A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 5 wins & 21 nominations total
- Tom Broadbent
- (as Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe thick accent Robert De Niro used to play Max Cady reportedly gave Martin Scorsese the creeps. As a joke, De Niro would call Scorsese's house, leaving voicemails as Cady.
- GoofsAt the parade, Dani talks to her father but her lips are not moving.
- Quotes
Max Cady: I ain't no white trash piece of shit. I'm better than you all! I can out-learn you. I can out-read you. I can out-think you. And I can out-philosophize you. And I'm gonna outlast you. You think a couple whacks to my guts is gonna get me down? It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than that, Counselor, to prove you're better than me!
- Crazy creditsLater half of the credits are played to the sound of nighttime crickets.
- Alternate versionsSPOILER: When the movie was originally shown on network television, the blood left by Kersek's killing was optically removed by censors and replaced by a clean tile floor.
- ConnectionsEdited into Cape Fear: Deleted Scenes (2001)
- SoundtracksTipitina
Written by Alice Byrd
Performed by Professor Longhair
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products
When it comes down to it, this 1991 version is so much more watchable and enjoyable than the first. Perhaps the new version's morally-complex screenplay and dynamic cinematography highlight the fact that the old Cape Fear is a bit static and, well, dull.
That's not to say the new version is perfect. The afore-mentioned cinematography, while unsettling at first (especially DeNiro virtually walking through the camera), eventually grates. Why do we need to see extreme close-ups and dramatic zooms of locks being closed?
In fact, it is bizarre that the parts of the film not set in Cape Fear are by far the best, what with the genuinely weird death of the private investigator and the 'I don't whether to look at him or read him' line from Robert Mitchum. It is in the final twenty minutes that the viewer is left numbed and ultimately tired at the 'kill the b**tard!' histronics the film endlessly subjects us to.
Despite all this, the ultimate compliment is perhaps that The Simpsons chose to parody this version rather than the 1962 version!
- findlay_mill
- Jul 23, 2002
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $35,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $79,091,969
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,261,025
- Nov 17, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $182,291,969
- Runtime2 hours 8 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1