The first two episodes of Cape Fear have been available on Apple TV since Friday, June 5, with the remaining eight episodes airing weekly until July 31. This ten-episode miniseries was created by Nick Antosca and produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. It is yet another adaptation of John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel, The Executioners, which was previously adapted for the screen by J. Lee Thompson in 1962 starring Robert Mitchum, and then by Scorsese in 1991 with Robert De Niro as the criminal Max Cady. Javier Bardem thus becomes the third actor to portray this iconic character, alongside Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson.
Max Cady, Bardem version: more nuanced, more fascinating than ever
The plot follows Max Cady, released from prison after seventeen years, convinced he was betrayed by his lawyer during his trial. He has only one thing on his mind: revenge against Anna Bowden (Amy Adams), her husband, and their two children, by instilling terror that begins psychologically before becoming physical. Comparisons with its predecessors are inevitable, and Bardem pulls it off brilliantly. "Less superficial than those of Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro, this performance is as terrifying as it is nuanced," observes HuffPost. Sometimes seductive, sometimes predatory, always fully committed, his acting recalls the cold terror he conveyed in No Country for Old Men or his Machiavellian nature in Skyfall. Nick Antosca subtly weaves in several nods to the two previous films, but always to subvert expectations, never resorting to easy solutions. The series also explores a modern theme of the loss of faith in the justice system. A success which, according to the press, marks the best version of Max Cady to date.
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