Robert De Niro plays Max Cady, an illiterate criminal who has been imprisoned for fourteen years on rape and battery charges. Nick Nolte plays Sam Bowden, Cady's lawyer who intentionally buried a valuable document, which may have allowed Cady's prison sentence to be significantly shorter. Cady learns to read while in prison. He starts with 'See Spot Run,' then proceeds to study law books. Cady's rage and desire for revenge grows with each additional day that he is in prison. Although Cady's original prison sentence was only eight years, it is increased to fourteen years due to battery of another inmate. He memorizes the Bible and tattoos his body with scripture referring to vengeance. When Cady is finally released from prison, he immediately seeks out Bowden and his family. Cady has become a scripture slinging psychopath hell bent on revenge. The director Martin Scorsese is attempting to prove that everyone has skeletons in their closet. Bowden might appear to be a terrific lawyer and loving family man on the surface, but underneath the perfect image lies a cheating husband and corrupt lawyer. Scorsese also shows how powerful the emotion of revenge can be and how it can distort ones version of what is right and wrong. Scorsese demonstrates this by showing Cady's knowledge of scripture and his acceptance of the terror that he is inflicting on the Bowden family. Scorsese's use of cameo appearances by Robert Mithcum and Gregory Peck was brilliant. The fact that they played such opposite roles in the original film was an interesting twist. I enjoyed the original 1962 version more than this remake, but I feel that the blood being in color definitely added to the terror that this film inflicts.
