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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 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.

Cape Fear marks the seventh of nine 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), Cape Fear (1991), Casino (1995), and The Irishman (2017).

The film was critically acclaimed and 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 14 years earlier when he was working as a public defender in Atlanta. Cady was tried for the violent rape and battery of a young woman. Bowden, appalled by Cady's crime, buried evidence that might have lightened Cady's sentence or even secured his acquittal. Cady subsequently studied law in prison and assumed his own defense, unsuccessfully appealing his conviction several times. After his release from prison, Cady tracks down Bowden and hints he has learned about Bowden burying the report. Several incidents involving Cady impact the Bowden family, which consists of Bowden's wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and their teenage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis). The family dog is poisoned. Cady lurks near their property. Bowden attempts to have Cady arrested, but police lieutenant Elgart (Robert Mitchum), says there is no evidence of a crime. At a bar, Cady meets Lori Davis (Illeana Douglas), a colleague of Bowden with whom she might be having a love affair. At her house, Cady cuffs her hands behind her back, breaks her arm and rapes her. Lori refuses to press charges, ashamed of what happened. Bowden hires private investigator Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) to follow Cady.

Cady next approaches Danielle at her school by impersonating her new drama teacher and kisses her. Bowden warns him to leave his family and him alone or suffer the consequences. Cady secretly tapes the conversation with a hidden recorder. Kersek persuades Bowden to hire three men to beat Cady and intimidate him, but as Bowden watches from a hiding place, Cady turns the tide on his attackers and viciously beats them. 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), 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. Cady kills Kersek and a housekeeper before escaping. Bowden, Leigh, and Danielle discover the bodies. Horrified, they flee to their houseboat, which is docked upstate along Cape Fear. Cady follows them by tying himself to the chassis of their car. He attacks the family on the boat, beating and tying up Bowden, and prepares to rape Leigh and Danielle while making Bowden watch. Danielle sprays Cady with lighter fluid while he lights a cigar, engulfing him in flames and causing him to jump off the boat to extinguish the fire. However, Cady clings to a rope and pulls himself back on board.

As the boat is rocked by a violent thunderstorm, a badly burned Cady confronts Bowden with a mock trial. The storm knocks him off his feet, allowing Bowden to gain the upper hand once the women make it to shore. Bowden uses Cady's handcuffs to shackle Cady to the boat. When the boat hits a rock and is destroyed, the fight continues on shore. A raging tide carries Cady away, and he drowns. Bowden performs a cathartic washing of blood from his hands before rejoining Leigh and Danielle farther up the riv

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
  • Martin Balsam as Judge
  • Charles Scorsese as Fruitstand Customer

Trivia[]

  • Robert De Niro was tattooed with vegetable dyes, which faded after a few months.
  • The thick accent Robert De Niro used to play Max Cady reportedly gave Martin Scorsese the creeps. As a joke, De Niro would call Scorsese's house, leaving voicemails as Cady.
  • The scene in the high school auditorium was completely ad-libbed by Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis, and done on the first take.
  • Robert De Niro's Cady accent came from an earlier role, where he played a southerner. To prepare for the role, De Niro took excerpts of the script and a tape recorder into southern towns and would ask locals to read the lines into the tape.
  • Originally, in the scene where Cady puts handcuffs on Lori, she was supposed to start freaking out. Illeana Douglas was the one who came up with the idea of having her character laughing and trying to play along instead.
  • The auditorium scene was originally scripted as a chase scene, but Martin Scorsese wanted it to be a seduction.
  • Martin Scorsese read the original script three times while making Goodfellas (1990) and hated it each time, because of the Bowdens were a happy family and he wanted them to be miserable.
  • Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct. He later recommended Martin Scorsese for the job and personally called Scorsese, letting him know that this was a commercial film that had potential to be a hit, which would exercise more power for Scorsese to make his films.
  • Director Martin Scorsese's first choice for the role of Bowden was Harrison Ford. He had Robert De Niro call Ford to try convincing him to take the part; after some consideration, he ultimately turned down the offer.
  • Robert De Niro paid a dentist $5,000 to make his teeth look suitably bad for the role of Max Cady. After filming, he paid $20,000 to have them fixed.
  • This was Gregory Peck's final appearance in a theatrical film release before his death on June 12, 2003 at the age of 87.
  • The climax was filmed inside a ninety-foot water tank on a soundstage. It took four weeks to shoot.
  • Unlike Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum did not get along well with each other off-screen while filming Cape Fear (1962). Notably, despite their small roles in the remake, Peck and Mitchum do not appear in any scenes together.
  • Drew Barrymore screentested for the role of Danielle Bowden, but failed the audition. She later said she had "acted all over the place, and it was just the biggest disaster of my life."
  • Robert De Niro researched sexual predator crimes for the part, and suggested the scene where his character bites the victim.
  • The scene between Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis in the school was shot in three takes, but the first one was used in final productions.
  • In the original script, Leigh only met Max Cady at the end. Jessica Lange suggested the scene where they talk outside her house be added to the script, because she felt there should be a meeting between the two before the climax.
  • The score by Elmer Bernstein is not only an arrangement of Bernard Herrmann's original Cape Fear (1962) score, but also includes parts of Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain (1966).
  • Robert De Niro did a lot of working out several months before the movie and during the shoot to make him the muscular Max Cady, reportedly taking his body fat down to only three percent.
  • Gregory Peck, who starred in Cape Fear (1962), appears as Cady's lawyer. Robert Mitchum played Max Cady in the 1962 version, and appears as Lieutenant Elgart. Martin Balsam played Mark Dutton in the 1962 version, and the judge in this version.
  • The climactic scene out in the swamp was filmed in John U. Lloyd State Park, in the middle of a mangrove swamp. A tropical depression set over the set for four days, so the film crew had to wait for the storm to stop so that they could make their own rain.
  • Features Juliette Lewis's only Oscar-nominated performance.
  • Martin Scorsese wanted the Bowdens' house surrounded by oak trees, covered by hanging tufts of Spanish moss. He wanted it so it looked like a sunny oasis by day, and isolating by night. Therefore, it would make a perfect dark cover for Cady.
  • When Steven Spielberg was attached to direct, he had plans on casting Bill Murray as Max Cady.
  • Juliette Lewis developed a crush on Robert De Niro during the scene in the drama class.
  • It took a year to convince Martin Scorsese to make this movie.
  • The music that is heard at the climax of the movie was a piece of music that Bernard Herrmann had written for Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966), but that piece of music was never used. Elmer Bernstein had always liked that original score and he asked Martin Scorsese if it could be used in the film.
  • Martin Scorsese directed the film as part of a two picture deal with Universal Pictures, because of their help and support with the release of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). The other movie in the deal was Casino (1995).
  • Robert De Niro and Illeana Douglas' scenes were improvised.
  • Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte had to alter their physiques for the film, because the 6'0", bulky, Nolte is clearly larger than the 5'9", slimmer De Niro. Nolte slimmed down, losing a good deal of weight while shooting the film, and De Niro bulked up his muscles considerably until De Niro could be seen as Nolte's physical superior. Interestingly, the original Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck 6'3") was also slightly taller than the original Max Cady (Robert Mitchum 6'1").
  • During the opening sequence, Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is seen working out in his cell and the camera pans over his jail time reading material. One of the books featured is "The Cell Within" by Jake Manning. This is not a published work, and only exists as part of a Miami Vice (1984) storyline. In Miami Vice: The Cell Within (1989), Tubbs is tormented and imprisoned by the author Jake Manning, an ex-con he helped convict years before.
  • Reese Witherspoon auditioned for the role of Danielle Bowden.
  • For the first time in Martin Scorsese's career, he allowed the screenwriter, Wesley Strick, on the set during filming.
  • This was the first film in which Martin Scorsese used visual effects.
  • There is an iconic shooting star shot, a nod to Steven Spielberg.
  • Nicole Kidman lobbied for the role of Danielle, but Martin Scorsese wanted a younger actress.
  • This was Amblin Entertainment's first R-rated film.
  • Filmed in seventeen weeks in South Florida.
  • The music video that Danielle watches to avoid her parents' argument is Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing".
  • George C. Scott was originally supposed to play Lieutenant Elgart, but because of health problems, he dropped out a few days before filming, and Robert Mitchum was brought in.
  • Robert De Niro played scenes with Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates in the Sam and Danielle roles for Martin Scorsese, when De Niro was trying to interest him in directing the film.
  • Robert Mitchum feared in comparing his character of Max Cady to Robert De Niro's portrayal in the film. He had never seen either movie.
  • The scene where Robert De Niro sits on the brick wall, he actually sits in front of a bluescreen, where the fireworks were added later in production.
  • The script went through twenty-four drafts.
  • The opening of the movie is very similar to the opening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), both visually (the red and black fade of female face) and musically (Elmer Bernstein emulating Bernard Hermann's original score).
  • Illeana Douglas based her performance as Lori Davis on Jennifer Levin, who was murdered in 1986 in Central Park by Robert Chambers (whom the press dubbed the "Preppy Murderer").
  • The ice cream parlor scene was shot in the first week of production where the owners complained for the first three days that they were losing business.
  • Robert De Niro helped costume designer Rita Ryack choose Cady's clothing.
  • Diane Keaton met with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro to discuss playing the role of Leigh Bowden, but didn't win the part.
  • For this movie, Scorsese heavily imitated Alfred Hitchcock's style, homaging the British director in several shots, some of which are direct nods to many famous Hitchcock films, such as "Strangers on a Train" (the parade) or "Marnie" (the nightmare).
  • Fangoria Magazine was barred from covering the film, because Universal, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese saw the film as a thriller, not a horror film. They were also barred from covering The Silence of the Lambs (1991) for similar reasons.
  • Martin Scorsese had also wanted Telly Savalas to return from the original cast.
  • This is the only Oscar-nominated performance by Robert De Niro in a non-Best Picture nominated film.
  • Sole collaboration between longtime friends and New Hollywood trailblazers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Spielberg oversaw development of the project via Amblin Entertainment, although he is uncredited on the film itself.
  • Robert Richardson auditioned for the position of cinematographer, but lost out to Freddie Francis. Martin Scorsese, a staunch admirer of Richardson's work with his former New York University student Oliver Stone, remembered Richardson when he was preparing to direct Casino (1995).
  • Sam Bowden and Max Cady are the only characters to retain the same names from Cape Fear (1962).
  • This was the first film Martin Scorsese shot in the wider 2.39:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the taller 1.85:1 ratio in which he had filmed all his previous works (excluding New York, New York (1977), which was shot in 1.66:1). For years, he held off shooting his movies in 2.39:1 in fear of pan-and-scan destroying his image. However, by 1991 he knew that widescreen home media was becoming more and more available, so he decided to finally shoot a movie in 2.39:1 since he knew that the movie would get a widescreen release for home media. Despite this, there was still a pan-and-scan VHS, but alongside it a widescreen VHS and laserdisc were released. Because this film received a pan and scan VHS release, Scorsese shot his later films The Age of Innocence (1993) and Casino (1995) in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio, using the Super 35 format.
  • The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Martin Balsam, and Gregory Peck; and three Oscar nominees: Nick Nolte, Robert Mitchum, and Juliette Lewis.
  • Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast as Danielle.
  • The name of Bowden's houseboat is Moana, which means "ocean" in Hawaiian.
  • Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct with Martin Scorsese set to direct Schindler's List (1993). They both realized the other was better suited to direct their films and switched. A good move for Spielberg as he went on to win his first Oscars for Best Directing and Best Picture.
  • The 1962 and 1991 film adaptations of Cape Fear, formerly titled "The Executioners", omit Sam Bowden's two young sons Jamie and Bucky.
  • Lori Davis (Illeana Douglas) was named after Lori Martin, who played Nancy Bowden in Cape Fear (1962).
  • Lori, talking with Max, says, "Now weren't I the bozo on this bus?!", a reference to the 1971 album by The Firesign Theatre called "I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus". A reference like this may seem against period, but Martin Scorsese, like the Firesign Theatre players, was part of the counter-culture of the 1960s and early 1970s. Considered with other elements in the script, such as the lax attitude toward marijuana, this doesn't seem so out of character.
  • When Max Cady tells Bowden to "check out the Bible, Counselor, the Book between Esther and Psalms," he's referring to the Book of Job. This is its placement in the Christian Bible. In the original Hebrew Bible, the Book of Job is in between Proverbs and Song of Songs, the latter being the first of the Five Megillot (Scrolls).
  • Robert Mitchum (Lieutenant Elgart) casually says of Cady, "If he's unemployed, he gotta have money, or we'll bust him for vagrancy." Mitchum was himself charged with vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia as a young man.
  • When the Bowden family leaves their home to escape Cady, they drive toward the coast to get on their houseboat. A green highway sign can be seen that says "Cape Fear Next Exit." The real Cape Fear is located on Bald Head Island, and it faces the ocean, not the river. Also, there are no cars allowed on Bald Head, so there's no exit from a highway that leads to it - there is only ferry access to Bald Head Island.
  • Another music video shown on Danielle's television is "The Bog", of the band Bigod 20.
  • In the 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird", actor Gregory Peck portrayed an attorney in a rape trial. The novel on which it was based was written by Harper Lee. In this film, Peck portrays an attorney for a man formerly sentenced to prison for rape. His name in the story is Lee Heller.
  • The film was released two days before Martin Scorsese's forty-ninth birthday.
  • Robert De Niro and Illeana Douglas were both in "Goodfellas", also directed by Martin Scorsese, the previous year.
  • Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange appeared in Night and the City (1992), which was also an updated version of an older movie.
  • The note that is broken on Nick Nolte's grand piano is an A two octaves above middle C.
  • A picture of James Dean is shown when Danielle (Juliette Lewis) slams the door while her parents argue.
  • There were 163 cuts to the film.
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