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Of all of King's novels, The Stand is the one most of his readers ask about or comment on, and until 1994, when ABC commissioned a miniseries based on this sprawling opus, one question always was "Will there be a movie based on this one?" (King replied in the foreword to the "uncut and unabridged" edition that he thought there might be...)
Unlike most of King's novels, the sheer scope of the novel guaranteed that The Stand would have to be a miniseries made for TV. To have compressed the 1,000-plus pages into a three-hour movie would have been impossible without deleting many characters and situations, a very risky proposition since The Stand is to King's legions of fans what The Lord of the Rings is to Tolkien's readers. And to have hired someone else to adapt it from book to teleplay would have been a risky proposition, so ABC asked King to take the writing reins.
Happily, the 1994 "Stephen King's The Stand" turned out to be a marvelous miniseries, and while it did not break any Nielsen ratings as "Alex Haley's Roots" did in 1977, it did fairly well and earned many good reviews.
The Artisan Home Entertainment Special Edition DVD of "Stephen King's The Stand" presents the complete miniseries on two DVDs, with The Plague and The Dreams on Disc One and The Betrayal and The Stand on Disc Two. Stripped of commercials and station identification/local news promos, the eight-hour running time is pared down to 366 minutes.
Parts One and Two (The Plague, The Dreams) deal with the accidental release of a super-deadly strain of the flu from a secret military laboratory known as Project Blue. Although the base's security attempts to lock down the facility before the virus escapes, one guard and panics attempts to flee, unwittingly infecting his wife and daughter and beginning a chain reaction that will lead to the deaths of millions. Even so, a handful of people survive, and as they try to cope with the disaster and move on, they are guided by their dreams to join either the evil Randall Flagg or the good 106-year-old Mother Abigail. While Flagg sets up his police-state in Sin City itself, Las Vegas, the good guys (and gals) set up the Boulder Free Zone in Colorado...but this is only the setup for the darker conflict to come.
Parts Three and Four (The Betrayal, The Stand) describe the apocalyptic conflict between good and evil as Flagg's people race to acquire weapons of mass destruction to assure their demonic master's victory over the power of the Light side represented by the Boulder Free Zone. Flagg, who was seen only in a few brief scenes in the first half, gets more airtime as the story finally focuses on the final conflict. It's an old storytelling technique but it works well here, and Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) plays the evil demon with a mixture of charm and menace.
Despite the leeway allowed by the miniseries format and unusually open-mindedness from ABC's Standards and Practices division, the teleplay more closely follows the 1978 version rather the 1991 edition, particularly in the ending. King has to compress some parts here, combine some characters there to make the miniseries flow seamlessly and not go over budget (If ABC had commissioned a 12-hour teleplay, maybe the condensing would not have been necessary, but that's Monday-morning quarterbacking 10 years after the show aired). Even so, The Stand captures the spirit of the novel brilliantly.
Credit is also due to director Mick Garris, who not only got great performances from such actors as Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Ray Walston and Rob Lowe, but also kept the huge storyline from dragging or getting too heavy-handed on the gross-out scale.
Even though Artisan did give The Stand the Special Edition treatment by adding such features as 2.0 Dolby Surround sound, a "Making of" featurette and commentary by King, Garris, some of the major cast and Editor Pat McMahon (just to name a few of the extras), it doesn't have easily accessed subtitles. It does have closed captions, but for people with older models of TVs and non-standard players such as Xbox or Playstation 2 game systems that can also play DVDs this is not a very helpful option.
What really makes this movie work is the exceptional--and at times unconventional--casting. The Stand was my first exposure to Gary Sinise, and I immediately fell in love with his perfect portrayal of Stu. One of my teen idols, Rob Lowe, did an absolute amazing job with the role of Nick, proving that he had true range as an actor long before The West Wing came along. I don't know why Adam Storke has not had more career success, as his personification of Larry Underwood was flawless. And the supporting cast was nothing short of stellar: terrific veteran actor Ray Walston as Glen Bateman, Bill Fagerbakke's sensitive portrayal of Tom Cullen, and Miguel Ferrar's perfectly desperate and despicable Lloyd Henried. Although I would not have pictured Jamey Sheridan as Flagg, he definitely brought the character to life, striking a deft balance between Flagg's evil and humorous sides. The one woefully miscast role was Molly Ringwald's Frannie--I don't think she was what King or anyone else had in mind for this character. However, given that most of Ringwald's scenes are with Gary Sinise, this flaw is easily overlooked.
Fans of the novel will definitely notice some changes to the plot, but these modifications were obviously necessary to keep this epic story to just under 6 hours. However, the feel and flavor of the work remain unaltered, as the purity of King's classic good versus evil tale clearly shines through. Finally, the haunting musical score serves to heighten the emotion of this captivating film. I have enjoyed repeated viewings of this miniseries over the years, and it has remained one of my all-time favorite movies.
The crop of actors in Stephen King's The Stand were a great bunch as well. Gary Sinise was perfect for the part of Stu Redman, the country boy from small-town Texas, and Molly Ringwald as Fran Goldsmith was very good. Adam Storke made a very believable Larry Underwood, and the casting of Coach's Bill Fagerbakke as Tom Cullen was an inspired choice. I especially loved the late Ray Walston as Glen Bateman, Jamey Sheridan as Flagg, Ruby Dee and her husband Ossie Davis in their respective parts of Mother Abagail and Judge Farris, Rob Lowe as Nick Andros, Just Shoot Me's Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross, the late Rosemary Clooney's son Miguel Ferrer as Lloyd Henreid, and Max Headroom's Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man. I had no complaints about Stargate SG-1's Corin (Corky) Nemec as Harold Lauder except for the fact that they could have plumped him out a bit for the part and had him lose weight so he'd be slender once he got to Boulder. Other than that, his acting was excellent.
I'd also like to give a nod to two very wonderful actors whose parts were uncredited, but who nevertheless made a valuable contribution to the story: Apollo 13's Ed Harris as General Starkey, the commander of Blue Base (where the virus is made) and Misery's Kathy Bates as talk-radio host Rae Flowers, whose refusal to withhold the truth from the American people earns her a bullet in the head. Although you only see them in Part 1 of the miniseries, their roles were brilliantly acted and necessary to the story.
The Making of Stephen King's The Stand documentary, included on both DVD and VHS, gave some good insights into the filming of this wonderfully scary miniseries. When I found out how much work had gone into making it, I was astonished, and when I discovered that hundreds of King fans had flocked to Vegas for some of the crowd scenes there, I found myself turning green with envy. I wish I had been there... The DVD also includes commentary by the principal actors and crew as well as Stephen King himself, along with a Make-Up Effects gallery, which includes Randall Flagg's transformations and the old-age makeup used on Ruby Dee as Mother Abagail.
All in all, Stephen King's The Stand is a keeper. It'll scare the living daylights out of you, but you'll want to watch it over and over.
This doesn't have the flash of today's blockbusters, but it's still a good tale
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