[HorrorScience] Cape Fear – Cape Fear (1991)

Year

1991

Director

Martin Scorsese

Script

John MacDonald (original novel), Wesley Strick

Duration

128 minutes

Distribution

Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas, Fred Dalton Thompson, Zully Montero

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese are very famous in the world of cinema, and their collaboration has produced many films that are surely among the favorites of moviegoers. Both have a great career and will be remembered when they are no longer with us.

Although it is true thatRobert De Niro has played roles in all kinds of movies, one of his roles that always comes to mind is the one he played in the movieCape Fear(Cape Fear) where he played an ex-convict who sought revenge on his lawyer, whom he blamed for having ended up in jail.

Cape Fear(also known asCape Fear) is one of those remakes that are so famous that many people don't know they are, partly because of its enormous success and because the original film (also calledCape Fear,but translated into Spanish asthe cape of terror) had been released almost three decades earlier, in 1962.

From time to time I like to watch classics that I either haven't seen, or have half-seen (perhaps on television) or have forgotten about and thanks to that I have ended up watching this movie, which I am going to partially spoil below.

Sam Bowden is a lawyer who sees his seemingly perfect life suddenly turn upside down whenA strange guy starts showing up in the same places where Sam hangs out with his family.. While searching for explanations, Sam discovers that the man following them is a certain Max Cady,a former client whom Bowden defended in a rape case, but seeing what kind of person Cady was, he decided to lose the case on purpose, hiding evidence that could have prevented Cady from ending up in jail.

The years she spent in the shadows helped Cady learn to read, exercise physically, twist (even more) her personality, and at the same timelearn some legal tricks to harass Bowden without breaking the law,which, together with the kind of religious fanaticism that he uses as justification for his actions (which he considers more justice than revenge) makes Cadyan extremely disturbing and dangerous guy.

Lori Davis, Sam Bowden's lover, meets Cady by chance in a bar, but he knows perfectly well who she is and, taking advantage of her situation, ends up raping her. Upon finding out, Sam is aware that CadyHe's even worse than he was when he was locked up.and that you must take measures to prevent something from happening to your family.

Bowden decides to hire a detective to follow Cady, as he has begun to harass his family continuously, even daring to look for Bowden's daughter who is a similar age to his past victims. Bowden's ethics are gradually diluted during Cady's harassment, and he does not hesitate to hire thugs or even buy a gun to finish him off.

In a turn of events, Cady ends up leading Bowden into a legal trap that will cause him to become deeply desperate and try to lure Cady into a trap that will not go as planned. In a last act of desperation Bowden pretends to leave the city by plane, when he really escapes with his family by car to a remote place called Cape Fear. But what he doesn't know is that Cady is tied to the bottom of his car and that he is going to make them spend the worst night of their entire lives.

cape fearIt is one of those films that I knew about as a child through various parodies and references in other programs, although that did not prevent decades from passing until I decided to see it.

Once seen, I can say that I agree with most people,It's a great movie and worth watching.. The main force of the film is Max Cady, playedin an exaggerated but very effective way by Robert de Niro. Cady is an unpresentable character, the typical crazy person who believes himself above everything and is certainly not going to contribute anything good to the world. Cady's scenes can go from being funny (the scenes chatting in the car with Bowden) to becoming incredibly tense (Cady posing as Bowden's daughter's teacher) to downright terrifying (the final part of the film). Of course, all his evil acts are justified according to his crazy mind, since according to him, he is not getting revenge, he is helping Bowden feel what he felt to be a better man, and somehow that coincides with his old habits of raping women. If there are people like Max Cady in the world, I prefer not to meet them.

Sam Bowden for his part,He is a victim, but he is also a hypocrite who is far from a hero. When he defended Cady, he decided to hide clues because he considered him to be a terrible man (putting his prejudices before his work as a lawyer, judging his client himself, instead of leaving it in the hands of a jury or judge), which led him to the current situation. His adorable family life is far from perfect, as he has been unfaithful to his wife on multiple occasions and it seems that neither of them are able to connect with their teenage daughter. Although Bowden is a character full of flaws and when he is going to do something bad, he does it with good intentions (like when he decided to hide evidence so that Cady would be locked up or when he went to warn him that the thugs he hired were going to beat him up), he is a little angel next to Max Cady and it is difficult not to feel anguish about what he and his family are experiencing.

Although I do not want to detract from the fantastic performances of Jessica Lange (as Bowden's wife) or especially the very young Juliette Lewis (as his daughter),the focus of the film is between Cady and Bowden, who live a particular duel that raises the stakes to the point of practically bordering on the ridiculous.

In this duel, the practices of both characters will go from being passive-aggressive to being directly a confrontation between a desperate man and an absolutely crazy super-man, which can take us a little out of the film, because although it is true that Cady is shown as an extremely violent and physically trained man,There are scenes where his resistance and strength are superhuman.y parece que nos encontramos ante un personaje como Jason Voorhees deViernes 13o Michael Myers deHalloween, lo cual rompe el realismo de la película.

Sin embargo, esa es la única pequeña pega que le puedo poner a esta película,  que haceuna labor excelente manteniéndonos en suspense y haciéndonos pasar un mal rato.Es muy recomendable si sois fans de las películas de suspense e incluso de las de terror, pues Max Cady se encarga de hacer que este largometraje pase de un género a otro sin problemas.

Curiosidades de la película

• Los protagonistas de la versión original (Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck y Martin Balsam) tienen papeles secundarios en este remake
• Steven Spielberg iba a dirigir esta película, pero le pareció demasiado violenta y prefirió que la dirigiera otro. Spielberg continuó siendo productor de la película, pero pidió que no se le acreditase en ella.
• La película fue un éxito rotundo, pues con un presupuesto de 35 millones de dólares, logró recaudar más de 182 millones.
• Hay un capítulo de Los Simpson llamado Cape Feare que parodia esta película imitando de manera casi exacta escenas de la película, con Bob haciendo el papel de Robert de Niro.

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