in 1956 with James Stewart, Doris Day and Bernard Miles. As is often the case, there are those who love the first, loathe the second. Remakes invite comparisons. Herewith, some originals, some remakes and some critics' assessments. Cape Fear (1991) - Cast & Crew, Ratings, Awards Cast & Crew Cape Fear (1991) Thriller | R | 2 hours and 8 minutes | November 13, 1991 (USA) Be the first to review +4 Producers: Robert De Niro , Barbara De Fina When attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) knowingly withholds evidence that would acquit violent sex offender Max Cady (Robert De Niro) of rape charges, Max spends 14 years in prison. But after Max's release, knowing about Sam's deceit, he devotes his life to stalking and destroying the Bowden family.

When practical attempts to stop Max fail, Sam realizes that he must act outside the law to protect his wife and daughter in Martin Scorsese's remake of the classic 1962 thriller. See All Movies Cape Fear (1991) - Connections - IMDb Cape Fear (1991) Connections Showing all 124 items Peter Gunn (1958) (TV Series) Lange mentions Peter Gunn One of the books seen in Max Cady's cell is The Cell Within by Jake Manning. Referenced in Se7en (1995) The music score is direct reference to Cape Fear (when the detectives go to arrest Victor (Sin of Sloth) Garfield (2004) When Garfield is under Jon's car, it's a clear reference to Robert DeNiro's Max Cady on "Cape Fear".

South Park: Pre-School (2004) (TV Episode) the plot (person released from jail coming back for revenge), the weight lifting scene is parodied as Trent lifts Tinkertoys as weights Jeopardy!: Episode #26.137 (2010) (TV Episode) Subject of a $2,000 clue in the category "Bad Guys" The Lone Ranger (2013) Butch calls John Reid "councellor" several times, the same as Max Cady calls Sam Bowden.

It is relevant because it is said by the films main antagonist, who is also a sadistic killer, to a lawyer who at one point is idealistic, but then loses his faith in the law Sam & Cat: #SuperPsycho (2014) (TV Episode) The opening when Nora is working out in her cell is modeled after Cady working out in his cell On TV in Juliette Lewis's bedroom Featured in The Universal Story (1995) (TV Movie) De Niro/Nolte confrontation and threat to family Scorsese on Scorsese (2004) (TV Movie) clips are shown Censuren - En thriller (2011) (TV Movie) Clip shown and discussed Gogglebox: Episode #5.6 (2015) (TV Episode) Clips shown.

The Epic of Detective Mandy: Book Four - Spoof of the Living Dead II (1995) (TV Movie) The film uses the Cape Fear (1991) score music throughout and the scene where Detective Mandy and Mandy's Wife argue is a parody of the argument between Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange in Cape Fear, and is shot the same way, Seinfeld: The Bookstore (1998) (TV Episode) Jerry has a dream that Uncle Leo has turned into Max Cady while in jail.

Question: Which actor played the role of killer Max Cady in the 1991 film Cape Fear?
Answer: ROBERT DE NIRO