SPOILER:(plot giveaway - skip this
section if you haven't seen the movie before)... Through his fourteen year
sentence, Max Cady (De Niro) has nursed a hatred for the defence lawyer Sam
Bowden (Nolte) who failed to keep Cady out of prison. Upon his release, Cady
sets about hounding Bowden through his kin.
First up is Sam's junior colleague and confidante Lori Davis (Illeana
Douglas), who he picks up in a bar following Sam's failing to meet her as
arranged the previous day. After the Bowden family dog is mysteriously
poisoned, Cady brazenly drives to the Bowden's gate to offer the dog leash
he's 'found' to Sam's wife Leigh (Lange), who doesn't immediately recognise him.
Later, Cady makes advances to Sam's daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) by
posing as her new English Literature teacher to make seemingly innocent
romantic passes at the girl (to which she hesitantly responds) on school
premises - and slip her sexually explicit Henry Miller novels.
Cady further outwits Sam by staring at Leigh from across a 14th of July
parade, being assaulted by the lawyer and slapping a restraining order upon
his victim. Sam hires PI Kersek (Joe Don Baker), who becomes desperate enough
to have Cady attacked by hoodlums only for the deed to rebound upon him.
After terrorising the family in their home, Cady follows mother and daughter
to their houseboat on the waters of Cape Fear, believing their husband to be
away for the debarment hearing resulting from the hoodlum attack; but Sam is
lying in wait for him...
[End spoiler]
X-X-X-X-X-X
Under the movie brat banner of Spielberg's
Amblin' Entertainment, Martin Scorsese reworks 1962 potboiler Cape Fear
for the nineties. Where the original dragged, the remake condenses, with only
one scene - Cady at the airport registration desk - surviving anything like
intact from the original. Where the first skimmed events too quickly, Wesley
Strick's script expands.
Those familiar with the 1962 version will note not only the
recurrence of leads Robert Mitchum (Cady) and Gregory Peck (the lawyer) not
to mention Martin Balsam in peripheral roles, but also the redeployment of
Bernard Herrmann's magnificent, brooding score (use of Dolby Surround is
really nothing special here, though.)
However, this is far from a mere remake; Scorsese's Catholic leanings allow
him to explore some heavy religious metaphysics through Cady, whose body is
covered in tattoos of scripture verses and a striking image of judicial
scales (and boy, do they look great on LD), and his instruction to Sam to
read the Old Testament Book of Job to try and understand his plight.
De Niro gives his best performance since 1987’s The
Untouchables as the bodybuilding Cady, on a par with his other great
roles for director Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), while
the remainder of the cast are a pleasure to watch. Scorsese, meanwhile,
directs with the energy of his best work - among which Cape Fear ranks
as an unmissable, popular masterpiece.
The first thing one notices about this disc is Saul and Elaine Bass’
remarkable title sequence, with its distortions reflected on water that look
about as amazing as anything on LD can. The second feature is the irritating
lack of chapters - which makes the £30 price tag considerably less
attractive. This is offset somewhat by two unobtrusive side breaks, the first
of which (i.e. the start of side two) allows the viewer to go straight to
one of the best scenes in the movie - the scene of Juliet Lewis getting her
introduction to bogus drama tutor De Niro at school. The scene, in fact,
you're most likely to want instantly to access to show friends what a great
performance she gives (and how comparatively feeble she is in anything else
she's ever been in).
But another downer is the pressing’s being CLV throughout, especially when
you consider that at 130 minutes, putting the 30-odd minutes of the final
side (which contains acres of incredible model footage in the final
confrontation on the houseboat sequence) into CAV could have been a real
bonus. But no, it’s all in unimaginative CLV. No trailer either. So, great
movie, but mixed disc (more likely the Studio’s fault than Pioneer’s, we
suspect). Hence the extra 'Overall' category with the under-par rating.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
