Cape Fear (Formerly Titled the Executioners)

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Cape Fear is a great book. I think it is the best I've ever written. In this story, convicted rapist Max Cady is released from prison and goes after the star witness against him, a lawyer, Sam Bowden. Bowden has to defend his family from Cady before he kills them all. I would reccommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Cape Fear is a great book. I think it is the best I've ever written. In this story, convicted rapist Max Cady is released from prison and goes after the star witness against him, a lawyer, Sam Bowden. Bowden has to defend his family from Cady before he kills them all. I would reccommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, smooth read
Review: Cape Fear is a quick book to read, and it's fun. The plot is based on the Bowden family: Sam, the father, Carol, his wife, and the three kids, Nancy, who will turn fifteen soon, and the younger Jamie and Bucky. During World War II, some thirteen years before, Sam Bowden prevented Max Cady, a young private, from raping an australian girl in Melbourne. Cady was tried, convicted and sent to prison in a forced-labour camp for life. Unfortunatelly for Bowden, he was released and has come after him and his family back in the US. Although the book is quite short, MacDonald is able to develop two of the main characters. The story is focused only in the Bowden family, which means Max Cady only appears when he interacts with them. And that's too bad, cause Cady could have been more active, allowing the reader to get to know him better. So, he's kind of a evil presence hanging over the story, and even if it's bad for the reader's personal taste, it's good for the plot. What we do know is that he is a total psycho, and his only intent in life is to end the Bowdens'lives. Sam Bowden is the lawyer who lives his life the way he makes his living: in complete accordance to the laws. His life turns upside down when he realises his only chance against Cady is getting harm done to him, which goes against his conscience. And Carol is the most interesting character of all, like a Scarlett O'Hara, she doesn't mind what things she must do in order to achieve her objectives. I think the story could be a little longer, making more explicit the relationship between Cady and the Bowdens, the way it was in the movie featuring De Niro. Also, Cady is too good a character to be spent the way he was in the plot. All in all, a good book, just too short.

Rating:
Summary: Compare and contrast/Movie vs. Book
Review: Though John D. MacDonald's "The Excecutioners" (renamed "Cape Fear" after the release of the movie) is an exceptional novel, one cannot help but compare it to the movie. Somehow, seeing these performances put on screen and portrayed to electrifying intensity (most notably the 1962 version, where Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck crackle with tension -- and Mitchum performs one of the most believeable performances ever filmed) makes it even better than merely reading it. I am not saying that, overall, movies are better than books, I believe neither medium is "better", both having their own advantages. MacDonald sure needs to receive kudos, though, for writing mounting suspense and for creating a memorable character in the villain Max Cady. Book: ****1/2. Movie ('62): *****. Movie ('91): ****1/2.