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Cape Fear
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| Genre | Drama, DVD Movie, Blu-ray Movie, Action & Adventure/Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense |
| Format | Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Widescreen |
| Contributor | Juliette Lewis, Wesley Strick, Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Illeana Douglas, Martin Scorsese, Robert Mitchum, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker, Frank Marshall, Martin Balsam, Fred Dalton Thompson, Kathleen Kennedy, Barbara De Fina, Gregory Peck See more |
| Language | English |
| Runtime | 2 hours and 8 minutes |
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Product Description
Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese brings heart-pounding suspense to one of the most acclaimed thrillers of all time. 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.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 5.31 x 7.56 x 0.71 inches; 2.54 Ounces
- Item model number : 2220560
- Director : Martin Scorsese
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Widescreen
- Run time : 2 hours and 8 minutes
- Release date : August 23, 2005
- Actors : Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker
- Dubbed: : French, Spanish
- Producers : Barbara De Fina, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Studio : Universal Studios Home Entertainment
- ASIN : B000A2UBN4
- Writers : Wesley Strick
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,321 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #142 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)
- #694 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Director Martin Scorsese’s horror crime thriller Cape Fear (1991) is a formidable remake of the old classic crime drama with Robert Mitchum’s scary creep criminal against Gregory Peck’s heroic father protagonist. Scorsese’s striking direction has colors bursting onto the screen like an old 70’s Italian Giallo picture as he modernizes the 1962 film noir original movie into something truly unnerving. Every second is tense and the eerie atmosphere and long held shots of just a predator talking is quite effective. The theater sequence with Robert De Niro molesting Juliette Lewis’ teenage girl Danielle is unbelievably disturbing to witness. Scorsese knows how to upset and disturb the viewer. Cape Fear is one of the scariest films ever made.
Editor Thelma Schoonmaker has these wild cuts that are kind of jarring and very in vogue in the 90’s. I’m sure Scorsese thought they were cool at the time, but it dates this Cape Fear to 1991 horribly as you are not so much as unnerved as annoyed by them. It goes by quickly for a 128 minute long movie though. Scorsese made such a well made and fascinating film that is still enthralling to watch now, but there are some really goofy whip cuts and sound design choices in the finale. Freddie Francis’ cinematography is awesome with beautiful framing of De Niro leering at this family with fireworks exploding behind him to really tight close-up shots of faces with focused shots of characters reacting to things in the background.
Writers John D. MacDonald and Wesley Strick know how to write creepy dialogue as De Niro’s predatory establishes his sick motive with these eerie lines of foreboding. It’s all about the failures of the law in every sense of the word. Henry Bumstead’s production design is creative with miniatures for the house and house-boat, while other sets are entirely made up like the jungle finale for the storm sequences. Jack G. Taylor Jr.’s art direction is neat with thunderstruck skies, fireworks filled skies, and smoke filled air with cigar smoke all to color Cape Fear in strange imagery. Alan Hicks’ set decoration looks so natural and realistic for every set. I loved hearing composer Bernard Herrmann’s original massive symphonic score again as reworked for modern audiences by Elmer Bernstein. It’s still creepy to hear.
Rita Ryack came up with all these Hawaiian shirts for De Niro and loafers for a casual looking threat. Dorothy J. Pearl, Edouard F. Henriques, and Elizabeth Lambert’s make-up is incredible for all of De Niro’s fake tattoos. It’s amazing that De Niro gained all that muscle just to look more intimidating as Max Cady. Robert De Niro is scary with his subtle conversations and idle threats that he makes good on with a vicious performance. By the end, he overacts a bit and it loses some of the threat, but he looks imposing at all times. I love his disgusting speech to Juliette Lewis in the theater. Lewis is so brave as Danielle as she endures trauma after trauma with a realistic fear in her eyes.
Nick Nolte has that wiley Gary Busey insanity to his performance as the paranoid, worried, idiot lawyer jerk and philanderer Sam. He’s so unlikable that you can see his every mistake in handling De Niro’s movie monster. Jessica Lange is gorgeous and sympathetic as Nolte’s wife. Her argument with Nolte over his cheating is amazing as she feels like a real wife screaming at her cheating husband with righteous indignation. Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck make neat cameos as they were the original villain and hero, respectively. I loved Illeana Douglas’ young victim as she is really moving like Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis here.
In all, Scorsese’s Cape Fear remake is terrifying in a modern horror thriller sense, while the original is still superior for haunting atmosphere and deeper nuance.
In the role of Sam Bowden, Nolte gives a convincing performance as a mild-mannered attorney who is knocked for a loop when his past comes back to haunt him. I give Nolte props for showing his range here. Instead of the stereotypical tough-guy part that he often finds himself in, Nolte as Sam Bowden is a 4-eyed wimp who doesn't even know how to handle a gun.
Take the scariest convict you've ever seen in a newspaper or on TV, magnify him 10x over, give him a very bad axe to grind and you've got DeNiro's Max Cady. With his deranged and (at least in his sick mind) scripturally-based vendetta tattooed on his flesh, he proclaims that he is here to "save" Sam Bowden and that he is going to "guide him through hell to reach his paradise." DeNiro is like a master chess player, besting Sam at every turn.
The remake Bowdens are flawed and thus more believable--they are real people with real problems, unlike the original Bowdens who were an Any Family from Main Street America. In the remake, Sam Bowden cheats on his wife (and maybe in the courtroom). Leigh Bowden chain smokes, screams at her husband and dreams of a lover she doesn't have. Danielle Bowden hides in her room when her parents fight and gets busted for smoking pot. Max Cady is able to capitalize on the weaknesses of the individual family members, pitting them against each other and making them in turn more vulnerable to him and his schemes.
The stakes are also higher in the remake. In the original, Bowden served as a witness to Cady's crime. Scorsese changes the relationship between Cady and Bowden. The storyline is more complex since remake Bowden is not only Cady's attorney, but the attorney who abandoned him and sold him up the river. A larger issue is examined: The all-too-common problem of court-appointed defense attorneys who fail their clients. And while we examine Sam and Max, we also examine ourselves. Would we have done the same thing if we had been in Sam's place? Is there one member of the audience who feels sorry for Max Cady, even though maybe they should? There is a certain karmic satisfaction that after Sam failed Max, everyone around Sam is now failing Sam. As much as we loathe Max Cady we may not be so quick to side with Sam Bowden, either. Remake-Sam carries a heavy weight and for the severity of his transgression he must stand trial, literally.
Where Hero-Sam (Peck) did in the end what we expected him to do all along, Sinner-Sam (Nolte) redeems himself and is absolved of his guilt when his hands are washed clean in the raging river. God is missing in the original but arrogantly and pervertedly invoked by DeNiro's Cady. In the remake, God is in fact the only able-bodied character other than Max Cady. Force Majeure is an unforeseeable act of God that cancels all promises and obligations. And it is the act that saves Sam Bowden and his family. We find out that the villain's flesh-art and bellicose proclamations were, afterall, only the rantings of a lunatic. God is not on Cady's side.
I would recommend the original to someone who is in the mood to be entertained by a simple story about right and wrong. I would recommend the remake to someone who is in the mood to be entertained by a story about a situation so wrong only God can make it right.
Top reviews from other countries
Great actor but rarely do we see him delivering these days so I had to dig up this old performance to remind me of what he can do given the right script and direction. His mentor Martin Scorsese is the provider here.
Wonderful to see two great stars of the original film, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, appear in cameo to add to this production. It's sexier and much more brutal than the 1962 masterpiece and I rate it very close to that film which looks so much gentler when compared to Scorsese's thriller even though it suggested so much more than it delivered graphically. Well, such were the climate and boundaries back in that day and we have clearly moved on but there will be many who see this remake as crass and ugly.
I enjoyed it, it entertained me as much as the original as I make a 'mind adjustment' to befit a modern much more turbulent remake of a much loved older film. In truth the original film cried out for a display of wild violence from Robert Mitchum but that could never be shown under the restraints of the then 'code' practiced by Hollywood. Not so elsewhere such as in Japan and Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' for example amongst many others.
English subtitles with the film.
This is the 1991 remake of the original 1962 version, directed by Martin Scorsese. It has been brought up to date with a lot more violence, and a more menacing Max Cady. Robert De Niro plays the part to perfection. It is not a scene for scene remake, but the story sticks pretty close to the original, just some scenario's have been changed to bring the film up to date with modern audiences. It has the same haunting music as the original by Bernard Herrmann.
Picture Quality is good with sharp definition, and natural colours.
This blu ray transfer has been transferred in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and the sound is in 5.1.
Recommended, especially if you are a fan of Robert De Niro, or Martin Scorsese.
Extras are a whole 'nother story:
There's a SD 1991 "behind the scenes" (ie. EPK video) which adds not much, except that Martin Scorcese rather disappointingly refers to the original as a "perfect B picture" and Wesley Strick turns out to be a mallflower teenager with a goatee - yikes!
There's also a SD compilation of Saul Bass credit sequences, including Vertigo, which are pretty nifty but completely superfluous unfortunately.
I love this film, for the record, but I think I prefer the original. This one aspires more to realism in characterisation, while the original used archetypes to tell more of a fairytale/fable kind of approach. However, this one adds some religious connotations, some of which works and some of which doesn't. I never really get a good feel of why Max Cady would want to (sort of spoilers) try Sam in a Book of Job fashion. I get that he got all up his own bottom in prison trying to make himself better than the rest of the prisoners and fixated on a higher kind of revenge, but it never really coelesces with his other actions, which remain those of a petty crook with an inflated image. You could argue that inflated image is what's given to delusions of grandeur, but the film seems to play up to the idea that Cady's trial has some grander, perhaps even spiritual value.
The real reason all this stuff is here? To make the film seem, sigh, "deeper" than it really is. Scorsese mentions some of this stuff in the "Making of"/Behind the Scenes fluff, but he seems to have little to no idea most of the subtext in his film was there in the first place in the first movie.
Very confusing stuff! The film, however, is still a Hell of a good watch. I suggest you do what I did, buy both Cape Fears on Blu-Ray and get The Simpsons Season 5 out of your cupboard (or buy it if you don't have it) and watch both Cape Fears, followed by "Cape Feare", the excellent Simpsons parody. Now THAT'S an evening of entertainment.
Robert De Niro is convincing in his role as a sadistic menace.
He stalks and terrorises a lawyer, his wife and their teenage daughter. The reason why he chose to torment the lawyer and his family is not revealed fully in the beginning.
There is a lot of violence in this movie and some stellar acting all round.



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