An exercise in Southern Gothic Grand Guignol melodrama, Scorceses remake of the 1962 classic of the same name is notable for a raw, maniacal, bloodthirsty performance from Robert De Niro, playing the brutal Max Cady. The mark of a truly monstrous antagonist is that you root for the protagonist to take him down at the narratives climax, even if you dont actually like the protagonist that much. Its the basic fulcrum around which so many stories turn: you can never guarantee that everyone in an audience will identify with the hero, but you can make damn sure that everyone hates the villain. Here, Cady is a heavily tattooed, heavily muscled white trash caricature, spouting Old Testament verses, his mind full of blood, thunder and revenge. A rapist and murderer, upon his release from prison he sets his sights on the defense attorney Sam Bowden, who failed to have him acquitted fourteen years earlier. Bowden, meanwhile, is a sweaty schmuck of a man, whose family despises him nearly as much as we do. Its a testament to De Niros uncompromising commitment to the role and Cadys increasingly violent acts of vengeance including a further rape that involves him biting off part of his victims face, and awkward seduction attempts on Bowdens wife and teenage daughter that we want Bowden to win at all.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.