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Cape Fear (1991) tells the story of a released prisoner and convicted rapist (Robert DeNiro) who takes his revenge on the lawyer who put him in jail (Nick Nolte) and his family (Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis). DeNiro’s character is literally covered in prison-style tattoos. On his back are the scales of justice, his left arm reads ‘Vengeance is mine (N.T. Romans, xii, 19)’ while his right arm is tattooed with ‘My time is at hand (N.T. Matthew, xii).’ ‘The Lord is my avenger,’ ‘I have put my trust in the Lord God, in Him I will trust,’ and ‘My time is not yet come’ are hand inked on his chest and upper arms. A crying clown with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other is tattooed on his shoulder. All tattoos are monochromatic (black) and have been hand tattooed; they are stereotypical prison designs and literal tattoos. DeNiro’s character is a psychopath hell-bent on revenge, and his tattoos are clearly symbolic of his deviance, criminality and, one assumes, insanity. In the “tattoo epiphany” scene where DeNiro removes his shirt for the first time, Nolte and the police detective (Robert Mitchum) stare with open mouths as the camera pans slowly over each tattoo. “I don’t know whether to look at him or read him,” sneers Mitchum’s character. |