'The Executioners' By John D. Macdonald: Film Analysis

In different varieties of stories, narratives play a considerable part because narratives set the action and move it along. Theorists like Todorov, Propp, and Levi- Strauss produced comprehensive lists of narrative conventions such as structure, character and conflict. The conventions are used to created the basics of constructing a plotline. If using the correct features and elements, anyone can transform a simple narrative into a noteworthy story. The narrative of 1957 novel “The executioners” by John D. MacDonald is an example of a narrative that ahs been changed around but has the same basic plotline. This novel was transformed into a film known as “cape fear” by J. Lee Thompson in 1962. The remake also named “cape fear” was directed by Martin Scorsese in 1991. The three main feature I am have chosen between the 1962 and 1991 cape fear are the use of Character, narrative structure, and conflict/opposition.

Character

The 1962 film names her Nancy and portrays her as a pretty, intelligent girl who is in the middle of her shift into adolescence. Totally contrasting the Character of Nancy who is re-named Danielle (Dani) in the 1991 remake directed by Martin Scorsese. Danielle is also depicted as innocent but is slowly enticed and unprotected of her innocence through being seduced of Robert De Niro as Max Cady. The 1991 film gives Danielle an integral role in the plot by using her as a main character. Her place in the film compared to Nancy in the 1962 film is that, Nancy is only seen from Sam’s perspective. In the end the 1991 film is focused on Danielle to increase the family tension, which is lacking in the 1962 film, this tension is used to heighten the stakes of the plot, and to the characterization of the entire