Silence of the lambs vs Cape Fear

Both movies came out in the same year. Both lead actors gave ground breaking performances. What movie do you think should've won at the oscars? Do you think silence of the lambs deservedly won over cape fear? Do you think Anyhony Hopkins' win over Robert De Niro was justified? Both movies and performances should be celebrated however.

"Lambs" was a better film and it deserved Best Picture. Hopkins' performance was iconic. He deserved his Oscar. And if you want to get technical, DeNiro's performance wasn't even second best in 1991:

The other nominees: Warren Beatty for "Bugsy," Robin Williams for "The Fisher King," and Nick Nolte for "The Prince of Tides," were just as good as DeNiro that year. But none of them were as good as Hopkins.

Deniro had nothing on Robert Michums, Max Cady in the 60s. That being said i have never been a fan of Silence of the Lambs, or Hopkins performance in it, there was just no stronger nominee that year. The best performance of 1991 in my opinion was either, John Turturro in Barton Fink or Andy Lau in Days of Being Wild.

I'll go with Seven and Kevin Spacey's performance over both of them. He was in the film for only about 15 minutes but he stole the show.

Se7en was years later Ivy. Great performance anyway.

See the original cape fear with Robert Mitchum I like to better then DeNiro's version.

Mitchum was not nuts just wanted a little pay back

Silence Of The Lambs.
Although I'm a bit biased, after all it was one of the first thrillers I have ever seen. But in my opinion it was just way more moody, eerie, iconic than De Niro's Cape Fear was -which is a good film, but nothing all that special.

Yeah, get with it, Ivy .

But seriously, the kid is right. We're talking about films released in 1991, and eligible for the Oscars that took place on March 30, 1992: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64th_Academy_Awards


It's not even close. Mitchum's Cady was a psychological study. DeNiro's was a cartoon character (but I should point out that I think the remake was still a good popcorn movie).


Not for nothing, Foot. But you're too fucking crazy yourself to judge what's crazy in others .

I agree I believe silence of the lambs was better. I believe cape fear is close. But yes that was a career defining performance by Hopkins and I think he also deserved it actually. I think De Niro was still great in cape fear though. He showed his versatility off imo. But I do believe de niro should've won for taxi driver, deer hunter, king of comedy(just saw that recently) and mean streets. How him and Keitel weren't even nominated for mean streets blows my mind. I guess you could make an argument for some of his other performances as well. Any other great Anthony Hopkins movies you guys suggest?

John Turturro is very underrated. There's a lot of underrated actors out there.

Agreed on Taxi Driver and especially The King of Comedy which is his best performance imo. I disagree on both Mean Streets and Deer Hunter though, i thought Jack Lemmon was a deserving winner in 1973 and i would also pick Pacino for Serpico above it. Jon Voight also deserved his Oscar imo, i watched Coming Home recently and while i didn't really like it i thought Voight was excellent.

Turturro is a great actor, particularly in Barton Fink and Quiz Show imo. It's a pity that he appeared in all of those crappy Adam Sandler movies.

curious do you consider Deer Hunter a war movie? I thought it was a movie about really good friends.

For mean streets he would be up for supporting actor not lead. And Voight was great(probably the only performance I really like by him)but I don't think I could say that performance was better than De Niro's(or Walken's for that matter even though he was a supporting actor). Yes I just saw king of comedy recently and I was very impressed. Also I think his performance in once upon a time in America is something to take note of too. Very reserved and still made a big impact on the screen. Midnight run as well is a favorite of mine. I think that's an underrated performance. Not your typical De Niro performance during that time but maybe that's why I liked it, because he went out of his zone that we were used to seeing him in.

No I don't consider it a war movie personally. I agree with your statement. There's flashes of it being a war movie but all in all it's not. At least imo.

He is hilarious though lol. He's gonna play Frankie Carbo in "Hands of Stone" with De Niro and Usher. Tommy Como from raging bull was based on frankie Carbo.

Well i haven't seen The Paper Chase so i can't comment on that. Voight was also good in Midnight Cowboy imo. Midnight Run is one of my favourite ever comedies.

Paper chase isn't bad. I think Houseman was very good. Idk if his perfomace was excellent to the point where he deserved the oscar or anything. But imo, out of all the people who were up for supporting actor, De Niro gave the best perfromance with Johnny Boy in mean streets. And Keitel should've been nominated for best lead actor. Like you said, I think Lemmon gave the best performance and deserved to win though. De Niro has given a lot of amazing performances though I'll tell ya. From the early 70s up til 2000 he gave so many phenomenal performances and gave us so many great movies. Now he's a shadow of what he once was. He was wonderful in silver linings playbook however. I think he should've won best supporting actor for that too over waltz. Waltz was great in django and inglorious bastards but in django it just seemed like he played the same type of guy but maybe a little nicer. Waltz should've been up for lead not supporting as well.

I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Master was better than both of them. Joaquin Phoenix also deserved the Oscar for The Master that year, Phoenix in The Master is my favourite performance of this decade so far.

Oh god yes I forgot about PSH! I change my mind I actually do think he should've won for that. Daniel day Lewis was great in Lincoln though idk it'd be tough to overthrow him that year. My favorite perfromance of the decade is christian Bale in the fighter I think.

Actually I really believe Day-Lewis deserved that oscar.

Completely disagree, he was great but Phoenix deserved that oscar imo. I actually think he would've won it, if he wasn't so controversial and hadn't came out and said the Oscars and similar awards are meaningless (which they are of course) .

That's surprising, i thought he was good in The Fighter, but it wouldn't even crack my top ten for this decade.

I just thought that the way he captured the real guys voice and mannerisms was uncanny. At the end of the movie they showed the real Dicky Ecklund and Bale nailed it imo. That would be my number 1. And idk I really liked Day-Lewis in Lincoln man. Phoenix was great obviously though. Can't go wrong with either one I suppose but I agreed with the result.

And I'm not even a big Day-Lewis fan

I love Day-Lewis and his performancee as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, (another PTA flm) was my favourite from the previous decade. I just didn't think it came close to Phoenix, anyway agree to disagree.

Also how do you know what Lincolns voice sounded like?

I was talking about bale with the voice and mannerisms not Day-Lewis with Lincoln. But yeah I haven't gotten into Day-Lewis all that much yet. Haven't watched enough of his movies yet I guess. But yes agree to disagree on that topic. I think we agreed on most of the stuff that we just discussed though.

Try There Will Be Blood, Gangs of New York and In The Name of the Father if you haven't seen any of them. He was better in all of them than he was in Lincoln imo. Another good film with Day-Lewis is The Last of the Mohicans.

I'll check them out. Thank you very much! Have you seen the movie angel heart? It's with De Niro and Rourke and I've only seen some scenes but it looks like such a great movie. Hasn't been on tv so I haven't been able to watch it.

When I went to see Gang of NY I was not expecting what I saw. I thought it would be NY street gangs during the 1950s 1960s my time.

That lasted until the end of the first gang fight.

The one part that made me laugh was when Dicaprio told the butcher no pistols. Then he says good boy. I would have told him the same thing. Then when the fight started we all would have guns and we would have kill them all.

I started gangs of New York but never finished it. Wasn't my favorite scorsese film. I should probably watch it sometime to give it a second chance. But after thinking about it, I know you guys don't think De Niro was that good in cape fear and everything but I really thought he was great. The way he got into character and how crazy his character was and at the same time he could act sensitive and subtle(like the seen with the daughter). I have it on DVD and I just watched it again. I do think Hopkins was better though. But I think De Niro's performance was not far behind his. I think Cady's character had more of a comedic side than lector. Maybe that's why the character didn't seem as crazy as the original max cady? I didn't see the original so I really don't know

Deniro was pretty good in Cape Fear. It's just got nothing on Robert Mitchums "Max Cady", you should watch the original Cape Fear and also Night of the Hunter. Mitchum was actually in the remake as LT.Elgart.

As i said i would've voted for both JOhn Turturro and Andy Lau above him.

I was speaking in general as far as serial killer thrillers like that go, not really about who deserved what that particular year.

I agree Ivy. Kevin Spacey was definitely killer. No pun intended. And maybe someday I'll get around to watching it. I just think De Niro plays crazy Max Cady so damn good. I think it's definitely in his top 10 best perfromances. Probably the lower half of the top 10 but I still feel he was great regardless. Has nothing on his performance in deer hunter, raging bull, taxi driver etc. but what performances do?

I see, i missed that fair enough then. I'd agree then i preffered Spacey to Hopkins too.

This is my favourite serial killer movie (i haven't seen much), which i'd suggest to everyone - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories_of_Murder

Mine is definitely the Zodiac. Love that movie. The first time I watched it my eyes were glued to the screen and I was kept thinking hours after the movie had ended. And it was like 1 in the morning lol.

Night of the hunter was a good movie. A lot of ex cons have tattoo's on their fingers that say good on one hand and evil on the other hand.

Not a movie, but C. Thomas Howell (yeah, Pony Boy!) was great as The Reaper on "Criminal Minds."

And speaking of Howell, he played the kid in the "The Hitcher." Rutger Hauer was pretty good as a serial killer in that film.

It's actually Love/Hate.

That's right

couldn't get into gangs of New York even though I tried a few times... Cape fear... Cady was so crazy loll that poor girl at the bar... Cady was more attractive than her married boyfriend too... that was AWFUL

Silence of the lambs too that guy was WAY to weird to even want to look at let alone have to speak to.

Silence of the Lambs was a better movie than Cape Fear, and I thought Anthony Hopkins' character and portrayal were better than DeNiro's. Some of the credit goes to Thomas Harris, the writer of the novel, who cleverly invented the character.

Max Cady was kind of a caricature on the screen, evil as hell but predictable. Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter was shrouded in mystery and his nature and depth of evil were slowly revealed layer by layer by an acting performance that built a shroud of mystery through the whole show.

As Ivy said, Kevin Spacey was brilliant in his brief appearance in Seven by offering a similarly nuanced performance that magnified the suspense of the film to a degree that wasn't reached in the movie prior to his first appearance.

I really liked the movie Seven... brad bitt looked really hot.. I thought it was kind of depressing they didn't really ever give the details of what city they were in... or did they and I missed it? I wouldn't want to live in such rainy weather, I wonder if one of the points of the film was to associate weirdness and sociopath ology with cities that have long periods of dreary weather?

Never saw that... just saw a episode of criminal minds that referenced the zodiac killer. didn't know there was an actual movie as well. gonna try and watch that.

Zodiac with Mark Ruffalo was a very good film. To this day, the killer has never been identified - he just stopped killing after murdering a taxi driver.

Hopkins brought so much to the role of Lecter in "Silence". I didn't like the sequels, but what other moment can equal that of Hopkins, strapped to a hand truck, calling to the desperate mother, in his elegant accent and snarky tone, "Senator, love your suit!"?

snarky loll!

The sum parts of "Silence," including some great acting performances beyond Hopkins, are what clearly make it better for me than "Cape Fear." Yes, DeNiro was fantastic as Max Cady. But I thought that Nick Nolte & Jessica Lange's roles actually took away from some of the film. And I'm not sure what about her rubs me the wrong way, but I cannot stand the actress Juliette Lewis. Particularly in her "Cape Fear" role.

"Silence" was great not only for the 20 screen minutes that Hopkins brought to Hannibal Lecter, but for the roles of Clarice Starling, Jame Gumb, and Jack Crawford.

To me, the appeal of the Hannibal Lecter character was his presence even when not on screen. Lecter kind of lurked, like the shark in "Jaws." Anthony Hopkins' performance gave the Hannibal Lecter character one of the deepest and far-reaching impacts as a cinematic villain.

Completely agreed on Juliette Lewis, but it's mostly Natural Born Killers that she annoys me in.

I liked both films with both lead actors doing a great job. I guess tho, I'd go with Cape Fear. I think it was one of DeNiro's best performances. I haven't cared for or haven't seen much of his more recent work because it just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not into comedies so much.

I totally agree with Juliette Lewis tho. If there was a downside to that film, it was casting her.


TIS

I'm always uncomfortable watching Juliette Lewis in movies. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel as though she's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

She was actually in a movie about 20 years ago with Woody Harrelson where they played serial killers. Tommy Lee Jones and Downey,Jr. were in it as well. It had a surreal darkness to it. Someone here will remember the name of it.

Natural Born Killers. I mentioned it a few comments up, she's alot more annoying in that than Cape Fear imo. It was based on the same serial killing couple (can't remember names) that Terrence Malick's excellent imo Badlands was based on.

Sorry, camarel. Somehow I missed your post or I didn't make the association with the title. But I liked the movie even though she was kind of creepy in it.

Am I the only person who liked Migs and sense of smell in this movie?

I alway thought Hauser would be a big star when he moved to the states.

No problem. In all honesty i didn't like NBK anyway, an Oliver Stone directed Quentin Tarantino script should have been so much more. Juliette Lewis was the least of that films problems imo.

Both good movies, think ill go watch Silence Of The Lambs just now.

Hannibal Lecter: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Coming October 19th, 2021 on 4K UHD!

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (30th Anniversary)
4K UHD DISC 1:
• HDR Dolby Vision
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas
• 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Lossless Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• UHD 100 Triple Layer Disc

BLU-RAY DISC 2:
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas
• Inside the Labyrinth: Documentary (66:28)
• Page to Screen: Documentary (41:17)
• Understanding the Madness: Featurette (19:35)
• Scoring the Silence: Featurette (16:00)
• Original 1991 Making-of Featurette (8:07)
• Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster Interviews (52:30)
• Deleted Scenes (38:00)
• Outtakes (2:00)
• Anthony Hopkins Phone Message (:30)
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Teaser
• Hannibal Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer
• 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Lossless Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Dual-Layered BD50 Disc

Color 118 Minutes 1.85:1 Rated R
Screen legends Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins deliver sensational, Oscar-winning performances in this spellbinding thriller based on the bestselling novel by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon, Hannibal). A psychopath nicknamed Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine, Heat) is murdering women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends trainee Clarice Starling (Foster, The Accused) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide clues to the killer’s actions. That prisoner is psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins, Nixon), a brilliant, diabolical cannibal who agrees to help Starling only if she’ll feed his morbid curiosity with details of her own complicated life. As their relationship develops, Starling is forced to confront not only her own hidden demons, but also an evil so powerful that she may not have the courage—or strength—to stop it! This terrifying masterpiece co-starred Scott Glenn (The Challenge) and garnered five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ted Tally (Before and After), only the third film in history to sweep the these five categories.

Silence of the Lambs. Cape Fear m(1991) is not nearly as good as the original with Robert Mitchum. It is a great noir and Robert Mitchum is awesome as Cady. Deniro IMO comes off too over the top and even cartoonish in the update