Cape Fear Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 1764

Average Rating: 2.8/4

# of Ratings: 273

Theatrical Release Date: 11/15/1991

Language: English

Genre: Thriller, Drama

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Martin Scorsese

Actors: Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Robert De Niro, Juliette Lewis, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck

Plot: Fourteen years ago public defender Sam Bowden his evidence from his client Max Cady, a rapist, that could have acquitted him. Now, a just-released Cady, smarter, stronger and more psychotic, is ready to take revenge against the attorney and his family. -- Chris Kavan

Indyfreak - wrote on 04/11/2021

Robert De Niro terrorizes Nick Nolte and his family in this remake of the 1962 thriller. De Niro is playing a cartoon villain but it’s a frightening one that’s cunning, depraved, and sadistic. The musical score is memorably chilling. The climax on a houseboat that’s slowly wrecked by a storm is abit over the top.

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 07/02/2019

Now I've never seen the original "Cape Fear," but Martin Scorsese's version is unremittingly savage.

Matthew Brady - wrote on 02/08/2014

Fourteen years ago public defender Sam Bowden his evidence from his client Max Cady, a rapist, that could have acquitted him. Now, a just-released Cady, smarter, stronger and more psychotic, is ready to take revenge against the attorney and his family. This movie is not the best Martin scorses movie but it so is not his worst, the movie had a really good cast and Robert De Niro was one scary creep.

kimstir
TV Extra

One Aspect is More Relevant Today

kimstir - wrote on 06/21/2016

Slight Spoils...

I think this movie is might actually be even more relevant today than when it came out. I mean that in terms of the rape case Robert De Niro's character was sent to prison for (learn about it at the start of the movie). Nick Nolte's character sat on a report that suggested the victim was promiscuous, and Robert De Niro is mad about it because he knows that that report would have kept him out of jail. In addition, [SLIGHT SPOILER] when another chick gets raped later, she doesn’t want to press charges because she knows how the legal system will treat her in court (she was a bit promiscuous herself). Totally NOT how the legal system treats rape victims today. No way. We’ve grown so much. #progress

Besides all that soapbox stuff, I enjoyed the movie for the most …

Yojimbo
Movie God

"Cape Fear" by Yojimbo

Yojimbo - wrote on 05/05/2012

Brutal rapist Max Kady is released from prison after serving 14 years and sets about taking his revenge on the defense attorney who represented him. Martin Scorsese's remake of classic 1961 thriller came as a real surprise to me; I honestly did not believe he was capable of making something quite this BAD. If I did not know it was a Scorsese, I would have certainly pegged it as a Verhoeven or someone similar. It's schlocky, stupid and tackily directed, and full of ludicrous melodrama that borders on the absurd; in fact on more than one occasion, it looked more like a parody than a genuine thriller. If a character that is meant to be menacing is misjudged, they can often just appear laughable; Buffalo Bill was one example, and Max Kady is another. I was literally smirking half the time he …

MovieAddict
Producer

Cape Fear (1991)

MovieAddict - wrote on 01/16/2012

"Come out, come out wherever you are!"

A psychotic newly-released rapist (Max Cady) is stalking and intimidating a lawyer and his family, because he "buried" evidence, that could have gotten Cady off or at least had his sentence greatly reduced had it been admitted in court.

While in jail Cady educates himself and then uses that knowledge of the law to make life a living hell for his lawyer, Sam Bowden (played by Nick Nolte) his wife Leigh, (Jessica Lange), and then goes after his 15 year-old sexually curious daughter Danielle (played by a very young Juliette Lewis). The sadistic Cady`s body is tattooed with a lot of biblical quotations symbolizing his thirst for vengeance. He wants revenge and is willing to take a pound of flesh out of Bowden's family (or a mouthful as he does …