"Corner of Terror"

Aric 2021-12-30 17:20:15

This is a film released in 1991. Director Martin Scorsese. De Niro played a complicated character in it.

The story takes place in a small town in the southern United States. Kaidi is a small country gangster and illiterate. Was prosecuted for raping a girl. Sam, the lawyer who defended him, concealed evidence in favor of Caddy, resulting in him being sentenced to 14 years. In prison, he was tortured, and at the same time he worked hard to literacy and learn culture. I read a lot of books, learned a lot of legal knowledge, and figured out the reasons why I was sentenced. Cady was released from prison 14 years later. At this time, Sam has a successful career and a wealth of life. His wife and daughter's family of three are happy. And Katie spent all his time, energy, and even life on his revenge against Sam. The final result is not spoiled.

I won’t say much about the plot of the film. The characters portrayed by the director are very interesting. Look at Kaidi first. He belongs to that kind of cruel and clever rascal. Living at the bottom, they are regarded as "junk white people". Judging from the circumstances of his case, he is of course guilty, but he will not be sentenced for so many years. If he meets a good lawyer, it is not known that he can get rid of his crime. However, his previous and subsequent actions can also show his lack of knowledge and cognitive ignorance. He studied hard in prison behind bars and mastered a lot of knowledge. And use this knowledge to think about life and understand many truths. Looking back on his past and clarifying his grievances, after training and learning in prison, he believes that he is now stronger than those elites. In fact, he is indeed better than someone like Sam. But after all, the pattern is too small. Regarding the ugliness and injustice of society, all he can do is entangle himself in personal grievances. In his thinking and actions, there is a rational side, but also a cruel and ugly side. He was influenced by Nietzsche's theory (actually only knew some of Nietzsche's fur), and believed that he was performing God's mission. It was God who used his hand to punish evil. He said: "I am God, and God is me. I am as great as God, and as small as me. It cannot surpass me, and I will not be lower than it." In his view, the process of revenge is also his pursuit of justice. the process of.

Usually, after a person has been wronged, the life he has lost, the pain he has suffered, and the changed destiny are irreversible. There are two choices for him in desperation: one is to bid farewell to the past and live a solid life in the future; the other is to exhaust all of his own to revenge. Kaidi chose the latter. Different people have different opinions on this. For an ordinary person, forgetting the past and welcoming a new life is the most important thing. However, in the moral concepts handed down in society, most people choose to pay for it, which is of course not bad. However, even if this revenge action at the cost of the rest of his life is successful, it will only get short-term pleasure, but it will pay for a lifetime of pain and hatred. Is it really worth it?

Compared with those who just slapped a knife when they saw their enemies, Kaidi's revenge action was definitely superior. As he himself said, his purpose

It was for Sam to "learn the cost of losing." He didn't want Sam's life, but let him lose, let him fear, and let him die. He used the legal knowledge he learned to walk on the edge of the law. He and Sam had a conversation like this.

Caddy: "Do you think you are better than me?"

Sam: "No, I didn't think so, it's not the point."

Caddy: "Very good. Because if you are not better than me, I can have everything about you."

Sam: "What do I have?"

Caddy: "Wife, daughter. I want to teach you the meaning of confession. 14 years ago, I was forced to confess and was put in a cramped cell. Now, I want you to confess too."

For this purpose, Katie carefully planned to follow Sam's family, kill Sam's wife's pet dog, expose Sam's extramarital affairs, accuse Sam of hiring crimes, and alienate Sam's father and daughter's emotions. As he said: "I want to consume it with you". He thinks he represents the righteous, but at the same time he is also creating evil and hurting the innocent. But after this operation, Kaidi has actually succeeded.

Look at Sam again. In the eyes of the world, he is definitely a successful elite. Be well-behaved and have a successful career. Family harmony. But Katie knows everything hidden behind this. In Kaidi's constant actions, Sam forced to expose his other side constantly. He knew Kaidi's grievances, as Kaidi's lawyer, he fell into trouble and sent Kaidi to jail. After Katie's constant harassment, he wanted to calm down and use money to atone for his sins. Afterwards, he even agreed to private detective Kasak’s proposal to personally supervise the formation and hire someone to beat Caddy. Even more contemptible is that he set a trap for Kaidi, in the name of a business trip, lured Kaidi to the house in order to kill him. Unexpectedly, cleverness is mistaken by cleverness. In the end, he was at odds with his wife and estranged from his daughter. The discussion over the lawyers association's plan to expel him is still waiting for him.

Such people are not uncommon in society. On the surface, the clothes and hats are solid, but the heart is extremely dark. He clearly knew that what he was doing was "excessive violence" and becoming an "accomplice and instigator." Although as a lawyer, he knew very well that what he did was something that was not up to the table, but he ignored the law and morality. , Keep doing evil. Show the hypocritical human nature to the fullest. The most valuable character of mankind is truth, and the most ugly character is hypocrisy. Sam is such an extremely hypocritical person. It can be seen that the height, nobility, and evil of a person's personality do not lie in the poor, the low, the rich and the rich. If I were to judge, neither Katie nor Sam are good things, especially Sam. Compared with Sam, at least Caddy's brutality has not been concealed. He is real revenge and real evil. And Sam has to plausibly whitewash the good when he has done bad things, and defend his ugliness under the banner of the law.

Sam was calm on the surface of Caddy's harassment, but he was very scared in his heart. As the saying goes: Don't do anything wrong, don't be afraid of ghosts. But the ghost of Caddy knocked on Sam's ugly door from time to time, and always removed Sam's ugly scars. This is also what makes Sam feel scared. In the scene of beating Caddy, Sam hides behind the trash can and supervises the formation. After Caddy beat up the three gangsters, Sam was very surprised. He also wanted to slip away. Unexpectedly, there was a noise. After Caddy heard it, he walked over slowly. Sam had to shrink his head, hiding behind the box trivially, not daring to move. We all seem to feel Sam trembling all over. It wasn't until Caddy threw away the iron rod and turned around to walk that Sam was so relieved that he almost collapsed to the ground. He was terribly scared!

There is also an unimportant character in the film, Sam's daughter Dany. The choreographer expresses her emotional changes through this series of events. At the beginning and end of the film, Dany is expressing her feelings. The 15-year-old Danni is in the youth rebellious period. She wants to read the books he wants to do, but her parents don't let her do what she wants to read. Her life is not happy. After meeting Caddy, I chatted with her parents and Henry Miller. Although Caddy's purpose was to urge her to separate her from her parents in order to achieve the purpose of revenge, in Danni's view, Caddy was expressing her own voice. Kaidi's words and manners made her novel, made her agree, and made her feel real. Kaidi gave her a sense of reverence. When Father Sam learned that she had met Caddy, he didn't care about her inner feelings, didn't care about the subtle changes in her heart, and just asked Caddy "have you touched" you? At this point, the angry Danni shouted: "Get out!" At the end of the film, although the Sam family of three hugged and wept after the rest of their lives. But the audience knew that Dany had seen through his parents and was full of contempt for Sam's behavior in her heart. Their relationship will never go back to the past. Kaidi won.

I don't quite understand the place, but the last few scenes. Caddy didn't want Sam's life, but wanted to harass him, torture him, tease him, and destroy everything about him. If you want to kill Sam, you don't need the violent winds and waves on the sea. With Katie's one-on-three skill, he would have been killed at home long ago. Therefore, the final ending does not conform to the logical development of the story. I think this is not Kaidi’s original intention, nor the author’s original intention. Perhaps more of a box office consideration?

There is one more detail that I did not understand. Who is that old woman Jaheira in Sam's house? Sam's elders? His relatives? The babysitter at home?

Caddy in the film is played by De Niro. It is really too difficult to play a role with this complicated character. Sometimes he smiles cynically, sometimes he thinks seriously, sometimes he behaves kindly, and sometimes he behaves cruelly. It is difficult to grasp the scale of this. And De Niro played well with ease. Admirable!

There are many big names in this movie, and many stars come out to join in. In addition to De Niro, Sam is played by Nick Knott; Detective Cassack is played by Joe Don Barker; Sam's wife Wenli is played by Jessica Lange, and the prosecutor is played by Robert Mitchum; The lawyer is played by Gregorian Parker; the judge is played by Martin Ballsam. They are all familiar faces. It's completely the feeling of corner play.

My score: 6.5.

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Extended Reading
  • Alice 2022-03-21 09:01:24

    Since everyone is talking about paying tribute to Xifa... Lao Ma's films are flowing, but I always find it a bit boring, and the more I watch it, the more sleepy I get (except for The Wolf of Wall Street, the Shutter Island and After get off work). On the one hand, the rhythm in the middle is always peaceful, on the other It is also because there is no psychedelic and pain of Xi Fat. Lao Ma is probably a person with inner peace (laughs. The protagonist of this film is very well set, and the pure villain image in this film and television is also worth sorting out.

  • Madilyn 2022-03-21 09:01:24

    1. One of Martin's most underrated works, a revenge thriller that's as stylized as it is fluid and exciting, with reflections on justice, law and religion throughout. 2. De Niro's acting skills are like gods, and he moves freely between the elegant and funny teacher and the sinister and cruel paranoid killer. Juliette Lewis plays the girl who is both repressed and thirsty, sometimes rebellious and sometimes witty. 3. A large number of fast push-pull shots and panning and flings enhance the rhythm and strengthen the tension; many tilt shots, oblique compositions and extreme camera positions, as well as split-focus filters and multiple mirroring, are always disturbing. 4. Set the protagonist to be both good and evil, three-dimensional and ambiguous, to induce viewers to fall into the position of supporting revenge or lynching, and let Mitchum and Parker in the original play play the reversed roles. 5. The fireworks color light in the cloud and rain segment - negative film - solid color fades out, paying tribute to [Catch a Thief], and the staring eyes in the audience are like [Train Strangers]. 6. The ending is like a religious ceremony: the devil is not afraid of coexisting with fire, the sinking of a ship is a metaphor for depravity, and throwing stones at people is the same as the ancient stoning. 7. The theater laughed wildly, and the female body lighter talked to the hanging. 8. Theater seduction & thumb sucking. (9.0/10)

Cape Fear quotes

  • Sam Bowden: Because I knew he brutally beat and raped her!

    Max Cady: Talk... TO ME! I'm Right HERE!

    [hits Sam in the face]

    Sam Bowden: Just because she was promiscuous... didn't give YOU THE RIGHT TO RAPE HER! But YOU BRAGGED about how you beat TWO prior rapes... you were a menace!

    Max Cady: [Screams] YOU WERE MY LAWYER... you were my lawyer! That report could've saved me FOURTEEN YEARS!

    Sam Bowden: [begrudgingly] You're probably right.

    Max Cady: [Disgusted] YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS FUCK!

  • Max Cady: [singing hysterically to the heavens] I'm bound for the promised land, I am, I'm bound for the promised land.