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Cape
Fear
(1991) |
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De Niro goes OTT, and what with Juliette Lewis thrown in for good measure, the fireworks really fly! Slickly directed and beautifully scored using the original Bernard Herrman composition, it is a stylish exercise in tension building that succeeds to a large extent. One of the memorable features of the film is the tribute to one of cinema's greats; Bernard Herrmann. The unmistakable Herrmann sound engulfs the viewer from the very title sequence, weaving its way menacingly into the scene of the sinewed, hideously tattooed animal like thing maniacally pursuing his fitness regimen. Scoresese does a fine job, creating a terrific movie maniac in De Niro's epic piece of white trash Max Cady. Scorsese toys with a backdrop of a family under strain, Lange turns to monochrome as her husband makes love to her; the screen fades to blood red as she applies her lipstick with fireworks blazing away outside. Its all so pseudo Hitchcockian, and with Herrmann blaring away amidst all this, one could almost mistake Scorcese's work for De Palma or, maybe even the master himself. There is a lot going on in this movie and Scorsese's direction is far removed form the gritty world that he normally inhabits. In Cape Fear he allows himself to indulge liberally in smooth, sweeping steadycam shots a la Hitchcock. Its all extremely stylish and a visual treat. There is something amiss however, perhaps its the Amblin factor that forces the movie to pander to unfortunate crowd pleasing tactics in the last third of the movie. Its basically a thoroughly enjoyable horror movie, overwrought and overacted, but sumptuously stylish and with Herrman's composition as the audio background, one can hardly complain. The greatest handicap the film has is that bearing Scorsese's name it has a certain reputation to live up to and the critics don't exactly go for what is an out and out horror film dressed up as a dramatic thriller! Its certainly good fun.
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