In the fall of 2007, Anton Chigurh walked on to our screens and drove fear into our hearts, one which deepens with every rewatch of No Country For Old Men. The neo-Western crime thriller, directed by the irrepressible Coen Brothers, starred Javier Bardem as Chigurh, with the versatile Spanish actor turning in a deathly, remorseless, unemotional act that is unanimously cited as a masterpiece of cinematic villainy. The chilling Chigurh won Bardem a host of awards — including an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA — with one important footnote being attached to his portrayal for posterity: the cold, unstoppable killer-for-hire, distinguished by that iconic bowl-cut, has been crowned as “the most realistic film depiction of a psychopath” in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Playing Max Cady should, by all means and purposes, be a cakewalk for Bardem who, of course, is otherwise considered as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. But Cady’s shoes are extremely large to fill, no matter what the art, craft and antecedents of an actor might be. Cape Fear, after all, is a seminal film series inspired by a seminal book (the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald). Cady — a chilling embodiment of vengeance, primal menace and calculated manipulation — has earlier been played by Robert Mitchum in the 1962 film and by Robert De Niro in the 1991 outing, that was directed by Martin Scorsese. Bardem has 10 episodes, in the case of the new Cape Fear series — the title’s first small-screen adaptation — to make it a wild and wanton ride.
Javier Bardem as Max Cady
The Apple TV series that has released two episodes with a Friday drop all the way down to July 31, sees Scorsese returning, with a notable partner — Steven Spielberg — sharing executive producer duties. That alone is (positive) bait enough to tune in. Created by Nick Antosca, the latest telling of Cape Fear, at least in what has been put out so far, opts for a route that gives a fresh, upgraded treatment to a familiar story.
In the film outings, the battle was between the palpably good and the extremely evil, telling the story of a convicted rapist (Cady) who, by using his newfound knowledge of the law and its numerous loopholes, seeks unbridled vengeance against a former public defender (Sam Bowden, played by Gregory Peck/ Nick Nolte) who he blames for his 14 years in prison due to purposefully botching his legal defense.
But 35 years later, we are living in a far more complex time. The series imparts the classic thriller with a modern take, affording the female protagonist with a lot more agency than the previous iterations. After all, Anna (Amy Adams) was Max Cady’s lawyer, one who he believes instead of defending him to the best of her ability, persuaded him to plead guilty to the murder of his wife and unborn child, which put him away for 17 years. A pregnant Anna went on to marry Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson), the prosecuting attorney in the same case. They are now an extremely well-placed couple, right at the top of Savannah, Georgia’s swish set — think a palatial mansion, an enviable professional and personal network, financial and social power — and two teenaged children.
The Bowdens, however, aren’t as squeaky clean as one would think them to be. The possibility of a secret or more is teased in the initial episodes. But everything threatens to tip over when Max Cady, fresh out of prison, a metal plate embedded in his head from a fight with fellow inmates, and with a lot more than revenge on his mind, returns to their lives. The destruction of the Bowdens is slow, but imminent. It involves modern-day evils, featuring everything from AI to drones to drugs.
A relentlessly gripping thriller, Cape Fear places Anna Bowden and Max Cady in a face-to-face bout, one which he navigates with cold-minded precision rather than primal impulses. Bardem, whose shadowy presence in the initial moments is enough to send a chill down your spine — we see his tattooed neck much before we see the rest of him — puts Cady in pole position in this breathless psychological pow-wow, which sees him hitting the Bowdens first where it hurts the most.
He targets their troubled son Zack (Joe Anders), with the latter already ending up with one toe less within the first two episodes. Anna’s suspicions regarding Max — Bardem’s portrayal is so smooth that (horror of horrors) it even invites a flicker of sympathy — grow by the day, Tom is increasingly restless and the couple’s daughter Natalie (Lily Collias) is sensing her parents aren’t quite above board in this potentially bloody drama.
That sets up Cape Fear for a deliciously dark ride, one which has more than established by now that fear isn’t that evil can’t be cloistered away from good... but that evil was never distinguishable from good in the first place. We look forward to more.
