Cape Fear, Then and Now Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of the 1962 classic Cape Fear offers superb opportunities to compare American culture and values in two vastly different eras separated by a mere 29 years. The 1962 classic, directed by J. Lee Thompson, coming out of the pure and innocent '50s, was simple, straightforward and scary. Scorsese's version is more complex, sophisticated and possibly less scary, because the contemporary world itself is so much more threatening and the contrast between screen and real life is less divergent and less shocking. Scorsese in remaking Cape Fear was making a commercial thriller, adding themes of personal and contemporary significance, contributing his own directorial elements, and creating a tribute to the original.
Technical differences between the two films are most obvious since the original, filmed in shadowy black and white noir style, differs notably to the clear imaged, visual intensity of the widescreen color version which employs spinning shots, deep focus, multiple camera angles, fast cutting, zooming in for dramatic effect and fading to negative or one-color effects to heighten tension and fear. In the remake, obviously highly budgeted compared to original, Scorsese offers a style reminiscent of early technicolor films by using intense colors as seen in the atmosphere of dramatic cars and clothing around the De Niro character. The same dramatic music, composed for the original by Bernard Herrmann, reorchestrated by Elmer Bernstein, gives the modern film an old fashioned feeling, adding to the viewers consciousness of this film as tribute to an earlier genre. Every subtle detail in the original was designed to build suspense and terror. The modern version, in no way subtle, adds the additional element of commenting on the original.
The original Cape Fear reflects a much more innocent America of the 50's. The Scorsese version invokes a more complex world in which the separation between good and evil is not so clear and concise. Differences in plot and character reflect differences in cultures. The plot is rewritten to include modern themes such as themes of guilt, suffering, sacrifice,...
In the heist itself, time overlaps, and actions that have already been shown are repeated from another character's point-of-view. The audience is left to pout the pieces together so that we see a character do something and then se how it helps the next action lead to the desired conclusion. At the racetrack, with the announcement of the start of the fifth race, the film cuts to Johnny, in the
Film Noir Among the various styles of producing films, it has been observed the noir style is one that has come to be recognized for its uniqueness in characterization, camera work and striking dialogue. Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s were quite well-known for their feminine characters that were the protagonists, the femme fatale. This was most common with the French, later accepted in the United States. There might have
Take the movie the Maltese Falcon, for example. The character played by Humphrey Bogart is not driven by an idealistic approach, but by the financial motivations that different characters will offer him throughout the movie. At the same time, the main female character is usually the femme fatale type, dangerous, yet attractive, with whom the main male character tends to bond. This is not, however, the usual Hollywood type love
Film Noir The 1945 film "Mildred Pierce" is the epitome of film noir, complete with the femme fatale, theme of betrayal and hopelessness and use of flashbacks. While the 1954 "On the Waterfront" also uses the theme of betrayal and hopelessness, it breaks from the film noir genre, and rather than using flashbacks, it is told in present time and the use of the femme fatale is replaced by an unscrupulous
The fact that she flirts with gender roles and norms is equally as dangerous. For Corky, the danger is manifest in the potential betrayal and also in the eventual show down between the women and their male captors. Jessica is portrayed as a more passive figure, as a more classic pre-feminist femme fatale; whereas Violet is a more active figure, a true "postfeminist good-bad girl hybrid." Things happen to Jessica,
Film Noir / Cinema Architecture Perhaps one of the most fruitful ways in which to trace the evolution of Film Noir as a genre is to examine, from the genre's heyday to the present moment, the metamorphoses of one of film noir's most reliable tropes: the femme fatale. The notion of a woman who is fundamentally untrustworthy -- and possibly murderous -- is a constant within the genre, perhaps as a
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