Cape Fear

To me, it's amazing that there's actually a place in North Carolina called Cape Fear, but it provides the perfect setting for this movie. Several years after attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) defended convicted rapist Max Cady (Robert DeNiro), Cady gets out of jail and decides that Bowden didn't do a good job defending him. After Sam and Max meet each other a few times, Max starts getting crazier and crazier. After he tries to enter Sam's house, Sam and his family go into hiding at Cape Fear. Then, the terror really begins. Martin Scorsese brought a unique intensity to movies like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver", but this is something completely different. Whereas his earlier movies simply made you identify with the characters, "Cape Fear" makes you both identify with the characters and find them unpleasant. Not only Max Cady, but also the Bowdens. They are never the "ideal American family", but Cady's threats against them make them get progressively nastier in their attitudes towards each other and to other people. I think that it's safe to say that after watching "Cape Fear", you will never look at any person the same way again.

You've pretty much read it in my comments, I am a huge fan of M.S. and R.D. But honestly, I watched "Cape Fear" because I bought "The Simpsons" 5th season on DVD, and I had no idea that the Sideshow Bob episode where he tries to kill Bart was based on this movie. So, I knew I had to rent this movie if it was good enough to parody on "The Simpsons". And it was very disturbing to watch. Robert DeNiro is one of my favorite actors, and he completely freaked me out in this film. Especially the scene between him and Juliette Lewis. Even though in some ways this film is done a little over the top, it all adds together very well. I was very impressed with this film and would recommend it to Martin Scorsesse fans of course. Even though I wouldn't say this was his best work, it is one of his best thrillers though. 9/10

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source: Cape Fear

Director Martin Scorsese is in over-the-top spirits for this illogical remake of the 1962 thriller about a just-released convict (Robert De Niro acting the badass, complete with ugly tattoos) terrorizing the lawyer/family man (Nick Nolte) who failed to keep him out of jail on a rape conviction. De Niro's cigar-chomping, sneering performance would be a highlight under different circumstances, yet he's used here as the ultimate bogeyman, hiding under a moving car or springing up like the killer in "Halloween". Scorsese revels in the opportunity to show an ordinary, wholesome family being dragged down into the gutter by a savage beast of a man, but the picture is really ungainly. One neat touch: the stars of the original version, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, appear in cameos (Peck and Mitchum cast amusingly against type). Otherwise, a well-made but baffling, ridiculous picture. Two Oscar nominations: De Niro as Best Actor and Juliette Lewis (playing Nolte and Jessica Lange's daughter) as Best Supporting Actress. ** from ****

Even though Robert DeNiro was nominated for Best Actor for this Martin Scorsese directed remake of Cape Fear, my heart is still with the original. The multi-tattooed voluminous DeNiro is far less menacing than Robert Mitchum was in the original. One thing Scorsese did was change the billing to reflect the importance of the characters. Mitchum was billed second to Gregory Peck, the upright attorney who Mitchum threatened and stalked along with Peck's family. Then again Peck was producing the original Cape Fear so of course he was first billed. Part of the problem was that with some 20 to 30 minutes additional running time Scorsese used it to make his characters a bit more complex. DeNiro was a real basket case as Max Cady in this one whereas Robert Mitchum was just plain no good. Nick Nolte plays attorney Sam Bowden and he's also far more complex and not such a good guy. In the original film Peck was an attorney, but he was a witness in the trial that convicted Cady of rape. Here he was Cady's attorney and he tanked the case because Cady was such a psycho he deserved to be behind bars. Cady in fact does have a grudge of sorts against him. And it's not good to get a psycho mad at you. Also Peck and his whole family which consisted of Polly Bergen and Lori Martin back in the original was your basic all American white bread family. Their very wholesomeness made the scope of Mitchum stalking them all the more frightening. Nolte and Jessica Lange have marital problems and their daughter Juliette Lewis is not Mary Poppins. Not that they deserved what DeNiro was going to do to them, but it does blunt the impact of the scope of his evil. Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam from the original cast all played supporting parts here. But while the film that Scorsese did is a good one, their presence made me all the more hunger for the original.

Cape Fear

Martin Scorsese takes his first whack at the horror/thriller genre with a remake of the 1962 classic of the same title. While I can not truthfully say the original was better due to the fact that I never saw the original, I have a feeling that Scorsese has brought his maestro touch to the film that changes it slightly from the original to make it better, because this is quite the suspenser. Here, a very dangerous and evil man named Max Cady (played in one of the best villain roles of the 90's by Robert De Niro) gets out of jail after 14 years of imprisonment, and decides to get vengeance on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) and his family (Jessica Lange the mother and a young and supple Juliette Lewis as the daughter). At times the film is surprisingly slow, but the film is never boring, and suspense is always in the air; the climax/ending contains some of Scorsese and De Niro's finest work. Also, De Niro steals the show as the animal Cady by making the person who is supposed to be the hero into a flawed character, thereby turning the film almost into a Film-noir, which is quite a feat for Scorsese and company. Not perfect, but it shouldn't be. Those are Scorsese's parents briefly buying fruit. A-

Take a frightening original "film noir" and decide that you can do better if you colorize it, throw in more blood, bad language and try to make the characterizations as ridiculous as possible. Well that is what Scorcese did here. The original was absolutely frightening for its then adult theme and audience. De Niro and company apparently believed that all of today's adults have regressed to the infantile when they decided to do this remake. It isn't frightening at all but I guess you could say that the dialogue has rendered what used to called obscene rather natural. Rap music fans may appreciate that but I think is may be too childish for their children.

Jessica Lange and Nick Nolte are necessarily dim witted, but to be interesting they throw in neurotic and at times near spastic. Robert DeNiro effectively plays a cartoon character; indestructible, omni-present and talks like a clown. Juliette Lewis delivers a decent performance but her character contributes so little to the story until right at the end that she ends up being marginalized but maybe that was the film makers intent. The director shows off a lot of tricks and succeeds in showing that he knows a lot of tricks. The music, the acting, the editing, the level of violence, are all amped up to the highest degree to showcase successively sillier and sillier goings on. I won't go into the details of the story and for anyone who has not seen the movie I recommend the Simpson's spoof; you'll get the gist of it, it's more entertaining and will save you some time.