The Making of 'Cape Fear'

In this 28 minute Making of featureette, located as an extra on the DVD of the original "Cape Fear", we learn of the genesis of how the movie was adapted by the novel 'The Executioners', as well as the casting, why the name for the movie was changed, . (It features interviews with Director J. Lee Thompson and star Gregory Peck (both of which have sadly since passed on). A few interesting anecdotes are scattered throughout (Such as how Thompson desperately regretted that Hayley Mills couldn't do the film and some others) All in all I enjoyed watching this.

My Grade: B

The Making of 'Cape Fear' (2001)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very entertaining documentary taking a look at the making of Martin Scorsese's CAPE FEAR. We get interviews with (some archival) Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Nick Nolte, Gregory Peck, Thelma Schoonmaker, Elmer Bernstein and screenwriter Wesley Strick. We start off hearing from DeNiro that originally he and Steven Spielberg had been talking about doing the picture but when he backed out the screenplay kicked around until they could convince Scorsese to take it. Scorsese then talks about his love for the original film and then we hear what new items he wanted to bring to this remake. From here we learn about the casting, the various locations used and how the filmmakers wanted to get some of the original cast members included. Fans of CAPE FEAR will certainly enjoy this 80-minute documentary that's pretty definitive in regards to telling fans just about everything you'd want to know. Just about everything from the casting to the cinematography to the stunts are covered and you really do get a great idea of various changes that were made throughout the production. The most interesting thing is hearing how the cast and Scorsese were changing the lines throughout the production and having the writing add things that weren't in the original screenplay. This includes the first meeting between DeNiro and Lange and we also hear about the filming of the now classic scene between DeNiro and Lewis. Fans of the film should be entertained by this documentary and it's certainly worth watching after viewing the movie.

Martin Scorsese (director), Wesley Strick (screenwriter), Robert DeNiro, Barbara DeFina (producer), Henry Bumstead (production designer), Thelma Schoonmaker (editor), David Williams (optical photography), Bill Taylor (special optical effects), Elmer Bernstein (composer), Gregory Peck, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, & Juliette Lewis talking individually at different lengths from 1991-2001 about their parts in making the 1991 remake of Cafe Fear. Not so much a documentary as a collection of interviews but the more interesting parts DO take you behind the scenes, go a bit into the WHYs of some of the filmmaking decisions, explain a little bit of how a film is constructed, share some anecdotes.

It does seem rather long for one of these "Making of" videos but that's not a bad thing. You simply have to particularly enjoy watching people talking for over an hour about making Cape Fear. I'm thankful that they do make these things to tack onto the films' DVD issues.

In this 80 minute Making of documentary, found as an extra on the second disc of the 2-DVD Collector's edition of the remake of "Cape Fear", it goes into detail of every aspect of the film (and at this length, it damn sure better) This is definitely a case of less is more, as the featurette Making of that was on the DVD of the original "Cape Fear" is FAR better and informative at a little more than one-third of the running time of this one. At feature length it just drones on and on and on. Growing quite tiresome in parts. Recommended ONLY to die-hard fans of the remake it is about.

My Grade: D