Harrison Ford: "They Offered Me Nolte's Role, I Said I'd Only Do It if I got DeNiro's Role"

The original is better. The Scorsese remake is cheesy.

Screw off, elitist, the remake is good, too.

woulda been fine with any one of those actors. they've each played similar parts in the dfordpast.

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You mean..the good guy part that Nolte played?

Yes...it just seems that Redford and Ford and Douglas et al rightfully sensed that Max Cady was the dynamic role.

Back when Robert Mitchum played Cady in 1962, the film's star-producer Gregory Peck gave a grouchy interview where he said something like "Bob's bragging that he's blowing me off the screen in this. Well, what does he expect? I'm the producer and I gave him the much juicier part." On the other hand, Peck in the original is much more of a "righteous hero" out to duke it out with Cady than Nolte in the remake. The hero was re-written on purpose to make "Sam Bowden"(Nolte) a cheater on his wife, an absent father, a lawyer who DOUBLE CROSSED his client Cady(in the Peck version, Peck was a lawyer but never represented Cady -- he just stopped him mid-rape in an alley.---.)

just happened to watch this on tv the other day and this is easily one of Nolte's better performances.

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I agree. Saddled with a "weaker cheater Sam Bowden," Nolte found a way to stay sympathetic. Often a big heavy man, he slimmed way down(as some actors are able to do) and he said that he helped get the role from Scorsese by appearing at an event in his eyeglasses and trim body and ...Scorsese didn't even RECOGNIZE HIM.

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mood in the picture. lends to an uneasy sense of imbalance that serves the story. feels like the bad guy is the one really in control.

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That's a good point. Had Harrison Ford played Bowden, it would be implied -- a bit like Peck in the original -- that Indiana Jo-- er Harrison Ford, could go toe to toe with DeNiro.

Ford would been far better off doing the 'good guy' role in a Scorsese's Cape Fear remake opposite De Niro.

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As I recall, one reason that Nick Nolte(somewhat of a "second tier, back up leading man" GOT the good guy role in Cape Fear is because bigger names like Robert Redford and Harrison Ford said "no." The bigger names -- well familiar with the Peck/Mitchum version -- knew that the villain had the more flashy role.

I do think that a "Robert/Robert" match-up -- DeNiro and Redford -- would have been fascinating, given how "white bread" Redford was. THAT said, I don't think Redford would have agreed to play an adulterous husband and angry father.

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Than doing 'Regarding Henry' the same year, written by one 'Jefferey Abrams' (aka JJ Abrams)

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Really? I didn't know that JJ went back so far.

"Regarding Henry" was a bit of a misfire. I recall the Los Angeles Times rather nastily doing a write-up on a REAL man(not necessarily a lawyer) who went from wealthy and active to living alone (he lost his family) in a facility after HE was shot in the head.

Whatever hope there is at the end of Regarding Henry was rather dashed by the reality of the plot: a wealthy and powerful man(if a callous and uncaring one) reduced to the mind of a nice child ...and how his wife and kids coped.

It suddenly occurs to me that, in real life in 2024, major movie star Bruce Willis has ended up in the same place. But then his wealth is intact. Still, his family loves him so...maybe it would have worked out for Henry, too.