Cape Fear sucked!

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I agree with you 100% Bfielding1942. I wrote the same thing on another tread. For example I was 17 when the 1991 version came out and even then I saw the family for what they were, a horrible mess. The acress who played Danielle/Nancy is Juliette Lewis, a woman who plays freaks in everything I've ever seen her in - that's like he trademark or something. She was practically accepting the flirtations from Cady, it was disgusting and sad. I had remembered her as a slut too - but your comment confirms my memory (since I haven't seen the new one in 13 years).

You're right, the 1991 version just shows how much American families have fallen in recent years. But the 1991 is a great commentary on our culture, but as for me, I'm raising a family more like the 1962 version becuase I'm not going to give up and say, "Oh, "real" families are dysfunctional." They may be but there are real families that are not as well.

I will admit that the original movie was a marvelous film with some very intense acting. The remake was a great film also with some marvelous acting and intense moments. I think the big difference between the two films is realism. The original was realistic in the fact that what you are watching you could see it honestly happening. The remake, on the other hand, made Cady out to be superhuman which takes away from the realism. For example, the beating that Cady gets in the middle of the movie from those 3 hired men would have knocked him out and he would be near death, instead Cady gets back up like a wrestler in WWE and single handedly takes these guys out with no problem. For me that is not realistic. There are plenty of other scenes in the movie that prove my point also. But this is cinema and you have to take it for what it is. Nonetheless, both movies are great in there own ways.

Here I am replying one year later, but I just have to make a point. Having just recently viewed the original Cape Fear I can now make a valid comparison between the original and the 1991 remake. The easiest comparison to make is between Gregory Peck's Sam Bowden and that of Nick Nolte. Hands down, Peck's Bowden is better than Nolte's. With Peck, you actually feel that he is living in irony as now he is forced to question is own morals to protect his family. Peck's Bowden is supposed to protect the rights of others as a lawyer, but he breaks the law when he hires some punks to beat the crap out of Cady. I think that the Bowden of the 1991 remake is good, but Nolte just is not as strong an actor as Peck was. In the original version, Peck was concerned that Robert Mitchum would outshine him as Max Cady, but that did not happen. In the 1991 remake, Robert De Niro clearly stole the movie as Max Cady.
Robert De Niro's turn as Max Cady was so good that he was nominated for an Oscar. I think that Robert Mitchum's Cady was excellent but would have been so much better if it weren't for the heavy censorship of movies in the 60's. Both De Niro's and Mitchum's Cady were physically and psychologically powerful. De Niro's Cady was especially scarier because he wanted to gain the teenage daughter's trust, which is usually how a lot of sex offenders are able to get their prey. I was just waiting for when. Bowden (Nick Nolte) even noticed the change in his daughter's behaivor after her meeting with Cady in the auditorium. Having a child turn on her parents while they are trying to protect her would have been the best payback Cady could have imagined in addition to raping her. And what father is going to say to his daughter, "I told you so." after she is raped? Because Peck's Bowden was a man of such conviction, everyone is his household was obedient and perfect. It was obvious that Mitchum's Cady was evil. Because Nolte's Bowden had a family that was falling apart, De Niro's Cady could play with their minds a little more.
I think that the original was good in that it got the point across with subtleties. However, I liked the shock value in the remake better. I liked how Bowden 1991 handled the brutal beating of an extra-marital paramour. He did not care about the embarrassment her testimonial would have brought him and his family. Cady would have been put away and everyone could rebuild. But everyone knew that girl was scared!! In the original, Bowden was so removed from the victim (there was no affair) that he practically demanded she testify. She was scared too but not like the girl in the remake!! I liked the long gaze that Mitchum's Cady gave to Bowden's daughter and Peck's violent reaction to the gaze, and the bar scene where Peck offers to pay Mitchum to go away. Peck just oozes classic guy bravado.
Like I said before, the original was good but the remake was better.

The simple fact is that the original Cape Fear IS a hundred times better than the remake. Deal with it.