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Revision as of 05:05, 11 April 2014 by 220.233.71.53 (talk) (→Background)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1991 American film| Cape Fear | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Screenplay by | Wesley Strick |
| Produced by | Barbara De Fina |
| Starring | Robert De Niro Nick Nolte Juliette Lewis Jessica Lange Joe Don Baker Robert Mitchum Gregory Peck |
| Cinematography | Freddie Francis |
| Edited by | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Production companies | Amblin Entertainment Cappa Films Tribeca Productions |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 127 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Box office | $182,291,969 |
Cape Fear is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, who all appeared in the 1962 original film.
The film tells the story of a convicted rapist who, using mostly his newfound knowledge of the law and its numerous loopholes, seeks vengeance against a former public defender whom he blames for his 14-year imprisonment due to purposefully faulty defense tactics used during his trial.
The film marks the seventh of eight collaborations between Scorsese and De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas (1990), and ending with Casino (1995).
The film received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Lewis).
Plot
Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is a lawyer in the quiet town of New Essex, North Carolina. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is a former client whom Bowden defended fourteen years earlier when he was working as a public defender in Atlanta. Cady was being tried for the rape and battery of a young woman. Bowden, appalled by Cady's crime, buried crucial evidence about the victim which might have lightened Cady's sentence or even secured his acquittal, violating his ethical and professional duty as a defense attorney. Cady was illiterate at the time and unaware of Bowden's actions. The former convict learned to read and studied law in prison, and even assumed his own defense, unsuccessfully appealing his conviction several times. Cady hints strongly that he has learned about Bowden burying the report, stating that the judge and prosecutor in his case did their jobs while Bowden betrayed his own client. After his release from prison, Cady tracks down Bowden.
Several incidents involving Cady begin to impact the Bowden family, which consists of Bowden's wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and their teenage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis). The family dog, Ben, is mysteriously poisoned. Cady is seen at night perched on the wall just outside the Bowden property limits. Bowden attempts to have Cady arrested, but local police lieutenant Elgart (Robert Mitchum) reminds Bowden that there is no evidence Cady has committed any crime. At a bar, Cady meets Lori Davis (Illeana Douglas), a female colleague of Bowden with whom Bowden may or may not be having a love affair. Later at her house, Cady cuffs her hands behind her back, breaks her arm, bites a chunk of flesh from her cheek and brutally rapes her. Lori refuses to press charges against Cady, fearful that she will be publicly questioned about her sexual history. Cady next approaches Danielle at her school by pretending to be her new drama teacher and goes as far as kissing her.
Bowden, finally having had enough, hires private investigator Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) to follow Cady. Bowden also approaches Cady in a restaurant and gives him a firm warning to leave him and his family alone or suffer the consequences. Cady refuses to give in, and he secretly tapes the conversation with a recorder hidden under the table. Kersek eventually persuades Bowden to hire three men to beat Cady in an effort to intimidate him but, as Bowden watches from a hiding place, Cady quickly turns the tide on his attackers and viciously beats them. Cady hears Bowden from behind his hiding spot and steadily approaches him, intimidating him with psychotic ramblings and a literary quote, but decides to leave. Cady uses the recording of Bowden's threat and an exaggerated display of his own injuries to file for a restraining order against Bowden. Cady's new lawyer, Lee Heller (Gregory Peck), also files a complaint with the North Carolina State Bar, vowing to have Bowden disbarred.
Kersek reasons that Cady may try to enter the Bowden house during Bowden's appearance at a bar hearing out of town. They fake Bowden's departure and hide in the house, hoping that Cady will break in so that he can be shot in self-defense. As they wait, Cady, disguised as the maid Graciella (Zully Montero), attacks and kills Kersek in the kitchen. Bowden, Leigh, and Danielle discover his body, as well as that of Graciella. Horrified, they flee in their car to their house-boat, which is docked upstate along Cape Fear. Cady follows them by tying himself to the chassis of the Bowdens' car. That night, he attacks the family on the boat, beating and tying up Bowden, and prepares to rape both Leigh and Danielle while Bowden watches. When Leigh offers herself in Danielle's place, Danielle sprays Cady with lighter fluid while he lights a cigar, engulfing him in flames and causing him to jump off the boat in order to extinguish the fire. However, Cady clings to a rope tied to the boat and pulls himself back on board.
As the boat is rocked by a violent storm, Cady ferociously confronts Bowden with a mock trial. Bowden finally admits to having buried the potentially exculpatory report but counters that the woman's promiscuity was no justification to defend a rape. An enraged Cady prepares to kill Bowden, but the storm and the river's harsh current knocks Cady off his feet, allowing Bowden to gain the upper hand once the women make it to shore. The two men fight furiously, until Bowden finally manages to use Cady's handcuffs to shackle Cady to the boat. When the boat hits a stationary rock and is destroyed, the fight continues on shore. Bowden almost crushes Cady's head with a large stone; however, a raging tide carries Cady away, as he is madly screaming in tongues. Bowden watches as the piece of boat sinks to the bottom of the river, taking the still-shackled Cady with it, and then performs a cathartic washing of his blood from his hands before rejoining Leigh and Danielle further up the riverbank.
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Max Cady
- Nick Nolte as Sam Bowden
- Jessica Lange as Leigh Bowden
- Juliette Lewis as Danielle Bowden
- Joe Don Baker as Claude Kersek
- Robert Mitchum as Lt. Elgart
- Gregory Peck as Lee Heller
- Illeana Douglas as Lori Davis
- Fred Dalton Thompson as Tom Broadbent
- Zully Montero as Graciella
- Charles Scorsese as Fruitstand Customer
- Martin Balsam as Judge
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 originally developed by Steven Spielberg, who eventually decided it was too violent and traded it to Scorsese to get back Schindler's List, which Scorsese had decided not to make. Spielberg stayed on as a producer, through his Amblin Entertainment, but chose not to be credited personally on the finished film.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro, lost to Anthony Hopkins for The Silence of the Lambs) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Juliette Lewis, lost to Mercedes Ruehl for The Fisher King).
Nick Nolte is taller than Robert De Niro, but for the movie Nolte lost weight and De Niro developed muscles until De Niro appeared to be the stronger man. De Niro reportedly took his body fat down to four percent. De Niro also paid a doctor $20,000 to grind down his teeth for the role to give the character a more menacing look.
Although a remake of the original Cape Fear, Scorsese's update is also greatly influenced by another Mitchum-starring film, The Night of the Hunter, in which a religiously fanatical criminal has tattoos on his hands reading "Love and Hate", Cady's body is tattooed with various biblical verses such as "vengeance is mine saith the Lord", and he tells Sam to read the Book of Job (in which the sins of the father will be visited upon the wife and daughter) and so on. Mirroring the long journey downriver in The Night of the Hunter as Mitchum follows the children is the voyage down Cape Fear River in the houseboat in Cape Fear.
The work of Alfred Hitchcock was also influential on the style of Cape Fear. As with the 1962 film version, where director J. Lee Thomson specifically acknowledged Hitchcock's influence, strove to use Hitchcock's style, and had Bernard Hermann write the score, (see Cape Fear (1962 film)), Scorcese made his version in the Hitchcock manner, especially through the use of unusual camera angles, lighting and editing techniques. Additionally, Scorcese's version has opening credits designed by regular Hitchcock collaborator Saul Bass and the link to Hitchcock is cemented by the reuse of the original score by Bernard Herrmann), albeit reworked by Elmer Bernstein. The scene where Cady murders with the piano wire while dressed as the maid Graciella also recalls Hitchcock, specifically the psychosexual crossdressing in female clothing which forms a core theme of Hitchcock's Psycho (although here Cady merely uses the woman's clothing as a deceptive disguise).
Cady's character has educated himself while in prison regarding not just legal procedures, but also literature. In the scene where he lures Danielle to the drama theatre, he references Henry Miller's trilogy Nexus, Sexus and Plexus and later gifts her with a copy of one of these novels, which for Cady represent his point of view that the daughter is being controlled by her parents and should liberate herself. Danielle is reading Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel and Cady is able to show his familiarity with its themes. Furthermore, during the scene in which Cady is beaten by three men hired by Kersek on Sam's behalf to put Cady to put him in hospital, he quotes a 17th century writer; and in the final scenes on the house boat Cady frequently refers to the Ninth Circle of Hell, representing Treachery - a concept derived from Dante's book The Divine Comedy, specifically from Dante's Inferno.
This is also the first film Scorsese shot in the wider 2.39:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the smaller 1.85:1 ratio in which he had filmed all his previous works (excluding New York, New York, which was shot in 1.66:1).
Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam and Robert Mitchum appear in supporting roles, Peck as Cady's lawyer, Balsam as the judge and Mitchum as the police detective who suggests to Bowden the possibility of using "alternative" means to stop Cady.
Reception
The film was a box-office success, making $182,291,969 worldwide on a $35 million budget. The film also received critical acclaim, and has a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film received generally positive reviews by critics. It currently has a 76% "fresh" rating on the film aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.1 out of 10. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, commenting "Cape Fear is impressive moviemaking, showing Scorsese as a master of a traditional Hollywood genre who is able to mold it to his own themes and obsessions. But as I look at this $35 million movie with big stars, special effects and production values, I wonder whether it represents a good omen from the finest director now at work"
Awards nominations and honors
Robert De Niro was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Drama. Juliette Lewis received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.
American Film Institute recognition:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" – Nominated
Cultural references
The film was parodied in the 1993 Simpsons episode, "Cape Feare". In 1995, The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debuted a character named Waylon Mercy, portrayed by Dan Spivey, who was based on De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady. Spivey only lasted a few months with the company due to injury, and the character was abandoned. They developed another, similar, character based on De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady in 2013, Bray Wyatt. In the Seinfeld episode "The Red Dot", as Elaine's boyfriend rampages through her office to get revenge on Jerry for making him lose his Job, Elaine proclaims "It's Cape Fear!".
See also
References
- Maslin, Janet (1991-11-10). "FILM; Martin Scorsese Ventures Back To 'Cape Fear'". The New York Times.
- http://movies.msn.com/celebrities/celebrity-photos/juliette-lewis/?photo=c1048d1f-6e00-4876-b8f8-cfd730ace34d&gallery=22181
- "Stars who went too far for movie roles". Yahoo!.
- www.allmusic.com/composition/cape-fear-film-score-mc0002394599
- "Cape Fear (1991) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
- "Cape Fear Movie Reviews Pictures — Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
- "Cape Fear at RottenTomatoes.com". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
- "Cape Fear at RogerEbert.com". Roger Ebert. November 13, 1991. Retrieved 2010-10-13.
- "Berlinale: 1992 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
- "Critics, not fans, should bite their tongues". Slam! Wrestling. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
Further reading
- Machura, Stefan and Robson, Peter, eds. Law and Film: Representing Law in Movies (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing, 2001). Thain, Gerald J., "Cape Fear, Two Versions and Two Visions Separated by Thirty Years." ISBN 0-631-22816-0, ISBN 978-0-631-22816-5 176 pages.
External links
Categories:- 1991 films
- 1990s crime thriller films
- 1990s thriller films
- Amblin Entertainment films
- American crime thriller films
- American legal films
- English-language films
- Films about revenge
- Films based on thriller novels
- Films directed by Martin Scorsese
- Films set in North Carolina
- Films shot anamorphically
- Films shot in California
- Films shot in Florida
- Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
- Horror film remakes
- Psychological thriller films
- Universal Pictures films
- Southern Gothic films