Unraveling the Dark Depths of the ‘Cape Fear’ – Editorial
Holding the dark depths of the human realm and creating an uncapped sense of human behavior, Martin Scorsese masterfully waves the tail of human emotion giving viewers a larger than life experience. Skying the human emotions and developing flawed character Scorsese is the master when it comes to character development as each dialogue and action by the character contributes heavily in its development.
This can be seen studied and performed in depth in the film Cape Fear and today in this essay we will discuss the same. Reaching the peak of negative human emotion this film focuses on the tale of right or wrong actually being circumstantial rather than being based on the rule set by human beings.
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Shoveling in the concept of human behavior the story opens with, the protagonist Sam Bowden living his life to the fullest as he has good job, a happy family and a lot of well to do friends to enjoy with, but all this happiness and fulfillment soon comes to a pause he is now being followed by Max Dutton.
Max Dutton is a violent sex criminal charged who was with fourteen years of imprisonment for battery and statutory rape of sixteen year old is now out seeking vengeance as now he considers Sam solely responsible for his detention as being charged with rape and Sam being the lone witness he testifies the crime and hides the fact of Max being unaware of the girl’s age and the sex being forcefully concentual.
A well crafted suspense thriller builds up as Sam Bowden, a successful attorney haunted by his past conviction of the violent Max Cady. Released from prison, Cady seeks revenge, terrorizing Bowden’s family and unraveling their lives. As the cat-and-mouse game intensifies, Bowden must confront his own demons and resort to extreme measures to protect his loved ones from Cady’s relentless pursuit, leading to a gripping climax where justice and survival collide in a battle of wills.
Cape Fear (1991) dir. Martin Scorsese pic.twitter.com/OVHe2dVg9L
— Martin Scorsese Point (@scorsesepoint) July 15, 2023
Talking about the story we can say that it is just perfect, the opening, character development, plot structuring, tension building has been perfectly managed all the way through the film, not only practically it is also a theoretically perfect artistic masterpiece, dwelling deep into the psychology of each and every character, the story has been successful in maintaining its uniqueness even though it fits perfectly in the Dan Harmon’s Story circle and Disney 22 bit rule for storytelling.
Making use of camera movements like extremely steady zone out at the movements deeply interprets the depth of the scenes, while wobbling follows through expressing the fear in the minds of characters.
Scorsese is an undoubted master for usage of available props and technology for creating a sensation amongst audience and clever use of framing can be seen all the way through the film, as taking a wide angle shot from the solidly framed depicts the integrity and impotence of scene and is also used to interest audience as using the strong and solid shapes attracts the attention of audience makes them feel the importance of scene, which curved or distorted framing mentally relaxes audience and makes them ready for the next dose of dopamine.
Along with the undoubtedly great camera work, the locations and props has been used fantastically all the way across the movie, placement of object and selection of location that visually distort many things that are knowingly or unknowingly picked up by the audience, like when the Bowden family finally leaves off for the Cape river, the boat can be seen stranded in the wilderness of river with noone around, this depicts the mental state of Bowden family who is stranded on the island of fear and can go any possible way to get out of it.
🎬: Cape Fear
Martin Scorsese, 1991 pic.twitter.com/0PUXkWdGMx
— Prime Video Indonesia (@primevideoid) July 23, 2023
Along with the locations and props, one can get the glimpse of the behavior of characters with just a single glance with the types of clothing choices the character prefers as Sam Bowden all the way through the story is seen wearing a suit representing his a well-arranged and sophisticated behavior while as the character moves through the story he goes on getting more casual, as we see him a fight ready T-shirt and military pants representing him to be ready to seek vengeance.
While Max is seen wearing a casual beach shirt and Panama hat as it used to be a symbolic between the politicians or for people in power in those days, depicting his mentality of his attitude of being above the law and order of the country. As said by the King of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock “The stronger the antagonist, the more powerful the story” this can be clearly seen all the way through the story, as we see the build up and the character development for the antagonist is more stronger than any other character all the way through the story.
His character development from an uneducated, unlawful violent sex offender to someone who has ample knowledge of law, so much that he even represents himself in some unsuccessful appeals in the court, this transition was really noteworthy as he enters prison with the underlying hunger for revenge, the fire of revenge flames through his brain which sets his worldview, this worldview set him to get out of the comfort zone and this instability and clarity in his worldview creates an underlying sense an unapologetic villain.
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With this unapologetic villain, the psychological conflict keeps pulling up and characters take constant actions to overcome it. The symbolic imperfect behavior of characters and constant wrong decisions taken by the characters shapes the story giving us a dark but cozy feeling. This story is a mixture of emotions, which represents the laws made in order to protect the citizens. It is the same law that can save an assailant from paying for their deeds.
The two hour five minutes long stretch of story is about a cold blooded murderer misdirected through his strong feeling and blind believe over his worldview and most importantly even creating a chaos in the Bowden family breaking or bending laws in order to fulfill his fetish and something protecting him all the way through the film is law itself.
Follow Ketan (the Author) on IG – @akumatoons
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