Cape Fear : illeana douglas getting raped

That scene was brutal (and ironic considering Marty only put her in his movies cause he was sleeping with her) but it always kind of bugged me. In the original the girl was raped and she didn't want to say anything cause of the scandal and what not. Now i know rape is very hard to prove and a lot nasty things get said about the women and all that but my point is this. In the original the girl was just raped. In this film she was raped and had her face bit and had her arm broken. So here is what bugs me, she didn;t want to go to the police because she knows what happens to women who accuse men of rape (also since Caddy had a record i don't think the police would have doubted her) but even so. Couldn't she just say she was going to have consensual sex (which she was ) then the guy flipped out and bit her face and broke her arm. Forget about the rape just call it an assault charge. Yeah she was drunk and looking to have sex but the guy still can't attack you.

i told you not to stop the boat. Now lets go. Apocaylpse Now

Forensics. There is a big difference between consensual sex and rape when they analyze the woman's body. It's not just her word what counts. Even with a rough partner it's different than rape.

Ileana Douglas was a well-respected actress then and now and would have deserved a role in any movie, regardless of her relationship with Scorsese.

It was never made clear in the original what all Cady did to the girl. She was terrified of Cady, and the broken arm and whatever else they threw in the remake weren't necessary. I found the original far scarier than the remake.

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and the broken arm and whatever else they threw in the remake weren't necessary

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It might have had an indirect benefit of causing harsher legislation on rape. There was one state (I think it was Kentucky) that actually gave a choice for those convicted of rape: Life inprisonment or castration but the ACLU somehow forced them to repeal the law. Maybe more movies like this would rally the public to tell the ACLU to go take a long walk off a short pier.
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They can never EVER prove rape, however. DNA doesn't prove its rape. And the body's condition itself doesn't, either, because she could have been roleplaying and done such a good job that her body acted as if it were legit rape. So it's impossible to prove anyone did it.

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DNA doesn't prove its rape. And the body's condition itself doesn't, either, because she could have been roleplaying and done such a good job that her body acted as if it were legit rape.

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Maybe don't use the phrase "legit rape."

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So it's impossible to prove anyone did it.

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That's not really true though. By the same logic, it's impossible to "prove" murder since anyone the line between it and self defense could be considered just as thin in some situations.

They can certainly prove within a reasonable doubt that he broke her arm and bit off part of her cheek and a jury would also almost certainly convict of rape as well with the evidence of a vaginal examination.

"Forensics. There is a big difference between consensual sex and rape when they analyze the woman's body. It's not just her word what counts. Even with a rough partner it's different than rape. "

Um, that wasn't the question. The question was: Why didn't she just get him arrested for assault? The OP took rape off the table since she did intend on consensual sex with Cady. However, since Cady savaged her during the act, which she did not consent to, why could she not get him on assault charges? That's the question and it's a good one for real life, but this is a movie so it didnt go down that way.

How do you know she was sleeping with Marty?

It's common knowledge

But none of you people answered the OP's question, which is a problem that I myself have always had: given her injuries, couldn't she have just pressed assault charges and not bothered with the rape charge?

You're right no one answered the question "couldn't she have just pressed assault charges and not bothered with the rape charge?"

Yes.

We'd have a different movie though, wouldn't we?










Sometimes ya gotta wonder.

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It's common knowledge

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First I heard of it. Makes sense though (considering she also had a small role in GoodFellas, too) as she's, IMHO, not that good of an actress. I can't see her beating out other actresses for any Scorsese movie role.

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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

OMG, it's just a thriller, not a documentary, why do so many people get SOOOO hung up on this sort of thing?

That said, if you just need to have some concrete possible reasons she didn't press any charges against Cady, some of my personal conclusions include:

1.She was drunk, had her inhibitions down and Cady technically warned her that he was a criminal fresh out of jail and even implied that his offense was related to sexual assault. Trust me, that would not sound good to a Jury.

2.The movie takes place in the Deep south, people are extremely conservative there and are even more likely than normal to look down on a woman for being loose, easy and letting her guard down. That was no doubt common knowledge to I.D. character.

3. She was simply in a state of EXTREAM trauma and was not thinking clearly, if Cady had lived longer and gone on to commit a similar crime with another girl, she might well have changed her mind and testified against him.

4. It was all done primarily for the sake of demonstrating how abusive and neglectful and unfair the American justice system is towards women who are subjected to criminal violence, an extremely real, pressing and perennial issue weather or not it was depicted with scientific accuracy in this one instance.

OMG u007fyour wrong.

i told you not to stop the boat. Now lets go. Apocaylpse Now

Well stated Crak.

Yeah this movie sucks for a lot of reasons, bur this violent rape and the glossed-over aftermath is definitely top of the list. This is supposed to take place in 1991. *beep* preposterous that the woman would be ashamed to press charges.

Juliette Lewis calls weed "grass," lol. Scorcese didn't know if this was still the '60s or '90s. Stupid.

Worse than the preposterous script (Lewis tells Nolte that DeNiro "didn't force himself" and his response is to CHOKE his daughter rather than tell her the dude BIT A WOMAN's face off and raped a 16 year old to boot. Stupid.

God I hated this movie. We never even seen Illeana again after she's attacked. A total refeigeration of a female character in an illogical way, just to drive the plot forward a little bit. Scorcese should be ashamed of this movie. It absolutely does not hold up.

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This is supposed to take place in 1991. *beep* preposterous that the woman would be ashamed to press charges.

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Huh? Its 2016 and there are still millions of women ashamed of pressing charges against their attackers. I wish what you said was true, though. Many victims (not just women) view the american justice system as just another way to relive their trauma and embarrassment.

She wasn't raped, she was beaten.

It didnt matter if he raped her or just beat her. She was afraid to testify because of the questions she would would be required to answer.

"Miss, is it true you were drinking heavily with a man fresh out of prison? Is it true you were wearing this dress, the one that tightly hugs your body and accentuates all your curves? Is it true you went to bed with a man you met only 20 minutes before? Now why is it, miss, that a smart and innocent girl like you would agree to get mixed up with a felon? Smart girls don't tend to do those things, miss"

This is how the system operates. Very rarely are the victims of abuse given the benefit of the doubt in court. The victims are usually grilled in front of an audience, forced to explain and justify every action they took that may have led to their attack. It's something not many victims like to do.

Yes she was - they just didn't show that part of it. But it's clear from the discussion afterward that she was raped.

I don't know how old the people posting about this are, but there seems to be a lot of naivete about rape trials in these comments.

She had worked in the legal system and knows not only that she'd be the one subjected to scrutiny and accusations of promiscuity, but that it would be her colleagues doing it. She mentions how with other cases she sees her co-workers laughing and joking about such cases afterwards. She can't handle not only being victimized a second time, but also the humiliation of suffering this at the hands of people she knows.

That doesn't matter. All she had to do was tell the cops Max Cady beat her, broke her arm and bit her face. The cops can see the injuries. They would see Cady had a record and arrest him. All that other stuff wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter she was drunk or what she was wearing. All she had to say was, "I'm an adult. I was at bar, I went to have sex with a guy I liked. And when we got to his room, he attacked me." That's all she had to do. The issue with rape cases, is if all you have is proof that a sex act took place, it's a 'he said, she said' about whether it was consensual or not. But with her injuries it wouldn't matter. No one consensually has their arm broken.

i told you not to stop, now lets go - Apocalypse Now

How can you say that doesn't matter? TheManinOil hit the nail on the head.

Talking to the cops wasn't all she had to do. They make the arrest, not the conviction. She would have had to testify in court and the defense team would have put her through hell. Irrespective of whether or not it's a rape or assault conviction they were going for, she would have had to detail everything that happened that night and have dealt with the judgement and accusations from those who would have blamed her for putting herself in such a dangerous situation. The fact that this would all play out right on front of her colleagues was just too much for her and it would have followed her around for the rest of career. Trials can drag out for months or even years, she just wanted to get the hell out of there and try and move on with her life.

no i don't think so.



i told you not to stop, now lets go - Apocalypse Now

I think that it is very unfair to say that Marty only cast Illeana Douglas because they were in a relationship . She is a very talented actor and I think her performance in this movie was outstanding.

Gordon P. Clarkson