Universal Pictures released a movie in 1962 directed by J. Lee Thompson. It became a blockbuster hit. Almost 30 years later Martin Scorsese decided to put his spin on the classic. He too had blockbuster success. The movie is the infamous Cape Fear.
Although the two versions of Cape Fear have many similarities, I will be concentrating on the differences. It is the differences in the films that I feel have the greatest impact on the characters’ motivation, their credibility, and the overall development of the movie.
First, it’s extremely important to discuss major differences in three of the movies’ main characters: Sam Bowden, Max Cady, and Bowden’s daughter. In the earlier version, Sam Bowden was merely a witness whose testimony sent Max Cady to prison. This was the wrongdoing that brought Cady back for revenge. Bowden was portrayed as a good and honest family man. There are several scenes that make us form this opinion of him. A good example of Bowden’s home-life is the scene in which the family is first introduced. His daughter runs out to greet him with a hug when he arrives home from work.
His wife is affectionate and looks happy that he is home. When the family goes out bowling together the way they interact there also shows us the strong relationship between them. There is never anything in the movie that changes this first impression we have of Bowden being a good father and a loving husband. When he hires the men to beat Cady in the bar’s alleyway, we feel that Sam Bowden is a good man who has been driven to desperation in fear for his family’s safety. It isn’t as if Bowden is deriving some sort of sadistic pleasure out of having Cady hurt, he is trying this as a last resort, an attempt to make Cady leave them alone.
Later in the film we see that Bowden performs a very self-less act when he puts himself at risk by hiding on lookout trying to catch Cady. This is an example not only of his courage, but his love and loyalty for his family…even if his own safety would be at risk. In contrast, the 1991 version of the movie shows a very different Sam Bowden. Now we are presented with a corrupt lawyer who buried evidence in order to insure Cady’s conviction. He is also shown to be dishonest and unfaithful to his wife. The scenes where they are arguing give us some background information letting us know they are not having a perfect, wonderful marriage.
When Scorsese’s Bowden hires the men to beat Cady, he hides and watches, drawing pleasure from seeing Cady be physically punished. In this version, when the Bowden’s go to the houseboat it is the entire family trying to hide, they are all scared and Bowden is not the brave man trying to protect his family…he is every bit as frightened as they are. Our views of Sam Bowden differ greatly between the movies. Adding the elements of dishonesty and corruption to his character makes Cady’s need for vengeance seem more realistic.
The second character to discuss is Max Cady. There’s no doubt that Cady is the bad guy in either movie, but the earlier release gives us a much softer criminal. To start with, this Max Cady is not a very intimidating looking man. He isn’t nearly as tough as the Max Cady we’ll see later. They do portray him to be a sort of thug. He’ll do what he wants, when he wants. He acts confident, no matter what the situation. When Cady killed Kerser he drowned him. He said “You’re gonna’ die without a mark on you. You just got too big for your pants.” It’s not a very violent scene. There is no blood, no splashing, and not even much of a struggle.
We also view Cady as a fairly smart man. He is smart enough to carry out his plans and still always elude the police. He’s even intelligent enough to set up situations that make him look like the innocent person being attacked. For example, when Cady is watching Nancy from the dock at the marina, Bowden sees him and tries to run him off. Cady manages to goad Bowden into hitting him and turns the situation around in the onlookers’ eyes. Cady is seen as a man with a score to settle. He feels Bowden destroyed his family and now he’d like to cause the same for him.
The Max Cady seen in the more current movie is a much more sinister, frightening man. His appearance is even scary. He is confident to the point of being cocky. He is portrayed as a violent madman with the intent of murder. This Cady is made to seem even more intelligent than the previous character. Not only is he street smart, but proves to be intellectual and knowledgeable in psychology as well. When Cady makes the telephone call to Danielle before her drama class starts, we see a good example of his use of psychological intellect. He manages to draw Danielle in and makes her feel that he’s on her side and can be trusted.
Even when she finds out who he really is, he has done enough to make her feel that they still possess some sort of connection. We also hear Cady frequently quoting scriptures, which proves he’s knowledgeable in the area of religion as well. He exhibits his understanding of the law and legal system in his references to infractions of his rights. When Cady is being released from prison in the opening, he even says that he doesn’t need the books from his cell because he’d “already read ’em.” It appears that Cady is a self-taught man based on this last example. Even though Max Cady is presented as a criminal with a vendetta in both movies, Scorsese’s depiction of his character is a much more horrid and evil person overall.
The next character is the one that changes the most between the films. Bowden’s daughter not only undergoes a name change, but a complete age and character change as well. In the original Cape Fear the daughter is a young girl named Nancy. We are given the idea that she is a good kid. She is well behaved and has a happy relationship with her parents. Nancy has no feelings concerning Cady except for her fear of him. She is seen as an innocent child that has been targeted in order to punish her father. She really doesn’t have much one-on-one interaction with Cady.
On the other hand, Bowden’s daughter in the 91′ version of the movie plays a very different part. First off, she is a very sexually aware teenager named Danielle. From the beginning we see her as not being quite right, so to speak. We also see that her relationship with her parents is a rocky one. The movie gives the idea that she is a sort of problem child. She has been in trouble with her parents for using marijuana and she also has to attend summer school. Another unusual characteristic of Danielle’s is her attraction to Max Cady. This attraction greatly impacts the direction of the story. She maintains having a feeling of closeness to him and even conceals having contact with him.
For instance, Cady leaves a book for her with particular passages marked. She takes the book and doesn’t tell anyone about it. Her mother doesn’t know until Cady talks about the book in front of her on the houseboat later. In my opinion, even though the relationship between Cady and Danielle is sick, it does add to the disturbing feeling Max Cady gives us anyway. Having Bowden’s daughter depicted in such a different way created changes to almost all of the other characters in some way. I feel her character’s changes add a lot to the picture as a whole.
Another aspect outside of characters that was a big difference is the addition of background information and foreshadowing used in Scorsese’s adaptation of the movie. We are given more background in the later rendition. Giving different background information about Bowden’s part in Cady’s incarceration adds a lot to each of their characters’ motivation. Cady also comes with more background as well. We get to actually see Cady in the jail and being released.
This helped to create a scarier portrayal of Max Cady from the very beginning. At the start of the movie we see foreshadowing through Danielle’s monologue about Cape Fear and the memories she had associated with it to this point. Another thing that adds to foreshadowing is music. I find it interesting that Scorsese chose to use Bernard Herrmann’s original songs (produced and arranged by Elmer Bernstein). Even with all of the changes between the movies, the music still fits perfectly.
The climax of the film is another aspect that differed drastically. The entire part of the storyline centered on the houseboat changed. It changed from the role of a means to capture Cady to being a route of escape and shelter from him. The second movie’s scenes on the boat were much more suspenseful than the earlier one. Cady’s character in the film from ’91 had become an almost super-human form by the end. To the very last second we feel he may break free and resurface for more. He is virtually indestructible. The first movie ended with Cady being defeated, but not killed. There is a great deal more violence in the newer version of the film. There is also a greater presence of sexual overtones in this movie. Both of these things add to Cady’s character the most. It helps us believe that Cady is a truly vile creature.
This brings us to the last area of discussion, believability. This is something the first movie was lacking. In example, look at the scene mentioned earlier where Cady kills Kerser. It just isn’t the way it would really happen. The scene preceding Kerser’s death is another example. Cady is creeping through an open area of the water. They flash to show us Kerser and Bowden, supposedly guarding and on close watch. It isn’t realistic that Cady sneaks through there with his head sticking out of the water and they don’t see him. The second movie also had several aspects that should have been unbelievable, but for some reason we are so drawn into Cady’s super-human qualities that we don’t really notice that some things are unbelievable. It is this quality that I feel makes the later film more entertaining.
Both Thompson and Scorsese captured the audiences with a story that can obviously be told in a variety of ways. They created movies that are so different, but so alike at the same time. They used their own individual styles to create two different masterpieces with the same basic story. Both movies took the viewers through a tale of terror – an angry criminal scorned and ready to get even, his target the innocent family of the object of his hatred, Sam Bowden. Each director used a different approach, but it was still ultimately Max Cady that showed us where the real fear comes from when you’re in Cape Fear.
