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Cape Fear (1991 film)

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Cape Fear
Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
Directed byMartin Scorsese
Screenplay byWesley Strick
Based on
Produced byBarbara De Fina
Starring
CinematographyFreddie Francis
Edited byThelma Schoonmaker
Music byBernard Herrmann
Elmer Bernstein (adaptation)
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • November 15, 1991 (1991-11-15)
Running time
128 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million
Box office$182.3 million

Cape Fear is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese as a remake of the 1962 film of the same name which was based on John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel, The Executioners. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker and Juliette Lewis. Robert Mitchum plays a small role in the film, while Gregory Peck (in his final theatrical film role) and Martin Balsam cameo; all three starred in the original film.[2]

The film tells the story of a convicted violent statutory rapist, who, mostly by using 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 because of the purposefully faulty defense tactics used during his trial.

Cape Fear marks the seventh collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro. The film was a commercial success and garnered positive reviews, receiving Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis).

Plot

Sam Bowden is a lawyer living in New Essex, North Carolina with his wife Leigh and teenage daughter Danielle ("Danny"). Max Cady, a former client of his, is released from prison after 14 years. Max was tried for statutory rape and battery of a 16-year-old girl and, appalled by the attack, Sam buried evidence of the victim's promiscuity and Max's unawareness of her actual age, which might have lessened the latter's sentence or even secured his acquittal.

Sam believes that Max, who was illiterate at the time of his conviction, remains unaware of his purposefully botched defense. Unbeknownst to him, however, his former client is a naturally intelligent and single-minded psychopath; he learned how to read and studied law in prison, and even unsuccessfully appealed his own conviction several times. He tracks Sam down and begins to terrorize the Bowden family; he lurks near the property and the family dog is mysteriously killed. Sam attempts to have Max arrested but the police have no evidence of a crime. Max intentionally crosses paths in a bar with County Courthouse clerk Lori Davis, who is in love with Sam, then rapes and beats her nearly to death. Despite Sam's advice, she refuses to press charges out of fear that their ongoing platonic flirtation becomes public, as well as unwillingness to be cross-examined and humiliated by her own colleagues. Sam hires a private investigator, Claude Kersek, to follow Max.

Max approaches Danny by impersonating her new drama teacher and feigning an unorthodox interest in her teenage angst. He lures her to the school theater, shares a joint with her, manipulates her libido and attraction to him and kisses her. Her parents find the joint in her schoolbook, and Danny's coyness about the extent of Max's seduction drives Sam to the point of desperation. He then agrees to Kersek's plan, which he had dismissed earlier, to have Max beaten up. Sam also gives Max a final warning, which the latter secretly tapes with a hidden recorder. Kersek's three hired thugs accost and beat Max as Sam watches from afar, but Max turns the tide on his attackers and viciously beats them instead. Max then uses the recording of Sam's threat and an exaggerated display of his own injuries to file for a restraining order against Sam. Lee Heller (Max's lawyer) also petitions the ABA Ethics Committee for Sam's disbarment, thereby triggering a two-day emergency meeting in Raleigh.

Kersek anticipates Max's intention to enter the Bowden house while Sam is in Raleigh; the family fakes Sam's departure and hides in the house, hoping that Max will break in, so that he can be shot in self-defense. However, Max kills the Bowden's housekeeper Graciela and dons her clothing before murdering Kersek by garroting him with a piano wire and shooting him with his own pistol. Horrified after discovering the bodies, the Bowdens flee to their houseboat docked upstate along the Cape Fear River.

Max, who has followed the family, attacks Sam and prepares to rape Leigh and Danny while making Sam watch. Danny sprays Max with lighter fluid as he lights a cigar, engulfing him in flames and causing him to jump off the boat. However, Max clings to a rope and pulls himself back on board. As the boat is rocked by a violent thunderstorm and the raging river, a badly burned and deranged Max confronts Sam, putting him on a mock trial for his deliberate negligence 14 years ago. Despite Sam's insistence that Max bragged about beating two prior rape charges and that his crime was too heinous for the promiscuity report to be taken into account, Max berates him for failing to do his duty as a lawyer.

The storm eventually knocks Max off his feet, allowing Sam to gain the upper hand once the women jump off the boat and make it to shore. Sam uses Max's handcuffs to shackle the latter to the boat. When the boat hits a rock and is destroyed, the fight continues on shore, but a raging tide carries Max away and he drowns speaking in tongues and singing the hymn "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand". Sam washes the blood from his hands before he rejoins Leigh and Danny, who realize that things will never be the same again for them.

Cast

Production

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. Scorsese eventually agreed to do Cape Fear because Universal did support The Last Temptation of Christ.[3] Spielberg stayed on as a producer, through his Amblin Entertainment, but chose not to be credited personally on the finished film.[4]

Despite having worked with Nolte in New York Stories (1989), Scorsese did not have him in mind to portray Sam Bowden and wanted Harrison Ford to play the part instead. Ford, however, agreed to do the film only if he was going to portray Max Cady. Nolte, who was interested in portraying Bowden, managed to convince Scorsese to cast him for the part. In addition, Drew Barrymore and Reese Witherspoon both auditioned for the part of Danielle Bowden and Spielberg reportedly wanted Bill Murray to portray Cady.[5]

The 6'0" Nick Nolte is taller than the 5'9" Robert De Niro, but for the movie, Nolte lost weight and De Niro developed muscles until he appeared to be the stronger man.

The work of Alfred Hitchcock was also influential on the style of Cape Fear. As with the 1962 film version, where director J. Lee Thompson specifically acknowledged Hitchcock's influence, strove to use Hitchcock's style, and had Bernard Herrmann write the score, Scorsese made his version in the Hitchcock manner, especially through the use of unusual camera angles, lighting, and editing techniques. Additionally, Scorsese'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 Herrmann, albeit reworked by Elmer Bernstein.[6] Portions of Bass's title sequences are reused from the unreleased ending to his film Phase IV.

Reception

Box office

Cape Fear collected $10.5 million during its opening weekend, ranking in first place at the box office, beating out Curly Sue.[7] It would be overtaken by The Addams Family a week later, but still made another $10 million while staying ahead of Beauty and the Beast.[8] The film was a box-office success, making $182,291,969 worldwide[9] on a $35-million budget.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 53 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Smart and stylish, Cape Fear is a gleefully mainstream shocker from Martin Scorsese, with a terrifying Robert De Niro performance."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, commenting:[13]

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 and honors

Award Category Subject Result
Academy Awards Best Actor Robert De Niro Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Juliette Lewis Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Robert De Niro Nominated
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Juliette Lewis Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Cinematography Freddie Francis Nominated
Best Editing Thelma Schoonmaker Nominated
Berlin International Film Festival Golden Berlin Bear[14] Martin Scorsese Nominated
Broadcast Music, Inc. BMI Film Music Award Elmer Bernstein Won
CFCA Awards Best Director Martin Scorsese Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Juliette Lewis Nominated
Most Promising Actress Won
David di Donatello Award Best Foreign Actor Robert De Niro Nominated
Jupiter Award Best International Actor Won
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award Best Supporting Actress Juliette Lewis Won
MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss Nominated
Robert De Niro Nominated
Best Male Performance Nominated
Best Villain Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Award Best Supporting Actress Juliette Lewis 2nd place
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actress 2nd place
Best Cinematographer Freddie Francis 2nd place

The film was parodied in the 1993 Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", with Sideshow Bob in the role of Cady. They also pay homage to another Robert Mitchum film The Night of the Hunter in which Sideshow Bob's knuckles (scaled down for a cartoon character with one fewer finger on each hand) say "Luv" (Love) and "Hāt" (Hate, with the diacritical mark providing the long vowel). This parody was itself the basis for Anne Washburn's play Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, which imagines post-apocalyptic theatre troupes attempting to recreate the episode, and by extension the two films and the novel.

The film was parodied as Cape Munster in the premiere episode of The Ben Stiller Show, with Ben Stiller playing an adult Eddie Munster.[15][16][17]

The film was the inspiration for professional wrestler Dan Spivey's character Waylon Mercy in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1995, and subsequently for professional wrestler Bray Wyatt's original The Wyatt Family character in WWE in 2012.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Cape Fear (18)". British Board of Film Classification. November 27, 1991. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  2. ^ Thompson, Kirsten (2005). "Chapter 6: Cape Fear and Trembling: Familial Dread". In Stam, Robert; Raengo, Alessandra (eds.). Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 126–147. ISBN 0631230556.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Maslin, Janet (November 10, 1991). "FILM; Martin Scorsese Ventures Back To 'Cape Fear'". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Cormier, Roger (November 16, 2016). "15 Intense Facts About Cape Fear". Mental Floss. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "Cape Fear, film score". AllMusic.
  7. ^ "'Cape Fear' debuts at No. 1". The Sacramento Bee. November 19, 1991. p. 46. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. ^ Horn, John (November 26, 1991). "'Addams Family' scares up huge box office". The Associated Press. The Boston Globe. p. 29. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ^ "Cape Fear (1991) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  10. ^ "Cape Fear (1991)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  11. ^ "Cape Fear Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  12. ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  13. ^ "Cape Fear at RogerEbert.com". Roger Ebert. November 13, 1991.
  14. ^ "Berlinale: 1992 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  15. ^ Jicha, Tom (September 26, 1992). "TOO MUCH TV AS A KID WAS GOOD FOR BEN STILLER". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  16. ^ "'Ben Stiller Show' may become best-kept secret on TV". Orange County Register. October 7, 1992. Retrieved June 4, 2021 – via The Baltimore Sun.
  17. ^ King, Susan (December 4, 2003). "A two-disc treasure for 'Pirates' lovers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  18. ^ https://www.thesignaturespot.com/articles/the-ballad-of-waylon-mercy

Further reading

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