i think this is the best Robert de niro act
This was the first time in my life I remember being so tense watching a movie that I was literally gripping the armrest of the chair in which I was sitting. It was the scene in the alley where the goons are beating up De Niro and Nolte is hiding and watching
Of course, the Simpsons parodied this movie to perfection with an episode featuring Sideshow Bob. This was a great mixture of tension and slightly disturbing scenes. Well-directed by Scorsese.
Bobby D playing a real creepy convict and doing it perfectly. Even I was afraid of that accent. The cinematography on the boat was great. Scorsese is pretty good at the thriller/horror movie.
So not the best Scorcese film ever, but some tight editing, great camerawork, a haunting theme and devilishly over-the-top acting help make this a frighteningly fun movie to watch. Strongly recommended.
This might be Robert De Niro's (Max Cady) best performance as he plays a different from his usual character in this film and honestly, he is such a likeable actor but in this film, he is genuinely creepy in every way possible and you feel how these characters feel in this film as the film gives you a feeling of being trapped and trust me that is also down to masterful direction from Martin Scorsese. Also, it is worth mentioning that this is also by far Nick Nolte's (Sam Bowden) best performance as he plays his character perfectly as a lawyer who is just trying to do the right things by his family but as the film goes along you start to see his character unravel with paranoia and its just some really great acting.
The one thing I didn't like was the music in the film like the orchestra just feels too loud and I checked to see if it was my sound system but nope it's just really loud and I found I was turning the volume down every single time the music came on. Also, Scorsese uses some really weird angles throughout the film.
Otherwise its a pretty amazing film and I recommend for anyone looking for a tension filmed thriller.
Simply a masterpiece! Suspenseful and clever. Holte, Lange, Lewis, and De Niro, all of them deliver magnificent performances! Definitely up there on my list but below The Spoorloos
An exciting suspense. Although you didn't like the analog recording format and too many close-ups, the storyline and developmental form of the movie holds in a way you can't help but see until the end. The technical quality is inferior to other Scorcese hits, but it is marked as a very worthwhile classic.
I have always loved this film. A thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and the feeling of being boxed in all at once. Max Cady a psycho rapist is released from prison and begin stalking the family of his attorney as justice for a defence not well played. This movie is great. Deniro is awesome. The scene in the theatre with Juliette Lewis is fabulous.... great acting by both.... pure innocence oozing out of Juliette Lewis... just watch it!
Not a bad film like. Very dark one from Robert De Niro. Good cast.
Intriguing movie but a very weak ending: Max Cady drowns but the whole Bowden-Family survives. There are some wired pictures (Yellow / Red Screens in the bedroom) and some violence (Max Cady who rapes or gets beaten up).
Scorsese MASTERPIECE & one of De Niro's best performances!
Period.
Forgot how stylized this was. I also forgot the gross finger sucking/make out. Oy. Was super cool to see a movie successfully made in the style of the 50s but with 90s violence. And bobby D and that accent! And Nolte in his sex appeal stage!
Finally i watched this brilliant movie after many years of having it back to my watchlist.
One of the best actings i have ever scene from de niro from the beggining till the end it was interesting and you couldn't take the eyes from the screen. 7.5/10
man, this movie was so freaking tense and suspenseful, i loved every part of it! a very amazing thriller movie, i was so anxious while i was watching it... the musics, the sounds... AMAZING! De Niro's acting was also top tier.
First and foremost, was it really necessary to have Max (De Niro) do the whole Big Bad Wolf schtick? I mean I want to be charitable but it reads as pretty transphobic. I regret to inform you that this doesn't hurt my rating of this film, because unlike "Psycho (1960)", Cape Fear's transphobia seems more like a throwaway... or an afterthought. Something conjured up after the writing of the thing.
There's a reason this one is remembered in the zeitgeist, De Niro's (he somehow kills the accent) performance is at once disturbing, and provocative. Mitchum's performance had this coy air to it, 'i-know-something-you-don't-know', which certainly had its charm, but De Niro gives me a domineering, I-will-win performance that makes me root for Sam (Nolte) and simultaneously sympathise with Danielle (Lewis).
I think there's a lot to be gained from a Marxist reading of Cape Fear, but I have not the time nor the energy to dive into that rabbit warren.
Suffice it to say, Scorsese's direction scaffolds everything here to great effect. A prime example is a use of the Dutch Tilt late in the piece, it's brief, but I savoured it. And then again in the final act, I savoured that too.
Speaking of the final act, I don't know how I feel about it. It's the emotional conclusion to what is a heavy psycholigical thriller, absolutely. And... I mean, it works theatrically, but I think I prefer the original... but that might just be me putting runtime on a pedestal. Look, there's a lot of water, and that's awesome. Enough said.
Excellent performance by every actors but total brutal for a thriller haha.
I definitely wouldn't call "Cape Fear" one of my favorite Martin Scorsese films. This is mainly due to Juliette Lewis, who just didn't click for me despite her Oscar nomination. This is particularly problematic given her key role in several important scenes. But I was also bothered in places by the main character, Sam (Nick Nolte). He is perhaps the most incompetent lawyer I have ever seen in a movie. This is especially evident in a sequence just before the climactic finale, where I couldn't believe the character's stupidity.
In spite of its shortcomings, "Cape of Fear" is definitely an effective thriller. Even though Robert De Niro as the psychopathic antagonist Max Cady sometimes lays it on a little too thick, he is still one of the most effective villains you can imagine. He certainly contributes a great deal to making the increasing desperation of Nolte's Sam understandable. In terms of the direction, Scorsese is beyond reproach anyway. He manages to build up an enthralling atmosphere throughout the entire film, which then unloads in an intense finale. In the end, this made me feel a bit more positive than I had been at times. At least for thriller fans, "Cape of Fear" is a must-see.
Much like Shutter Island, this is Scorsese being silly, which is not necessarily my favourite Scorsese. It’d probably serve the material better if this was hammed up just a little more, because some of the writing goes into camp territory. Yet despite all of that, it still manages to create a decent amount of tension and it leaves you with a few things to chew on. De Niro’s performance is excellent, and all of the other actors are pretty good as well (besides Jessica Lange’s occasional overacting). Visually it’s a bit by the numbers (a little heavy on the shot/reverse shot set-ups) with most of its style coming from the editing choices and music. It’s a fun genre movie, but easily in the bottom tier within Scorsese’s own filmography.
6/10
I was shocked I'd never seen this in my youth, and came across it today and decided to give it a watch. Now 30+ years after its release if you told me this was directed by Scorsese without me knowing that to be true I'd have called you a liar. Some laughably awful scenes and overacting that just doesn't hold up in 2022. It feels like a spoof at times. Deniro's performance is great albeit ridiculous by the climax. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, but still worth seeing. 6.4
Remake that shows that the original can be surpassed. Lawyer!
This movie can create a tense atmosphere very well, the cause of that is specially because of the amazing score. Not just that, but the playing of Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis is spectacular, we can notice the effort of De Niro here.
Something didn't please me in the script, I feel that movie had some silly facilitation... but in general, it is a good movie.
Good film, but not one of Scorcese's best. De Niro did a fine job and the camera work was reminiscent of a Sam Raimi flick.
Shout by DeletedBlockedParentSpoilers2018-05-24T21:47:58Z
Actually, one of the best act of DE Niro. I love this great man.