Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance

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The overly ominous poster for Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear

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The 30 year-old original Cape Fear gets a real lift in terms of style, violence, language and sex here, - anything that sets off the red lights at the MPAA, who rate movies in America. Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear is a colorful and entertaining thriller.

Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte wrestle good and evil in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear

Oscar-nominated Robert De Niro's (Casino (1995)) character as the wronged former inmate, who has come out to take revenge on his ex-defendant, has gotten extra weight in the balance between him and his adversary in the remake, and Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line (1998)) fails to make it seem an even match at all, which takes some excitement from the ordeal. Also because his part is no longer the hero (with a handicap) that Gregory Peck played in the original. In the 90's version, he comes off as a spineless whiner with a torn family.

Same still as above, only spiced up by an artist

Where the 1962 film focused on the uncontrollable, outer threat, Scorsese's film is a more moral (and Catholic) take on the story, which conclusively SPOILER reveals all humans' sinful nature. Personally I prefer the slightly more romantic view of the older film.
Juliette Lewis was also Oscar-nominated for her supporting role in Cape Fear, but lost (rightfully so) to Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King. Cape Fear also has stars Fred Dalton Thompson, Joe Don Baker and from the original film in cameos, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam.
Scorsese returned to real greatness with Casino (1995), his eighth and final collaboration with De Niro. He is in pre-production at the moment with his coming Japan-set, religious period movie, Silence (2015).

Related reviews:

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home-attack thriller
Martin Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - One helluva movie!
Boardwalk Empire - 1st season (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants 

Watch the original trailer - which scandalously doesn't mention Juliette Lewis' name!

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 182.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of the two Cape Fear movies?
Which do you prefer?

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home invasion thriller

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The lines are etched up on the exciting poster for J. Lee Thompson's Cape Fear

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Cape Fear presents any stone-cut patriarch's worst nightmare: An outer threat that he can't protect his family against.
Gregory Peck (Roman Holiday (1953)) is the ultimate law-abiding gentleman family father, and Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past (1947)) is simply unpleasant as the man he has once put in jail. - Very unpleasant in fact.
Something about the family roles bothers me slightly, but Cape Fear is an otherwise great suspense movie; with inventive B/W photography by Sam Leavitt (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), perfect use of shadows and yet another classic Bernard Herrman (Psycho (1960)) score. A menacing and very good thriller.
SPOILER In Mitchum's attack on Polly Bergen, who plays Peck's wife in the film, the eggs were not scripted, and Bergen's reaction to them is real. Mitchum also really slashed his hand open, and Bergen's back was also cut, and she had back injuries for days after the intense scene was shot.
Cape Fear is directed by J. Lee Thompson, one of Hollywood's hottest directors at the time, who had made the great The Guns of Navarone (1961) the year before.

Related review:

J. Lee Thompson: Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of J. Lee Thompson's Cape Fear?