Sam Panico The unabridged version of the stand is 1,152 pages. How do you film that? How do you capture everything? This 1994 miniseries - originally airing from May 8 - 12 of that year - made a valiant effort.It's nearly impossible to get in every character from the book, but that doesn't mean that these guys didn't try. With a screenplay by King, Mick Garris stepped into the director's chair, armed with a huge cast that does a great job of capturing their roles.The hard part of The Stand is that there's more than one hero and multiple casts to follow. I guess Stu Redman (Gary Sinise) would be the main hero, but you could also argue that the deaf and mute Nick Andros (Rob Lowe, who is deaf in his right ear) is the hero. Or maybe singer Larry Underwood is. When you're reading the book, you can determine who the protagonist you like best is, you can also see them as you want in your mind. With a film, it's not so simple.As Captain Trips, a weaponized flu virus, sweeps across America, the end of the world takes shape and Mother Abagail Freemantle (Ruby Dee) gathers the forces of good against Randall Flagg and his followers. Flagg, otherwise known as the Walkin' Dude, the Dark Man, the Ageless Stranger, the Man in Black and the Hardcase (as well as Walter Padick, Nyarlathotep, Rudin Filaro and a ton of other names), is the villain of more than one King story. He shows up in The Dark Tower, Hearts in Atlantis and The Eyes of the Dragon. His character goes all the way back to a poem that King wrote in 1969.Amongst his forces are the bonkers crazy Nadine Cross (Laura San Giacomo), criminal rat eater Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer), the explosive loving Trashcan Man (Max Headroom himself, Matt Frewer, who has appeared in more King adaptions than anyone else), the Rat Man and so many more. But the good guys also have Judge Ferris (Ossie Davis), the worst dressed heroine ever in Frannie (Molly Ringwald), her wannabe boyfriend and potential traitor Harold (Parker Lewis Can't Lose star Corin Nemec), simple-minded Tom Cullen (Bill Fagerbakke, Dauber from TV's Coach), wise Glen Bateman (TV legend Ray Walston, who was also Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and many, many more.This is a film packed with stars, even in small roles, like Ed Harris as General Starkey, Kathy Bates as Rae Flowers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a man proclaiming the end of the world and King, Sam Raimi, Tom Holland and John Landis show up in cameos. Even Joe Bob Briggs is in this!The four parts, The Plague, The Dreams, The Betrayal and The Stand, tell as much of the story as possible. I was kind of let down by the casting of Flagg, but it's hard to find anyone to live up to the ultimate evil that he's presented as in the book.The fact that the film was finished is a testament to the production team. With 460 script pages that were shot across 100 days in 6 states, that meant that the final project is nearly 8 hours long. They had to figure out how to dress 95 shooting locations on their budget, including a cornfield and a decimated Las Vegas.I hope however they remake this, they make sure to get better outfits for Frannie. I realize that this mini-series is 24 years old, but her fashion taste has not aged like a fine wine. Every single time she appears, her sartorial splendor - or lack thereof - takes me out of the movie!

Realrockerhalloween The Stand is an epic tale between the forces of good and evil battling for control on the verge of civilization's collapse.While a made for television production, The Stand managed to weave a great caste into a six hour format allowing time for us to get to know the characters and watch as they develop for better or worse.As the survivors of a horrifying deadly plague gather in two camps one lead by an Antichrist like figure Randall Flagg and the saintly mother Abigal both vying for the occupation of the world for generations to come.The story isn't all black & white as their are traitors and deserters among the ranks. Two stand out Harold Lauder who's felt like a big fat loser all his life and Nadine Cross an earth child with a mysterious mystical link to Flagg.These two characters bring out a lot of morality questions like how far does free will reach over selective destiny? Are they sacrificial lambs for the slaughter or was the choice to decline offers already in place?But that's what good story telling can accomplish by making you think and feel.The music hit the mark each time and the editor better have gotten overtime for the natural flow of scene changes from beginning to end.The Stand was Stephen King's Lord of the rings that's never been topped.

utgard14 TV mini-series adapted from Stephen King's epic apocalyptic novel about a plague that wipes out most of the world's population. A group of walking clichés survive, some joining the forces of good (led by Ruby Dee) and some joining the forces of evil (led by Jamey Sheridan, sporting a hilarious mullet). "The Stand" was never my favorite King novel, although I did enjoy it when I read it probably twenty years ago or so. This mini-series was almost doomed to failure from the start for trying to accomplish a story with such grand scope on a TV budget. It's directed by Mick Garris, who has directed many Stephen King adaptations (most of which are garbage). I'm not a fan of Garris but I will say this is definitely him putting forth his A effort. He's limited by his budget and lack of talent so he does remarkably well considering. Most of the Love Boat-style cast are adequate, with some standing out for good performances (Gary Sinise, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer) and others standing out for how hammy they are (Ruby Dee, Jamey Sheridan, Matt Frewer). Others are just plain awful (Laura San Giacomo, Parker Lewis). On the whole, it's very watchable for its length but never reaches its potential, TV excuse notwithstanding. At times it is extremely campy and even corny. There's some entertainment in that, of course, but it hurts the film more than it helps because the story really needs you to take it seriously for it to work.

Eightiesjunkie Before I give my review, I'd like to state that "The Stand" is my all- time favorite book. Unlike most fans of the book however, I didn't read the book until about seven or eight years ago. I had seen the mini- series a few times on television a few years prior to reading the book, and had really enjoyed it. One day while reading up on the film, I clicked on the IMDb movie message board. Fellow fans of the film were discussing how good the film was, and how well it followed the novel. Needless to say, I was intrigued by this. Therefore, I scraped together fifteen bucks, gave it to my Aunt, (who I live with) and told her to pick me up a copy at the local bookstore. Soon after she gave it to me, I began reading it. I couldn't put it down after that, so I took it with me everywhere! After reading the book, I decided to give the mini-series another watch, and surprisingly, I still liked it! Even more so than I had before. It took a long time for an adaptation of "The Stand" to get made. After filming "Creepshow" George Romero and Stephen King were going to collaborate again, on a film adaptation of "The Stand" Unfortunately, trimming the novel down into one screenplay proved to be too difficult a task for King, therefore Screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg was brought in to write a new script. After the script was finished, and filming was to begin, Warner Brothers backed out of the project at the last minute. Some time after, ABC offered Stephen King the chance to turn his novel into an epic four-part TV Mini-series. King accepted, The Mini-series was made, and premiered on May 8th 1994. It received critical praise, and has even acquired a large fan base. As for the screenplay for the film that never was: It's not bad. However in my opinion, it fails to capture the depths of the many characters. If you're curious, it's definitely worth a read though. Do a Google search, and you'll find it somewhere. As for the TV Mini-series: This was much better! It's well written, well shot, and well acted! Granted, some of the dark, intense, scenes in the novel are cut or trimmed, (It was a Made-for-Television production after all.) but it is still highly enjoyable, and very well done. I also must give it high praise for it's usage of certain music. Including, but not limited to: "Don't fear the reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult and "Don't dream it's over" by A Crowded House. Whether you've read the novel and never seen the mini-series before, or if you're just interested in watching a dark, apocalyptic, tale of good versus evil, give this a watch. I'd suggest you read the novel first, but even if you haven't, you'll enjoy this either way.