Meet Max Cady, the most terrific villain role De Niro ever played simply because he successfully portrayed a crook who possesses a very complex personality of being stone-cold, violent, absolutely merciless, also on the other hand quite witty and charismatic to ever lure Danielle Bowden (Juliette Lewis) into his trap when he pretended to be her drama teacher so convincingly. Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear tells the story of a brutal rapist who waited for so long just to be able to avenge his wrath towards Attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) for he believed that Bowden could have done much better in defending for his case. This film is well-told with so many suspense elements through some shocking events throughout the film. Cape Fear is one of the examples of film whose remake, in some ways, considered outwits the original one produced in 1962 starred Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck. This is quite understandable remembering the remake was filmed many years later, with sufficient advancements in technology and financial supports. In Cape Fear, De Niro managed to portray the chilling Max Cady successfully. He had a best-laid plan to avenge his disappointments/hatred towards Bowden by studying laws in prison just to be able to find the flaws that in the end shall leave him untouchable by the law. Sometimes it’s amazing to understand how an actor/actress willing to go through for the…

**A really very good movie, and proof that there are remakes that are really worth it for their quality and good execution.** I've just seen this movie (which I've actually seen on television, but without paying enough attention to a movie I want to write something about) and once again I was very impressed. The truth is that, without wanting to legitimize the practice, which is often taken to exaggeration, there are remakes that manage to justify themselves, not only for the quality they demonstrate, but also for the gift, not to mention, of drawing the public's attention to the older movies. I can give my personal example: it was the contact with some remakes that made me know that there were older films and go looking for them to be able to see them. This film maintains, without significant changes, the story told in the older film, which dates from 1962 and was starred by Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum: very briefly, it is the story of a lawyer who finds himself persecuted and threatened, with his wife and daughter, by a spiteful ex-con who blames him for many years of incarceration. Of course, there are things that change between the two films, and this film has the advantage of not giving us a simple story where a terribly bad man wants to harm a very nice man. Bowden, the lawyer, is a man with a past full of mistakes (much like many of us) who hasn't always been good…

"Cady" (Robert De Niro) is released from jail after serving eighteen years for rape. He alights on the doorstep of his erstwhile defending counsel "Bowden" (Nick Nolte) with his cigar and his red sports car and generally starts intimidating the man and his family. Why? Well it turns out that the lawyer had buried some evidence during the trial that may have cast doubt on the voracity of the evidence given by the victim - and so now, "Cady" has revenge in mind. Now I loved the 1962 version of this film - Robert Mitchum is superb - and so I was always a bit sceptical about this remake. No, this honestly isn't a patch on that version, but that's as much to do with it being in colour and with it featuring the really poorly cast Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange. De Niro thrives in his element as the manipulative and genuinely odious character whilst Martin Scorsese allows the tension to increase, the sense of desperation and control to blossom and for a genuine sense of peril to develop. Hats can also go off for a strong effort from Juliette Lewis as the daughter "Danni" - a naive young girl whom "Cady" soon has in his sights. The setting for the denouement is as good as cinema can offer - an houseboat and a rainstorm - and as remakes go, this is not bad at all.

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