Cape Fear (1991 film)
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| Cape Fear | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Produced by | Barbara De Fina |
| Written by | Wesley Strick |
| Starring | Nick Nolte Robert De Niro Jessica Lange Juliette Lewis Joe Don Baker |
| Cinematography | Freddie Francis |
| Editing by | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 13, 1991 |
| Running time | 128 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Cape Fear is a 1991 film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name and tells the story of a family man, a former public defender, whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist who wants vengeance for having been imprisoned for 14 years because of the lawyer's purposefully faulty defense tactics, prejudicing the accused. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis). The two were also nominated for Golden Globe Awards.
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[edit] Plot
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Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is a former Atlanta public defender who seeks to start a life in corporate law for him and his family in the quiet resort town of New Essex, North Carolina. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is a client Sam defended 14 years prior to the setting of the movie. Cady, who was being tried for the rape and battery of a 16-year-old girl, was illiterate at the time of the trial and was unable to read a report Sam kept hidden from him and the court that could have lightened his sentence or acquitted him. The report stated that the victim was promiscuous, a decisive fact in a rape case because the intercourse must have been non-consensual for a conviction to occur. Now a well-read, recently-released ex-convict, Cady stalks Bowden and plans to seek vengeance for his imprisonment. The movie's climax has the two men engaging in a showdown during a severe thunderstorm on Cape Fear.
[edit] Cast
- Nick Nolte - Sam Bowden
- Robert De Niro - Max Cady
- Jessica Lange - Leigh Bowden
- Juliette Lewis - Danielle Bowden
- Joe Don Baker - Claude Kersek
- Robert Mitchum - Lieutenant Elgart
- Gregory Peck - Lee Heller
- Martin Balsam - Judge
- Illeana Douglas - Lori Davis
- Fred Dalton Thompson - Tom Broadbent
Mitchum, Peck, and Balsam all starred in the 1962 original but in different roles for the 1991 version. In the original, Mitchum was Cady and Peck was Bowden.
This was also Gregory Peck's final theatrical film.
[edit] Background
The film was adapted by Wesley Strick from the original screenplay by James R. Webb, which was an adaptation from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Juliette Lewis). The film was a box-office success and received critical acclaim.
The film expands on the original's themes in some depth, changing relationships (the drifter Cady assaults is now a legal clerk who is in love with Nick Nolte's Bowden) and adding more complex background details. Nolte's Sam Bowden is morally flawed and, therefore, his resorting to violence is less surprising than in the original. Cady is presented as having something of a point in this film, because of Bowden's deliberate negligence of care during his original trial.
The film was parodied in The Simpsons episode Cape Feare.
It was also parodied in the Airplane!-like comedy Fatal Instinct.
Although a remake of the original Cape Fear, Scorsese's update is also greatly influenced by another Mitchum film, The Night of the Hunter (1955), and the work of Alfred Hitchcock (signaled by the opening credits by regular Hitchcock collaborator Saul Bass and its score by another, Bernard Herrmann).
This is also the first film Scorsese shot in the wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the smaller 1.85:1 ratio in which he had filmed all his previous works.
[edit] Differences between the 1962 and 1991 versions
- In the 1962 version Sam Bowden was a witness to the rape Max Cady committed and testified against Cady as opposed to being Cady's lawyer and suppressing evidence in his favor in the 1991 film.[1]
- In the 1962 film Cady was in prison for only eight years instead of 14.
- In the original version, Bowden was an upstanding husband and father in a perfect marriage with a housewife, Peggy, and an obedient 14 year old daughter named Nancy. In the 1991 version he had possibly committed several infidelities, had a defiant daughter named Danielle and his wife, now named Leigh, has a career outside the household.
- Bowden's daughter Nancy is a pure innocent and completely terrified of Cady in the 1962 version. In contrast Danielle is much more sexually aware, smokes marijuana, and is briefly intrigued by Cady. She is almost seduced by him. Also she is 15 years old, a year older than Nancy.
- Bowden had his first physical altercation with Cady at the boat basin in 1962 while in 1991 it was at a parade.
- Diane, the woman Cady raped and battered in the 1962 version was a transient barfly who habitually hung out at taverns and was unknown to Bowden. In contrast she was a legal clerk at the courthouse and he possibly had an affair with her in the 1991 film. Also, Diane in the 1962 version refused to press charges on Cady in part because she knew the people in her home town would read about the sordid details of her attack in the papers. Rape shield laws concerning the sexual background of sexual assault victims did not exist in 1962 nor did the general agreement in the press not to publish the names of rape victims as it was by 1991.
- In 1962 Bowden did not watch the men the private detective, Charles Sheevers, hired (who was in turn hired by Bowden) with Bowden's consent to try to beat up Cady. Bowden did watch in 1991 and Cady pretty much knew he was watching in 1991.
- The police learned of Bowden hiring thugs to beat up Cady from one of the attackers in a death bed declaration in 1962 while in 1991 Cady had taped their previous encounter and the threat of bodily harm Bowden made.
- The police were directly in on the plot to set Cady up to be killed in the 1962 version while in the 1991 version the police hinted broadly what Bowden should do but were not involved.
- The Bowdens didn't try to set Cady up to kill him in their home but only the houseboat in 1962.
- In 1962 airline ticket agents freely gave out who was on which flight and when they would arrive. Cady simply asked for the information with a simple story to cover why he was asking. In the 1991 version airlines no longer gave out that information to anyone who asked so Cady had to have a more sympathetic story to cause the airline ticket agent to break regulations.
- The private detective was not at the houseboat in 1962 but an undercover policeman, officer Kersack, was helping Bowden stake out the houseboat.
- Cady did not attack the Bowdens in their home in 1962 while in the 1991 version Cady killed the housekeeper and the private detective in their kitchen. In the 1962 version Cady surprised and killed officer Kersack in the river as he lay in wait.
- The Bowdens quickly left the murder scene at their house for their houseboat, becoming fugitives themselves in the 1991 version.
- The Bowdens thought they were completely safe on the houseboat in the 1991 version unaware that Cady had followed them.
- Nancy didn't injure Cady in any way and was totally helpless in the original but Danielle set fire to him in the 1991 version with lighter fluid.
- The Cape Fear river was a dead calm in the 1962 version, while in the 1991 version a severe rain squall developed.
- The houseboat wasn't wrecked in the 1962 version while in 1991 the boat smashed into a rock and broke apart into small pieces.
- Cady didn't die in the 1962 version but went back to prison for life. In the 1991 version he drowned cuffed to a piece of houseboat wreckage.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Cape Fear at the Internet Movie Database
