Analyzing Evil: Max Cady From Cape Fear (1991)

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the 34th episode of analyzing evil featuring max katie from cape fear while this film delivers on a surface level with its general theme of a man scorned on a quest for revenge max katie has many details and intricacies woven into his character that elevate him from more than just a sadistic maniac hell-bent on vengeance to a philosophically and morally complex psychopath whose plot in securing his revenge is rife with nietzschen and biblical symbolism as you may have guessed from the thumbnail i'll be covering max katie as he appears in the 1991 remake of the film starring robert de niro and i won't be talking about max katy as portrayed by robert mitchum in the original film or the novel that the film is based on the executioners since both the original film and the novel are vastly different from what we're given in the remake i'll have to make a separate video covering both at a later date this film is admittedly a bit campy and over the top at points but the character of max katie is an interesting one to watch and i for one thoroughly enjoyed this film and all the details they managed to pack into this character in this video i'll be taking you through all of these details giving you the full picture of a man who's derived his morals and general outlook on life from two conflicting sources forming himself into a caricature of nietzsche's superman there are a lot of themes going on in this film but like all of these videos this analysis is about max the character and not what he's intended to represent so i won't be exploring any of these themes unless they happen to be prevalent to who max is as a person as well before we get into max i'd first like to talk about our sponsor for today's video extra extra is the leading manufacturer of smart wallets in the world offering a wide array of innovative wallets i've been using their slim parliament wallet which has space on the inside for some cards and cash but the best part 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while we cover these crucial aspects of max we'll take a look at his appearance personality and traits factoring in every component that makes up max katy into his quest for revenge first let's talk about nietzsche in max's cell one of the pictures he has hanging on his wall is one of nicha in uniform and two of the books on his shelf are of nija one is a written work of his thus spoke zarathustra and the other is a compilation of his writings organized by his sister the will to power for us we need not cover the entirety of either novel rather we need only look at two specific components of nietzsche's philosophy that are central to max's own philosophy both of which you can find in each of these tomes those being the will to power and the concept of the ubermensch or superman now before we go any further i'd like to state that i am in no way the world's foremost expert on nietzsche his writings are quite complex and though there are certain general understandings about what the meanings of his various works are there are numerous different interpretations of a number of his ideas that you can find all over the place for the purposes of this video i'm going to convey to you what i've come to understand as the simplest definitions of the two concepts i've highlighted i could be wrong but i've put great care in attempting to provide you with correct information here and although everything i'm about to explain to you regarding max's philosophy is purely my own speculation derived from the many details we receive in the film i hope you find this an accurate summation of the mindset of max katie i encourage you all to look into the works of nietzsche on your own time and form your own opinions about his expansive writings and if you'd prefer some assistance with that endeavor i'll provide links to a few videos here on youtube that i found helpful down in the description now with that out of the way let's talk about the will to power to get a simple understanding of what nietzsche himself meant by the will to power i believe the following quote from beyond good and evil provides us with all the answers we need anything which is a living thing and not a dying body will have to be an incarnate will to power it will strive to grow spread sees become predominant not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power exploitation belongs to the essence of what lives as a basic organic function it is a consequence of the will to power which is after all the will of life in short the will to power is the energy that drives all life the desire within every living being to acquire power so to speak power to enforce one's own will and advance one's own position on and within the universe now the thing about nietzsche's philosophy is that it is as i said before open to interpretation and throughout its rather short history it has been used with both good and malicious intent in mind as you might have guessed max has definitely adopted this component of nietzsche's philosophy to enhance his own malicious intent for max the will to power manifests itself as the fuel that drives his quest for revenge max wants nothing more than to exact his revenge on sam boden in the most soul-crushing way he can imagine and the will to power has helped him come to the realization that he is the master of his own intent and he can will anything into existence as long as he sets his mind to it if this realization had come to someone else in a similar position perhaps they would have used this knowledge to make a positive change in their life but in max katie it strengthens his resolve and leads him to focusing his entire existence on revenge against sam boden this concept the will to power first made an appearance and thus spoke zarathustra where i'm going to assume max first came into contact with the concept as well as the idea of the superman now the idea of the superman can basically be summed up as the end goal of humanity a prophesized future where the human race has evolved past what it is now to become another highly advanced and perfected being the superman it isn't supposed to be something that one can strive to be now but rather something that all life should strive to contribute in creating the end goal of humanity nietzsche described the human race as a bridge between our former animal selves and the superman and the will to power is the driving force behind the gradual evolution of mankind into this race of superman max katie has taken this idea and warped it into himself being the superman a result of his use of the will to power to enhance himself beyond what a normal human is capable of max has ignored the fact that man in his present state is incapable of becoming a superman and has instead willed himself using his own power into becoming a quasi quasi-superman-like being this notion is most evident in his extreme pain tolerance as we see that max is only mildly affected by an intense beating unaffected by boiling water and hot wax from a flare and he was able to cling to the underside of a car for miles in order to pursue the boden family in the scene with the flare max explains how he spent those 14 years in his cell surrounded by people who were less than human and his mission during that time was to become more than human he mentions that he may have had a helping hand in that endeavor with his genetics as his grandfather handled snakes in church and his grandmother drank strychnine which is a highly toxic pesticide that was once used as a cure for alcoholism and to promote general health but i think his transformation into this near invincible man we see here was fueled by his own desire to enhance himself and the inspiration he received from nietzsche's writings nietzsche may have sent him down this road but max is far and away from being a true adherent to nietzsche's philosophy and in his pursuit of enhancing himself he only took from his writings the parts that were useful to his mission it's likely impossible that a man like max katie could ever give himself fully to nietzsche's philosophy as what's more dominant in max's own philosophy is his religion which he has also twisted to serve his own purposes nietzsche is perhaps most well known for a phrase that appeared in thus spoke zarathustra god is dead and nietzsche himself while not exactly of a human atheist categorically rejected the christian god max on the other hand very much embraces christianity but again he has twisted it to serve his own purposes max might frequently espouse scripture and he may have numerous tattoos that indicate his fervent adherence to this religion but his entire being and his quest for revenge is in direct offense to many of the principles of christianity the best place to start for this notion is the fact that revenge is something that is very unchristian not to mention the fact that two of the ten commandments pertain to abstaining from both murder and immoral sex do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself leviticus 19 18 may the lord judge between you and me and may the lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me but my hand will not touch you one samuel 24 12 thou shall not kill thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife max isn't even close to being worthy of spewing the righteous fury he does on a regular basis rather he's using christianity in the same way he's using the teachings of nietzsche to further his own ends a verse from johann angelus silesius that max espouses after his beating by a group of thugs tells us more about max's use of religion to satisfy his own worldview than anything else i am like god and god like me i am as large as god he is as small as i he cannot above me nor i beneath him be this verse shows us that max believes himself to be a representative of god on earth a man who has been blessed with divinity in order to fulfill his righteous quest for vengeance this is further expanded upon when max tells sam to read the book between esther and psalm the book of job and job's story is about a man whose faith is tested by god when god takes everything away from job including his family max is once again highlighting the fact that he is acting as god and that he's going to take away everything sam holds dear to test what i assume is his will to survive his tattoos highlight the notion that max believes himself to be a representative of god as though some of them are rather pious verses they all serve to reinforce this idea and one verse in particular that's taken totally out of context is in concert with a verse from silesius providing for us an alternate meaning to all the other verses he has tattooed on his body the verse i'm referring to is romans 12 19 a portion of which max has tattooed on his left arm vengeance is mine now let's take a look at the entire verse dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine i will repay saith the lord as we can see this verse is not about an individual's revenge but is instead reinforcing deuteronomy 32 35 which highlights revenge as god's domain not the domain of mortals this is even more proof that max sees himself as an agent of god as he's totally ignoring the fact that vengeance if you're a true believer should be left to god and if max were as holy as he so believes himself to be he would have had faith that god would have brought about the proper vengeance against sam bowden his other tattoos only bolster this idea many of which are only excerpts or perversions of verses that have been taken out of context i have put my trust in the lord god in him will i trust psalms 91 2 the lord is the avenger thessalonians 4 6 my time is not yet full come john 7 6 he also has the words time the avenger written below a stylized depiction of the grim reaper as well as the verse this is supposedly from of which i can find no mention of as well as a clown holding a smoking gun and a bible and of course the scales of justice placed upon a crucifix which holds the bible as truth on one side and a sword is justice on the other it's interesting that he's placed these scales on an equal footing as it shows us that in max's eyes the truth of god is an equal measure to the justice of man a fitting way to display his own thoughts on his purpose as a justicier of god himself these components of max's philosophy and the way he uses and abuses them gives us the impression that in pursuit of his goals the only thing that matters to max is power power over himself power over others and the power to be the decider of his own destiny the fact that he has cutouts of two powerful men joseph stalin and general george s patton as well as clippings from captain marvel comic books and a copy of alexander's entrance into babylon is a testament to his adulation of the powerful while we're on the subject of his pictures the one in the center which i have only found mention of as a saint who was martyred shows us that max also likely feels the same way about himself a man who has both been martyred as well as one who's willing to martyr himself for his own cause i think this also ties in with max having a copy of dante's inferno in his cell max feels that he's gone through the circles of hell by being locked up in this prison and now that he's made it out of hell it's his turn to guide sam through it which he says as much during their struggle at the end of the film i wonder what kind of man max katy was before his incarceration or even before he found out about sam withholding information during his trial we know he was uneducated illiterate vicious and was likely brought up in a backwoods and pentecostal setting we'll never truly know just exactly who he was but whoever max katie once was has been completely replaced by a man whose chief desire in life is nothing short of exacting total revenge upon the man who stole away from him 14 years of his life and everything he's taught himself since has been turned towards that singular purpose something else that max studied during his time in prison that's similar in scope to his studies into religion and philosophy is law max has become learned in the law coming to the point where he can now claim to be a self-taught lawyer the reason i say that this part of max is similar in scope to his studies into philosophy and religion is because again he has turned the law to serve his own purposes it's true enough that he may have studied law in order to better represent himself and to find out exactly what sam bowden did to him and how he can fight against it but as with anything undertaken by max katie he studied the law to better serve his fight against sam boden understanding the extent of the actions he could take and figuring out what laws he may need to skirt around in order to exact his revenge is a paramount component of max's plan and to sum up what we've discussed so far i'm going to highlight how ironic it is that max's adherence to and study of religion philosophy and law could have been used to turn his life around christianity could have taught him both forgiveness and that his revenge would one day be fulfilled by god nietzsche to better himself and his position in life and the law could have taught him how to best pursue a case against sam for omitting a testimony during his trial this course wouldn't have necessarily taken max down the path of totally forgiving sam which is quite frankly no easy task for many people when they've been slighted in such a way however he still could have ruined sam's life in many different ways by bringing to light his misconduct as a lawyer and getting his revenge without having to go on his mad quest for brutal satisfaction instead we have a man who's cherry-picked components out of his own religious upbringing and his studies into philosophy to justify and motivate his plan to exact revenge against sam boden and one who's using his newfound knowledge of the law to expertly maneuver his way around the scenario without being caught it should be noted that max actually has a serious grievance here as purposefully concealing a report that could have saved max not only years of his life but from the sodomy he experienced at the hands of other inmates as well is not something to be brushed aside however there's also the possibility max would have gone to prison for a certain amount of time whether sam had concealed this report or not so these things may have still happened to max nevertheless the crime max committed to get him into prison is no small affair either and this film is certainly meant to challenge your feelings on this matter on the one hand max according to sam brutalized a woman and raped her as sam says what if that girl were your own daughter or your sister or your mother what would you have done if you were in sam's shoes on the other hand a lawyer is supposed to act on behalf of their client to the best of their ability no matter what crimes their client committed this brings us to the question of whether or not max is justified in his pursuit of revenge against sam the answer is yes to a certain degree but no to an even higher one it's understandable that max would be angry at the revelation of his lawyer sabotaging his own case and he is certainly within his right to pursue legal action against sam for misconduct but a man who raped and beat a woman and who also supposedly bragged about his beating of other women before then has no moral justification to be outraged about being punished for committing an act of rape and brutality sure he suffered in prison as i'm sure many rapists do but we're not talking about some innocent crime here and the swiftest cure for the suffering max experiences would have been to not rape and beat a woman in the first place he suffered longer than he should have due to sam's actions yes and for that he's got the right to complain but i find it hard to have any sympathy for a man like max katie especially when you consider the behavior he exhibits during the course of the film all of the preparations max made in service to this plan make it a plot that is far more devious than your typical revenge story true to the title of the film max wishes to bring about his revenge by instilling the maximum amount of fear in the bowden family that he can and through this fear suffering on par with the suffering he experienced in prison max has spent many long years formulating each intricacy of this plan and none of these actions he takes in this film are unplanned everything we see max katie do is calculated and each of his actions are meant to bring the utmost personal torment to sam boden that max can imagine he disrupts his family stalks him plays facetious mind games with him in every opportunity he gets attempts to manipulate his own family into turning against him harms the people sam cares about ruins his career in his home life murders his dog his housekeeper and the man he had hired to protect his family and all of these actions were taken in service to an end goal that was the sodomization of both sam's wife and daughter in front of his eyes before he killed all of them in a fury of insane rage even at his end max katie never wavered from the path he had taken and while singing a hymn as he drowns in his own aspirations he eyes sam with a solemn and cruel gaze a gaze that tells us that no matter what waits for us after death max will certainly find sam odin this plan and all of the components of max that we've discussed so far come together to give us the perfect picture of the absolute madness that is max katie he's a cruel vindictive spiteful man who's taken what is an understandable grievance against the man who scorned him and blown it entirely out of proportion turning it from what could have been a case of legal misconduct into a personal vendetta that would end in nothing less than the total destruction of sambodan's soul his tenacity and iron will are impressive going into prison max katy was an illiterate and uneducated man but upon his release not only could he read but he'd studied the intricacies of his religion some of the most complex philosophical concepts and the inner workings of the legal system of the united states all of which he did in a way to better himself but only so far as it would bring him closer to exacting his revenge upon sam boden the state of his body was immaculate and the mental training he must have went through to dull his senses to even the most intense pain must have been agonizing to say the least however through all this training max remains something he likely always had been a creep an unnerving uncomfortably friendly and sadistic man who reveled in the pain and misery he caused others who we see in this film ultimately boils down to a plot for vengeance personified a display of the lengths a person is willing to go to in order to satisfy their own desires and the spectacle they can make in the process there's a quote from the spokes arathustra that fits perfectly with both the scope of max's plan and the woeful misunderstanding he has of the very principles he has defiled with thunder and heavenly fireworks must one speak to indolent and somnolent senses but beauty's voice speaks gently it appeals only to the most awakened souls max katie certainly barreled into the lives of the boden family with a raucous display of fireworks imposing on them his mad desire for revenge against a man who was sickened by his own deplorable behavior max katie was unable to listen to the voice of reason the gentle voice that may have been whispering in his ear to forego his rage to turn his life around to make something better of himself instead becoming entrenched in the dark thoughts that led him to dedicating his life to revenge in the end through all his moral and philosophical outrage max katie was a homicidal sexually deviant sadistic psychopath and his self-righteous quest for revenge against sam boden is rife with the most heinous and brutal crimes one can commit crimes that show us that max katie is anything but holy and undoubtedly evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on max did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured in a future episode while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your continued and incredible support if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon you can find a link to patreon in the description of this video thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 246,455

Keywords: Max Cady, Cape Fear, Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Evil, Villain, Analysis, Film

Id: IxOxY_7leWc

Length: 25min 25sec (1525 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 25 2021