Cape Fear (1991 film)

Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is a lawyer living in North Carolina with his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and teenage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis). Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a former client whom Sam failed to defend properly, is released from prison after 14 years; Cady was tried for rape and battery of a young woman and, appalled by the attack, Sam buried evidence that might have lightened Cady's sentence or even secured his acquittal.

Cady, who has studied law in prison but unsuccessfully appealed his conviction several times, tracks Sam down and begins to terrorise the Bowden family; he lurks near the property and the family dog is mysteriously killed. Sam attempts to have Cady arrested but the police say there is no evidence of a crime. At a bar, Cady intentionally meets Sam's work colleague Lori. He later violently attacks and rapes her but she refuses to press charges, ashamed of what happened. Sam hires a private investigator, Kersek, to follow Cady.

Cady approaches Danielle at school by impersonating her new drama teacher, and they kiss. Sam warns Cady to leave him and his family alone or suffer the consequences, a conversation that Cady secretly tapes with a hidden recorder. Sam also hires three men to beat Cady; as Sam watches from afar, Cady turns the tide on his attackers and viciously beats them instead. Cady then uses the recording of Sam's threat and an exaggerated display of his own injuries to file for a restraining order against Sam.

Kersek assumes that Cady may try to enter the Bowden house while he believes Sam is out of town; the family fakes his departure and hide in the house, hoping that Cady will break in so that he can be shot in self-defense. Cady kills the Bowden's housekeeper Graciela and impersonates her to ambush and kill Kersek. Horrified after discovering the bodies, Sam, Leigh, and Danielle flee to their houseboat docked upstate along Cape Fear river.

Cady, who has followed the family, attacks Sam and prepares to rape Leigh and Danielle while making Sam watch. Danielle sprays Cady with lighter fluid as he lights a cigar, engulfing him in flames and causing him to jump off the boat. However, Cady clings to a rope and pulls himself back on board. As the boat is rocked by a violent thunderstorm, a badly burned and deranged Cady confronts Sam, putting him on a mock trial to condemn him for withholding the specific evidence that would have given him a lighter sentence in jail. Despite Sam's insistence that his crime was too heinous for that evidence to be taken into account, Cady berates him for failing to properly do his duty as a lawyer.

The storm eventually knocks Cady off of his feet, allowing Sam to gain the upper hand once the women jump off the boat and make it to shore. Sam then uses Cady's handcuffs to shackle Cady to the boat. When the boat hits a rock and is destroyed, the fight continues on shore, but a raging tide carries Cady away and he drowns. Sam washes the blood from his hands before he rejoins Leigh and Danielle.

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. Spielberg stayed on as a producer, through his Amblin Entertainment, but chose not to be credited personally on the finished film.[2]

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.[3]

Nick Nolte is taller than Robert De Niro, but for the movie, Nolte lost weight and De Niro developed muscles until De Niro appeared to be the stronger man. De Niro reportedly took his body fat down to 4%.[4] De Niro also paid a doctor $5,000 to grind down his teeth for the role to give the character a more menacing look, later paying $20,000 to have his teeth restored after the film production was over.[5]

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 Hermann 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]

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).

In 1995, professional wrestler Dan Spivey made his WWE (then WWF) debut under the ring name, Waylon Mercy, with his gimmick based on De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady. However, he only lasted a few months with the company as Spivey was forced into retirement due to a buildup of previous injuries, and the character was abandoned. In 2013, WWE debuted Bray Wyatt, another character partly based on not just De Niro's portrayal, but also Waylon Mercy.[13]

In the Seinfeld episode "The Red Dot", as Elaine's boyfriend rampages through her office to get revenge on Jerry for making him lose his job, Elaine makes a reference to the film.

Also in the Seinfeld episode “The Bookstore”, in a dream after Jerry rats on Uncle Leo for shoplifting in a bookstore, Jerry has a nightmare where Uncle Leo is doing chin ups, working out in prison to get his revenge on Jerry once he finally received his release. A close up, sharing the same scary score of the movie, Uncle Leo is seen with “Jerry” & “Hello” tattooed on each hand. It's a clear reference to Robert De Niro's character in Cape Fear.

In the Rick and Morty episode "Ricksy Business", Lucy (the deranged maid who tries to rape Jerry) is shown clinging to the underside chassis of their car as they drive home, maniacally shouting "Ha, I'm doing like in Cape Fear!"

In the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “Mac and Charlie Die part 1”, the scene when Luther,Mac’s father, is released from prison is based off of the same scene where Robert De Niro’s character is released.

In the film, Danielle is pictured reading Thomas Wolfe's 1929 coming-of-age novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

Kersek tells Sam he saw Cady at the public library reading Friedrich Nietzsche's classic philosophical novel Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Pretending to be Danielle's new drama teacher, Cady calls Danielle on the phone. After a short conversation, he plays Aretha Franklin's single "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man."

Alone with Danielle in the school's theater, Cady alludes to Henry Miller's trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which contains the books Plexus, Nexus, and Sexus. Danielle says she read parts of Tropic of Cancer.

Cady tells Sam he will teach him "the meaning of commitment." He tells Sam to "check out the Bible, counselor. Look between Esther and Psalms." After staging his departure at the airport, Sam returns home covertly with Leigh and Danielle, and later discovers Cady was referring to the Book of Job.

Cady quotes a translation of the 17th century priest, physician, mystic, and poet, Angelus Silesius, saying:

:I am like God, and God like me.

I am as Large as God, He is as small as I.

He cannot above me, nor I beneath him, be.

However, the context of this line in the film does not match the context intended by Silesius. Cady uses it to emphasize dramatically to his intended victims the power of his individual will and his god-like ability to exact a violent vengeance. The context intended by Silesius was of man's realization through his spiritual potential for perfection that he was of the same substance with God in the sense of the mystical divine union or theosis.

Cady alludes to Dante's Inferno, saying he is Virgil guiding Sam through the Ninth Circle of Hell, the last and lowest circle, reserved for traitors.

• List of films featuring home invasions
• List of 1991 box office number-one films in the United States
• Night and the City, another remake also starring De Niro and Lange

• Machura, Stefan and Robson, Peter, eds. Law and Film: Representing Law in Movies (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing, 2001). Thain, Gerald J., "Cape Fear, Two Versions and Two Visions Separated by Thirty Years." ISBN 0-631-22816-0, ISBN 978-0-631-22816-5. 176 pages.

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