• It was no secret at the time that this was a “one for them” project in a deal he made with Spielberg’s Amblin/Universal after more passionate projects like The Last Temptation of Christ and Goodfellas but it’s hard to tell that from the results—Scorsese is absolutely not just going through the motions. Cape Fear is yes, a remake, and yes, from pulpy material—but it is fervently directed, entertainingly, and an artistic triumph
  • From “Entertainment Weekly—“Proves that when a maverick virtuoso like Scorsese sets his mind to it, making ”mainstream” movies is one more thing he can do better than just about anyone else”
  • Opens with absolutely stunning water titles again from Elaine and Saul Bass—I had forgotten about the work Saul Bass did with Scorsese from 1990’s Goodfellas through Casino in 1995- 4 really strong collaborations
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Opens with absolutely stunning water titles again from Elaine and Saul Bass—I had forgotten about the work Saul Bass did with Scorsese from 1990’s Goodfellas through Casino in 1995- 4 really strong collaborations
  • De Niro’s body transformation is worth noting and praising- always the dedicated actor and auteur model—we open with him pumping his triceps and the body art tattoo’s in prison—a hell of an introduction
  • Academy award nominations for De Niro and Juliette Lewis
  • In many ways it’s Scorsese’s Hitchcock film. J. Lee Thompson- the director of the original 1962 Cape Fear made his in the same vein and he was a huge Hitchcock admirer. Scorsese’s effort brings back the Bernard Herrmann score
  • Great De Palma-like (the absolute #1 Hitchcock enthusiast auteur (with all due respect to Truffaut’s love for Hitch)) split diopter shot when Nolte is brushing his teeth
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Great De Palma-like (the absolute #1 Hitchcock enthusiast auteur (with all due respect to Truffaut’s love for Hitch)) split diopter shot when Nolte is brushing his teeth
  • Scorsese washes out the photography to a blurry black and white four times—he even transitions to yellow (like Hitch’s Marnie) – editing form.
Scorsese washes out the photography to a blurry black and white four times—he even transitions to yellow (like Hitch’s Marnie) – editing form.
  • After the love-making scene between Nolte and Jessica Lange we get a sequence that is really well edited actually. We fade to red and then we end with a freeze frame shot on her eyes
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difficult but magnificent domestic scenes between the family add a layer to the film missing from the 1962 original
  • Scorsese employs the old-Hollywood studio background Matte painting like we have in Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, (or his own tip of the cap Wizard of Oz in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore)- it’s Scorsese’s way of saying this isn’t grounded in realism—this is expressionism, this is a thriller/popcorn/pulpy even it carries the trademark Scorsese edge and violence— we get an ominous purple sky late in the film—but the best example of this in Cape Fear is the fireworks sequence. It’s breathtaking. We get the light pouring into the bedroom through the Venetian blinds. Totally a blend of the green light in Vertigo with the trademark voyeurism through the blinds like Psycho (used in say Blue Velvet). 
We get the light pouring into the bedroom through the Venetian blinds. Totally a blend of the green light in Vertigo with the trademark voyeurism through the blinds like Psycho (used in say Blue Velvet)
  • Shots of De Niro with the fireworks exploding in the background—pre-dating similar shots by Scorsese himself in Gangs of New York or say Heath Ledger used by Ang Lee in Brokeback Mountain
gob-smackingly beautiful- Shots of De Niro with the fireworks exploding in the background—pre-dating similar shots by Scorsese himself in Gangs of New York or say Heath Ledger used by Ang Lee in Brokeback Mountain
  • Unlike the original Cape Fear film in 1962 with Gregory Peck (Nolte’s spectacles a clear nod)—Nolte’s character is dirtier here- more Scorsese-like with the sin compilations—a far more interesting character
  • The tattoo choice here (De Niro’s most famous is one depicting truth and justice like the “love” and “hate” tattoo’s on the knuckles from The Night of the Hunter– another Mitchum arch-villain and masterful role) The entire character of Max Caddy here with De Niro is really a blending of the two as this character/villain is often quoting the scripture like the evil preacher in Laughton’s 1955 film
  • An abundance of canted/dutch angles- it’s so well-directed. The violence with the De Niro & Illeana Douglas scene is the greatest example of this technique but it’s done used in abundance here to show the terror and disorientation of the characters
  • Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam (himself a nod to Hitchcock in the original casting in 1962), and Robert Mitchum are in the film. I think Mitchum is actually really good. “Pardon me all over the place” when he goes too with a suggestion and offends Nolte
  • The family unit here is a mess—a beautiful mess-  their domestic scenes are absolute fire. Lange hates Nolte’s character. Their fights are dynamic, messy, Lewis runs to her room when they fight to watch MTV—
  • Scorsese again doesn’t mail anything in—he can make a guy on the phone look fascinating
  • Lots of close-ups—active camera
  • The screenplay may be pulpy but its sharp
  • Having said that- perhaps the most famous scene in the film is the largely improvised – tour-de-force/chemistry display of acting in the high school theater between Lewis and De Niro- this got them their acting noms. She’s so good- awkward—
  • Scorsese brings so much to the film beyond the virtuoso style—we have the Straw Dogs-like violence, the reference to the Book of Job, Nolte washing his hands clean at the end – sin
  • It’s nit-picky but De Niro does dial it up a little at the end and it doesn’t all land—but again this isn’t realism
  • HR/MS border — not sure what it says that I think this and Shutter Island are two of Scorsese’s most underrated films– there are a lot of similarities there