Cape Fear Film Comparison

Another example of an auteur remaking a film and giving it his own distinct look and feel is Martin Scorsese’s film Cape Fear. In this film “Scorsese paid complicated attention to why and how Max Cady was framed… De Niro’s edgy performance and Scorsese’s restless camera capture much of this contemporary tension in what is still a ‘classical’ Hollywood narrative.” This is a very different remake that has many of the same touches that tie it to the original film (including the fact that Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck have small supporting performances), but it has enough differences that allow it to stand on it’s own. I have found that remakes are generally thought of as a single entity, but by exploring the many different styles of remakes
Edward Norton’s performance as Will Graham is very different from Peterson’s, as he gives Will a more polished look and feel. He plays him more as a traditional detective that happens to have a special insight into a killers mind, but he makes it seem much more like a gift than a curse. His amazing insight has not warped him into a man on the verge of insanity, instead what haunts him is his past with the man that outwitted him insight for so long and nearly took his life in the process. The man of course is Hannibal Lecter and he is given a much meatier role in this film over Manhunter, this of course is due to the fact that Anthony Hopkins legendary performance is one of the main selling points in this prequel film. The interaction between him and Will in this film is very different and incredibly unique. Unlike Hopkins and Foster interactions in Silence of the Lambs there is a certain hatred Lecter has for Will, a disdain that someone outsmarted him, which makes his threats and retaliation against Will all the more terrifying. In both films he corresponds with the Tooth Fairy and sends him to hunt down and kill Will, but this aspect is much more expanded and revealing in the Ratner remake, since the relationship between Will and Lecter is enhanced in his