Cape Fear is a 1991 thriller film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name and tells the story of a family man, a former public defender, whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist who wants vengeance for having been imprisoned for 14 years because of the lawyer's purposefully faulty defense tactics, prejudicing the accused. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis). The two were also nominated for Golden Globe Awards.

Plot

Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) is a former Atlanta public defender who is now in private practice in the quiet town of New Essex, North Carolina. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is a client Sam defended 14 years prior to the setting of the movie. Cady, who was being tried for the rape and battery of a young woman, was illiterate at the time of the trial and was unable to read a report Sam kept hidden from him and the court that revealed the young woman Cady raped to have been promiscuous. The report might well have lightened Cady's sentence or even acquitted him had Sam brought it to light.