‘Cape Fear’ explained: Why does Max go after the Bowdens?
At the start of the 1990s, director Martin Scorsese decided to option a new script adaptation of the 1962 psychological thriller movie Cape Fear. Incredibly, Scorsese agreed to give Steven Spielberg the reins on Schindler’s List in order to direct this film instead.
He was likely convinced by the graphic violence portrayed in Wesley Strick’s update on the original version’s script. The brutality of the movie’s climactic moments, in which crazed villain Max Cady and his former lawyer Sam Bowden fight to the death on a sinking boat before Cady is drowned, is pure Scorsese.
Of course, Scorsese enlisted long-time collaborator Robert De Niro to play the challenging role of Cady, who is a convicted rapist, paedophile and psychopath. De Niro perfected a convincing southern drawl for his performance, in contrast to the accent of his native New York he’s typically employed in other films.
The story itself is set in Essex, a rural community in the southern state of North Carolina, where Cady tracks down Bowden, played by Nick Nolte, and his family. He then proceeds to terrorise the Bowdens, poisoning their dog, raping and beating Sam’s work colleague, seducing his 15-year-old daughter Danny, and attempting to rape her and her mother on the boat, where he finally meets his demise.
But why does Cady target the Bowdens in the first place?
As many of the tattoos on his body allude to, Cady is out for revenge against Sam Bowden. While representing Cady as his lawyer when he was on trial for rape and battery, Bowden was so horrified by what he had done that he deliberately sabotaged Cady’s defence, allowing him to go to prison.
Until Cady arrived to stalk his family, Bowden had believed that his former defendant had no idea about the part he’d played in his conviction. After all, Cady supposedly hadn’t been able to read when he stood trial, so couldn’t have read the case files when attempting to appeal his conviction.
We clearly see from the bookshelf heaving with tomes in Cady’s prison cell at the beginning of the movie that he’s no longer illiterate, if he ever was. As he reveals to Bowden midway through the film, he’s actually able to “outthink” and “out philosophise” his former lawyer.
Cady knows full well that, in legal terms, he has ended up serving a 14-year sentence due to Bowden not doing his job properly. And so, he’s out to avenge himself in the worst possible terms by engaging in the depraved acts of violence and sexual assault that come naturally to him.
Luckily for some, he doesn’t manage to fulfil his vengeful aims completely. Bowden finally overcomes him and sends him to his death, in a different ending from the original 1962 film. But not before Cady has been able to inflict irreparable damage on him and his family.
