Cape Fear

Released November 1991

Starring Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange (as Leigh Bowden), Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Ileana Douglas
Directed by Martin Scorsese
128 min.

Box Office gross - $79.1 million

See complete credits at Internet Movie Database

Cape Fear was first made in 1962 and starred Robert Mitchum as Max Cody, the psychotic prison parole who seeks revenge on the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended him fourteen years earlier. Martin Scorsese’s lavish remake keeps the original story intact but adds layers of psychological depth to the characters and the violence is more graphic. In Scorsese’s version, Sam Bowden (the victimized lawyer) is not the clean cut average American family man - he is flawed, and to some extent, Max Cody’s revenge is justified.

Martin Scorsese, one of the most prominent directors working today, is known for his dark and violent films like Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. Jessica Lange was thrilled for the opportunity to work with the brilliant director even though the part of Leigh Bowden did not give her much to work with and basically she is just a terrorized wife. Scorsese did, however, add much more dimension to her character than the original film and here much time is given to depict the tension in the Bowden’s marriage.

Cape Fear was criticized by many as being a horror/slasher film. The last twenty minutes in which the Bowden’s are terrorized on a sailboat during an intense thunderstorm is marked by the prevalent tendency in today’s films in which the killer keeps coming back again and again. It did receive some praise but is not considered Scorsese’s best work. The cast is a powerful one - Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (who appeared in the original) make cameos and the supporting players are all established names. As for the leads, De Niro is slimy and chilling and Cody and Nolte and Lange are intense as the angst ridden couple. Juliette Lewis, who plays the Bowden’s teenage daughter, won much praise for her part as a Lolita-esqe nymphet.

Critical Sampling:

"Nolte and Lange suffer most from the script's lack of depth; they're both strong, confident, exciting actors, but their characters here don't allow them to express anywhere near the full range of their talents.." - Hal Hinson, Washington Post

"Jessica Lange plays Nolte's wife and does fairly well with a part that is doomed to some dullness. No matter how she and Scorsese and Strick try to alter the role, she ends up as one more wide-eyed female victim waiting for male rescue." - Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

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