Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of the early sixties drama CAPE FEAR is a crazy, over-the-top thrill ride from start to finish.
Scorsese fills the screen with wall to wall style, sweeping his camera into every shot, tilting angles and drawing you into the paranoia and psychosis of its characters.
Nick Nolte is Sam Bowden, a criminal defense attorney who defended Max Cady (brilliant Robert DeNiro) 14 years before.
Freshly out of prison, with over a decade of law books and brewing anger behind him, Cady is determined to make Sam and his family pay for his mistakes in his case.
Jessica Lange is Leigh, Sam's wife and Juliette Lewis is Danielle, his daughter. Both are terrific.
Lewis' descent from petulant teen to horrified young girl at the hands of Cady is terrific and scary.
Cady manages to harass Sam and his family constantly, but always JUST within the law, creating the same frustration in Sam that Max has experienced everyday in his cell awaiting revenge.
In Scorsese's hands, the film moves at an incredible pace.
The great Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck all make appearances in powerful roles that are key to the story.
As you begin to realize that Sam made errors in the trial that he hid from his (at the time) illiterate client and that those errors kept Cady from getting off, you'll begin to doubt Sam.
But Cady is no choir boy. He is riddled with tattoos of bible versus and less savory images, he's loud, brash and in your face as only De Niro can be.
This is way over the top in every fashion, from camera work to editing, to performances, and I loved every minute of it.
Scorsese uses Bernard Herrmann's music score from the original 1962 film (which starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in the Sam and Cady roles) to great effect. Its outstanding, and like everything else here, the music is in your face from beginning to end.
CAPE FEAR is brutal, violent entertainment. But with Scorsese at the helm, it is indeed entertaining. Buckle up, Cape Fear isn't for the weak! It gets an A.
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