| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Robert De Niro | ... | ||
| Nick Nolte | ... | ||
| Jessica Lange | ... | ||
| Juliette Lewis | ... | ||
| Joe Don Baker | ... | ||
| Robert Mitchum | ... | ||
| Gregory Peck | ... | ||
| Martin Balsam | ... |
Judge
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| Illeana Douglas | ... | ||
| Fred Dalton Thompson | ... | ||
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Zully Montero | ... | |
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Craig Henne | ... |
Prisoner
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Forest Burton | ... |
Prisoner
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Edgar Allan Poe IV | ... |
Prisoner
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| Rod Ball | ... |
Prisoner
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Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte)is a small-town corporate attorney/"Leave It to Beaver" type family-man. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss. Written by James Craver
To me, it's amazing that there's actually a place in North Carolina called Cape Fear, but it provides the perfect setting for this movie. Several years after attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) defended convicted rapist Max Cady (Robert DeNiro), Cady gets out of jail and decides that Bowden didn't do a good job defending him. After Sam and Max meet each other a few times, Max starts getting crazier and crazier. After he tries to enter Sam's house, Sam and his family go into hiding at Cape Fear. Then, the terror really begins.
Martin Scorsese brought a unique intensity to movies like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver", but this is something completely different. Whereas his earlier movies simply made you identify with the characters, "Cape Fear" makes you both identify with the characters and find them unpleasant. Not only Max Cady, but also the Bowdens. They are never the "ideal American family", but Cady's threats against them make them get progressively nastier in their attitudes towards each other and to other people.
I think that it's safe to say that after watching "Cape Fear", you will never look at any person the same way again.