Remakes aren’t always lousy ideas.
For every disaster (“Psycho”) and disappointment (“The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″) there’s a “Cape Fear,” a wholly refreshing reboot of the original blueprint.
It helps to have Robert De Niro as the peak of his fright powers and Martin Scorsese behind the camera.
Scorsese’s “Fear” turns the screws on the original story’s morality index. This time around, counselor Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is guilty of not providing a vigorous defense for his client, a psychopath named Max Cady (Robert De Niro).
Cady belongs behind bars, no doubt. But Cady, spewing a litany of fractured Biblical rants, stewed over his porous defense during his long jail stay. Now, he means to right that wrong.
And that requires hassling Sam and his hardly Norman Rockwell family (Jessica Lange and a precocious Juliette Lewis).
Cady pays Sam a few visits around the counselor’s bucolic turf, but soon the ex-con is pushing the boundaries of his anger, and Sam must resort to some lawless behavior to keep his family safe.
The souped up “Fear” is as pulpy as a mainstream movie director can deliver. Scorsese amps up the original’s muscular soundtrack and even throws in some reverse imagery that looks like the film negative was flipped over in the projector.
It’s all to heighten the sense of dread surrounding Cady’s mission, but De Niro really doesn’t need any help here. His Cady is brilliantly over the top, from his shady southern accent to the tats adorning his physique. It’s the kind of hyperactive performance only a great actor can pull off, and De Niro makes Cady a baddie for the ages.
The stars of the 1962 “Cape Fear,” Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck, appear in fun cameos. The move might have backfired if the remake had not paid such fitting homage to the source material.
Scorsese’s “Fear” proudly stands on his own, a full-bodied thriller that embraces its genre roots without a hint of shame.
(Photo: Ex-convict Max Cady (Robert De Niro) pays a visit to his former lawyer (Nick Nolte) in “Cape Fear”)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
As one of the very few conservative critics, I would be obliged if you would warn your readers about possible offensive “gotchchas” in these films. The Christian cross tat on the psycho character’s (De Niro) back was a direct slap at the religious protesters of Scorsese’s “The Last Temtpation …” and was forerunner for numerous later Chirstian bashing scenes.
K … interesting. Did Scorsese mention that specifically?
I think sometimes Christian bashing flies past me … I’ve become numb to it … but if you have specific examples write back and I’ll do my best to amend the review.
See Michael Medved’s “Hollywood vs America” pgs 66-67.
Add: I’m not interested in condemning the movie, I just think it should be noted that a sucker punch awaits if you find Christian bashing annoying.
My wife and I saw this movie at the theater with another couple when it first came out. Discussing the movie afterwards, none of us enjoyed the experience and would have left if we’d not seen it in a group.
The movie was professionally top notch. The problem is that not one character in the entire movie was sympathetic. Nolte, Lange, and De Niro were all horrible people and Lewis was such a brat that I have trouble enjoying any of her performances to this day.
The closest the film comes to a sympathetic character is the female lawyer that De Niro brutalizes and she had been trying to get Nolte to have an affair.
I remember watching this movie and needing to take a shower afterward. It was ugly and disgusting on all levels for me. To each his own, I guess.