Cape Fear: Justice taken to obsession

To what extent should a defense lawyer be faithful to his oath? That is the premise that moves the strings of this story based on the novel by Jhon McDonald, the hikers, which was taken to the movies twice, being the one directed by Martin Scorsese the second version, of which I will comment.

This movie, released in 1991, accompanied me during my adolescence, since they used to broadcast it very often on the open TV channels that only existed then. And every time I saw it, I found, without knowing, threads that I was spinning in my mind in a different way, product of maturity and then of the knowledge of the career I chose to study.

Now, many years after that first contact, I see it again, and my interpretation obviously changes again, without leaving aside my fascination with the character played by Robert de Niro.

Call me crazy, but I must confess that the disturbed characters that Robert de Niro has played are the ones that have made my adoration for this actor increase more and more every day, as well as my admiration for Scorsese and his ability to bring out the darkest sides of a personality.

First it was Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver" and then with Max Cady, the rapist of "fearful cape, both characters with a disorder product of a life that has favored them little and that act looking for revenge to redeem their own sins.

In Cape of Fear we see a De Niro who after a conviction for rape, concentrates his frustration based on a goal (not very ethical) leaving the violence that typically shows us inside the prison, taking advantage of the time to form and become his own lawyer.

And although few dominate this information, in prison there are these options, they are not only spaces to retain people who wait for the passage of time, but there are also those who allow them to study, perfect an art and prepare them for the world they will see when they leave there, only that the internal circumstances and the friction with misery, sometimes can more than the desire to improve.

But Cady did it. He went from being ignorant to a lawyer, who despite having his constant appeals denied, fulfills his sentence and comes out prepared ... but also obsessed with revenge on the one who should defend him and not sink him a little more.

The presence of a Juliete Lewis, as the daughter of the defender Sam Bowden played by Nick Nolte, is the apple of temptation that links them again. She is unaware of the previous facts between her father and the ex-convict, and expresses her rebellion against parental rules, accepting the friendship of Cady, without knowing that this would be the beginning of a nightmare.

This film shows us the twisted side of a criminal mind that believes that its reality is not controversial, it is only to take what it wants, like an animal that hunts to eat and then leaves half of the prey.

A jewel of psychological terror cinema taken by hand by unorthodox camera angles that even make us dizzy trying to see which is the focal point that we must detail. As well as inviting us to question the ethical limits that a lawyer should have, because Bowden hid information to achieve the sentence, being he who should defend Cady.

This just makes me remember a lawyer friend, who being a public defender had as clients drug traffickers, rapists and swindlers, and how she had to handle herself in that underworld without falling into the temptations of both sides. It is really a job not suitable for a weak-minded person.

In the movie, the iconic scene of De Niro clinging to the car chassis where Bowden escapes with his family, is even recognized by those who have seen this film only once, being a meme in the time in which this term was not yet used, to express the obsession with following something or someone.

In the end, the fight between good and evil, with all the elements against both sides, can be extrapolated to those situations in which we find ourselves at a crossroads about how history would have been if we had reacted differently.

Would Cady have been regenerated in a psychiatric center? Why didn't Bowden resign from the case? Can a rapist be regenerated? How far should we take our concept of justice without falling into the temptation to modify it in favor?
And you? how many times have you seen this movie? To which side do you join: Cady or Bowden?

Edited by @mamaemigrante using canva