Cape Fear
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Both versions of Cape Fear are from the mystery/thriller genre, though many categorize the original version in 1962 as film noir—even though it is not. Yet, by studying the techniques used in each version of the film, the original directed by J. Lee Thompson and the remake directed by Martin Scorsese in 1991, we see how modern filmmakers have lost the ability to involve our emotions in film characters and to engage us psychologically. One of the most effective director of psychological thrillers, Alfred Hitchcock, once explained that the reason the infamous shower scene is Psycho had such a deep and lasting impact on viewers was because it left them imagine their own horrors, something they could do much better than Hitchcock knew he could portray visually. Therefore, despite the gruesome nature of the scene, we never see the victim stabbed. We merely have scenes of splattering blood, a large knife slashing through the air, and the horrible screams of Janet Leigh. The end result carries much more of a psychological impact than anything that could have been graphically portrayed. Martin Scorsese seems to have missed this valuable film lesson somewhere along the line. His version of Cape Fear is much less psychologically engaging than the original. The original of Cape Fear gives us Robert Mitchum as Max Cady. His character is so sinister and moves us so much emotionally because he appears so normal and almost decent when
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ing between Sam and his wife, Cady’s appearance in their lives seems an almost welcome diversion from the normal terror within the family. Further, Nolte’s less-than-ethical Bowden has no internal struggle over crossing the line of justice. He already has done so before and it undercuts the impact of his decision to hire “thugs” to give Cady a beating. The original keeps the family loving and healthy, thus Cady’s interference in their lives appears all the more threatening. Further, when Gregory Peck’s Bowden must hire “thugs” we are much more emotionally involved in the dilemma of an ethical man becoming unethical than an already unethical one who chooses one more unethical action. Scorsese’s point that all men are flawed in some manner may be realistic, but it makes for poor cinematic fantasy.
Another technique that serves to diminish the terror and dread in the modern version is the intrusion of a framing device wherein Nancy narrates the film in voice-over at its beginning and end. By making Nancy seem like a mature, worldly adolescent who is oppressed by her parents rules, one who is jaded and seeks escape from a mundane existence, she loses her innocence. The innocence lost makes us have less empathy for her innocenc
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Approximate Word count = 1680
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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