Cape Fear

Name: Cape Fear
Genre: Thriller, Horror, Crime
Released: November 13, 1991
Duration: 128 min
Rating: 73
Cast: Jessica Lange, Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro

1991

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 328 Ratings

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8.5

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8.5	User Score Universal acclaim based on 328 Ratings

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Cape Fear

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 13, 1991 | R

Starring: Jessica Lange, Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro

Summary: Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of J. Lee Thompson's 1962 thriller. (Universal/Amblin)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Genre(s): Thriller, Horror, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 128 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Staff (not credited)

A hypnotically engrossing thriller that spins along on the dreams and anxieties of its characters. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Martin Scorsese brings honor back to the remake. He shines up this reprise of the original with original brilliance Read full review

Staff (not credited)

A smart and stylish remake of the 1962 suspenser. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Impressive moviemaking, showing Scorsese as a master of a traditional Hollywood genre. Read full review

Hal Hinson

It's a brutal, demonic film with a grip like a vise; it grabs you early, its fingers around your throat, and never lets go. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (not credited)

An exercise in audience manipulation, with every frame designed to stagger the senses. Read full review

Terrence Rafferty

The movie keeps insisting that the gruelling experience it's putting us through is really meant to edify us; it drags us into the mud and then tells us that we haven't got dirty. Read full review

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User Reviews

JackTbug

Jun 23, 2016

Cape fear is universal's underrated movie released in 1991, max cady is released to have his own revenge on sam and his family, max cady is a murderous psychopath to bowden family, watch cape fear 1991.

5 of 5 users found this helpful50

gracjanski

Jan 23, 2021

Great thriller with an interesting character Max Cady: on the one side a victim, on the other side the bad guy in this movie and on a vengeance. The movie is also interesting to show, that a man can terrorise another one legally.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

timone

Aug 22, 2018

From the director of Goodfellas and Casino, it is now the time for me to review a underrated film that I absolutely love and that is without further a do Cape Fear. I am such a big fan of that film, I can watch for hours and hours and hours and not get bored at all. Now um (chuckles) I gottaFrom the director of Goodfellas and Casino, it is now the time for me to review a underrated film that I absolutely love and that is without further a do Cape Fear. I am such a big fan of that film, I can watch for hours and hours and hours and not get bored at all. Now um (chuckles) I gotta warn ya that girl that woman played reminds of Emily Robinson from college and................. the only thing I don't like about it is that Robert DeNiro bites the woman's cheek off cause that really freaked me out. And also there's a scene that really made me laugh that Robert DeNiro is singing in tongues. So yeah, that's it.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

JoshC

Nov 19, 2006

Not Scorsese at his best, but better than white elephant art like The Age of Innocence, and bloated epics like Gangs of NY and The Aviator. The entire film is overwrought, but nonetheless enjoyable and highly watchable.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

bossk77

Feb 24, 2017

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0 of 2 users found this helpful02

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 4, 2016

Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear" is a work of rippling cinematic muscle. It's a brutal, demonic film with a grip like a vise; it grabs you early, its fingers around your throat, and never lets go. No one can give evil a more voluptuous surface than Scorsese; he's a dread master, and with "CapeMartin Scorsese's "Cape Fear" is a work of rippling cinematic muscle. It's a brutal, demonic film with a grip like a vise; it grabs you early, its fingers around your throat, and never lets go. No one can give evil a more voluptuous surface than Scorsese; he's a dread master, and with "Cape Fear" -- his remake of the 1962 thriller with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum -- he's delivered a ravishing thesis on the anatomy of terror. If the director has set out to horrify us, then he's succeeded, and made us laugh at ourselves for being so spooked. "Cape Fear" scares you, all right, and more -- it makes your liver blanch.

What's puzzling about "Cape Fear," though, is why, at this stage of his career, Scorsese would set his sights so low. It's apparent by now that Scorsese can do just about anything he wants with a movie camera. His command of the medium goes far beyond technical brilliance; "GoodFellas" proved that and "Cape Fear" reconfirms it. He's got a blood instinct for hyperbolic moviemaking, so much so that the camera seems almost an extention of his own nervous system. His images hit the screen like firebombs, and the conflagration is enthralling, irresistible.

But "Cape Fear" is far from Scorsese at his best; in fact, it's our mostinteresting filmmaker's least interesting work. It's a slasher film, basically -- Scorsese's "Nightmare on Main Street" -- and to make it work the filmmaker misuses his gifts. What's he's done here is within the reach of a hundred other directors, none of whom is in his league. He's made the ultimate drive-in movie; a feat, perhaps, but disappointing nonetheless.

The movie premise is as straightforward as it is tough. Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is an attorney in a small Southern town, who 14 years ago unsuccessfully defended a brutal maniac named Max Cady (Robert De Niro) on a rape charge that, after being reduced to battery, sent him to prison. At the time of his trial, Cady was illiterate, but during his imprisonment he has become a bookworm, reading literature, philosophy and, in particular, law. All the while, Cady has dreamed of taking his revenge against Bowden, whose shoddy defense, he believes, is the reason he's lost his wife, his child and a big chunk of his life. And so when Cady is finally released, he makes a beeline for Bowden's peaceful home town, looking for a little payback.

The first sight of Cady doing push-ups in his jail cell is chilling. Sleekly sculpted and covered with apocalyptic tattoos, his body has the coiled malice of razor wire. Cady is a predator -- you can see that just from his smooth, loping gait -- and in the first part of the film, Scorsese focuses on his efforts to set up his prey. His main targets are Bowden's wife, Leigh (Jessica Lange), and his 15-year-old daughter, Danielle (Juliette Lewis); he stalks them like a panther, slowly and methodically moving in for the kill.

De Niro throws himself into the part of Cady with unmistakable relish; playing this madman seems to have energized him and opened up the dark channels of his talent. As Scorsese and his screenwriter, Wesley Strick, have created him, Cady isn't merely a psychopath, he's a Nietzschean superman, the cruel, killing hand of justice meting out a stern, remorseless form of punishment. Nobody is more frightening in these roles than De Niro, particularly when he's as fully committed as he is here. Every movement, every narrowing of his eyes, is a threat. Pulling his face into obscene, leering grins, he gives Cady a kind of goofy suavity, especially in the long, mesmerizingly languid scene in which he sweet-talks Danielle into his confidence. At times, the characterization verges on the comic -- it's a tremendously entertaining performance -- but it's comedy mixed with cutting quality of horror. You may laugh, but it's laughter with no release -- tense, scary laughter.

Still, you can't help but feel that both De Niro and his director have gone deeper into the same territory before, and that, in earlier films, the violence has had sturdier psychological roots. In remaking the effective but minor 1962 thriller, the filmmakers have improved on the original, but the original is still there, at least in skeletal form, and they haven't managed to transcend its limitations.

Nolte and Lange suffer most from the script's lack of depth; they're both strong, confident, exciting actors, but their characters here don't allow them to express anywhere near the full range of their talents.

Even here, it's impossible to be indifferent to Scorsese's work; he's a virtuoso, and for some filmmakers this movie would stand as a pinnacle work. But masters must answer to a higher standard, and, as dazzling as it is, "Cape Fear" simply doesn't measure up.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

BurnsWEM

Nov 12, 2014

Robert De Niro was the only good actor in this film and his performance really wasn't that great especially compared to his other roles such as Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part 2, and Goodfellas. I don't really understand why he was nominated for the academy award for this movie. The plotRobert De Niro was the only good actor in this film and his performance really wasn't that great especially compared to his other roles such as Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part 2, and Goodfellas. I don't really understand why he was nominated for the academy award for this movie. The plot is extremely good but the writer didn't make it as good as it could have been. I went into this movie with high expectations and it wasn't even close to what I thought it was going to be. Not a bad watch for De Niro fans but this movie isn't that special.… Expand

0 of 7 users found this helpful07

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