Cape Fear (1991 film)
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Cape Fear is a 1991 film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name and tells the story of a family man, a former public defender, whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist who wants vengeance for having been put in prison fourteen years before because of the lawyer's faulty defense tactics.
It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas and Fred Dalton Thompson.
Interestingly Mitchum, Peck and Balsam all starred in the 1962 original. In ironic counter-point to the earlier film, director Martin Scorsese casts Mitchum in a positive role and Peck in a negative.
It was also Gregory Peck's final theatrical film.
It 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 nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Juliette Lewis). The film was a box-office success and received critical acclaim. Though some regard it as one of Scorsese's lesser films, many others regard this remake as greater than the original as it is darker and more disturbing. It also garnered much controversy due to one scene which was perceived by some as being unnecessarily graphic in its depiction of violence against women.
The film was parodied in The Simpsons episode Cape Feare.
Interestingly, the film was orginially sceduled to be directed by Stephen Speilberg, and Scorsese was at the time the leading candidate to direct Schindler's List. However, Scorsese thought that "Schindler's" needed a Jewish Director, so the two switched films.
Although a remake of the original Cape Fear, Scorsese's update is also greatly influenced by another Mitchum film, The Night of the Hunter (1955), and the work of Alfred Hitchcock (signalled by the opening credits by regular Hitchock collaborator Saul Bass and its score by another, Bernard Herrmann).
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