Cape Fear on PAL Laserdisc

Jeremy Clarke reviews Cape Fear Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

• Cat. No: PLFEC 34651
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 130 minutes
• Sides: 3 (CLV)
• Year: 1991
• Pressing: UK, 1996
• Chaptered: NO
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• Price: £29.99
  

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  Director:

  Martin Scorsese

  Starring:

  Robert De Niro
  Nick Nolte
  Jessica Lange
  Juliette Lewis

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SPOILER: (plot giveaway – skip this section if you haven’t seen the movie before)… Through his fourteen year sentence, Max Cady (De Niro) has nursed a hatred for the defence lawyer Sam Bowden (Nolte) who failed to keep Cady out of prison. Upon his release, Cady sets about hounding Bowden through his kin.

First up is Sam’s junior colleague and confidante Lori Davis (Illeana Douglas), who he picks up in a bar following Sam’s failing to meet her as arranged the previous day. After the Bowden family dog is mysteriously poisoned, Cady brazenly drives to the Bowden’s gate to offer the dog leash he’s ‘found’ to Sam’s wife Leigh (Lange), who doesn’t immediately recognise him.

Later, Cady makes advances to Sam’s daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) by posing as her new English Literature teacher to make seemingly innocent romantic passes at the girl (to which she hesitantly responds) on school premises – and slip her sexually explicit Henry Miller novels.

Cady further outwits Sam by staring at Leigh from across a 14th of July parade, being assaulted by the lawyer and slapping a restraining order upon his victim. Sam hires PI Kersek (Joe Don Baker), who becomes desperate enough to have Cady attacked by hoodlums only for the deed to rebound upon him.

After terrorising the family in their home, Cady follows mother and daughter to their houseboat on the waters of Cape Fear, believing their husband to be away for the debarment hearing resulting from the hoodlum attack; but Sam is lying in wait for him…

[End spoiler]

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Under the movie brat banner of Spielberg’s Amblin’ Entertainment, Martin Scorsese reworks 1962 potboiler Cape Fear for the nineties. Where the original dragged, the remake condenses, with only one scene – Cady at the airport registration desk – surviving anything like intact from the original. Where the first skimmed events too quickly, Wesley Strick’s script expands.

Those familiar with the 1962 version will note not only the recurrence of leads Robert Mitchum (Cady) and Gregory Peck (the lawyer) not to mention Martin Balsam in peripheral roles, but also the redeployment of Bernard Herrmann’s magnificent, brooding score (use of Dolby Surround is really nothing special here, though.)

However, this is far from a mere remake; Scorsese’s Catholic leanings allow him to explore some heavy religious metaphysics through Cady, whose body is covered in tattoos of scripture verses and a striking image of judicial scales (and boy, do they look great on LD), and his instruction to Sam to read the Old Testament Book of Job to try and understand his plight.

De Niro gives his best performance since 1987’s The Untouchables as the bodybuilding Cady, on a par with his other great roles for director Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), while the remainder of the cast are a pleasure to watch. Scorsese, meanwhile, directs with the energy of his best work – among which Cape Fear ranks as an unmissable, popular masterpiece.

The first thing one notices about this disc is Saul and Elaine Bass’ remarkable title sequence, with its distortions reflected on water that look about as amazing as anything on LD can. The second feature is the irritating lack of chapters – which makes the £30 price tag considerably less attractive. This is offset somewhat by two unobtrusive side breaks, the first of which (i.e. the start of side two) allows the viewer to go straight to one of the best scenes in the movie – the scene of Juliet Lewis getting her introduction to bogus drama tutor De Niro at school. The scene, in fact, you’re most likely to want instantly to access to show friends what a great performance she gives (and how comparatively feeble she is in anything else she’s ever been in).

But another downer is the pressing’s being CLV throughout, especially when you consider that at 130 minutes, putting the 30-odd minutes of the final side (which contains acres of incredible model footage in the final confrontation on the houseboat sequence) into CAV could have been a real bonus. But no, it’s all in unimaginative CLV. No trailer either. So, great movie, but mixed disc (more likely the Studio’s fault than Pioneer’s, we suspect). Hence the extra ‘Overall’ category with the under-par rating.

Film 5/5 Picture 5/5 Sound 4/5 Overall 4/5 Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1996. E-mail Jeremy Clarke

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