Rish Outfield's reviews
The Stand is my favourite book. I've read it twice: once in the 80's and once in the 90's, and to be honest, I was pretty disappointed when I first saw the miniseries a few years ago. I was bothered that characters were combined or deleted, I was annoyed that scenes were missing, and I was dismayed at some of the casting. But I watched the mini-series again recently, for the Compendium, and you know, it isn't bad at all. True, the book is amazing, but an epic thousand-page book is a hard adaptation, no matter what the venue.
The story of the Stand is this: a man-made super-deadly version of the flu is released, killing 99% of America's population. Those few that survive find themselves haunted by visions of an old woman and a dark man, calling them to their respective camps to face off in a final stand of good versus evil. And that's about it. The greatest thing about The Stand is the characters, who from all walks of life before the superflu, are brought together in a sort of family. Like all of King's best works, the characters become familiar, even beloved, to the reader, and when something happens to them, we relate as if it were happening to someone we know.
Gary Sinise (a virtual unknown in ‘94) plays Stu Redman, the hard-headed Texan. Molly Ringwald (sans red hair) plays Fran Goldsmith, a pregnant Maine resident. Adam Storke plays Larry Underwood, a New York musician whose first hit, "Baby Can You Dig Your Man" is repeated throughout the book and film. Rob Lowe plays Nick Andros, a kindly deaf-mute. Ruby Dee plays the old woman, 106 year old Mother Abigail. Jamie Sheridan plays Randall Flagg, the walkin' dude, the dark man, Stephen King's greatest villain. Miguel Ferrer plays Lloyd Henried, a two-bit criminal elevated to a position of power in Flagg's organisation. Laura San Giacomo plays Nadine Cross, the woman destined to bear Flagg's Damien-like offspring.
Actually, I could go on and on. The film has a huge cast, just like the book, with a wide variety of familiar faces in parts both large and small (including Matt Frewer, Bill Fagerbakke, Ed Harris, Corky Nemick, Ray Walston, Ozzie Davis, Kathy Bates, Sam Raimi, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, John Landis, Joe Bob Briggs, and King himself).
The music throughout is nice. Plus, it begins with the opening strains to one of the greatest songs of all time, "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. There is a good deal of emotion in this film, and for the most part, it works well. The performances (with a couple exceptions in the smaller roles) are very good, especially in light of the lightning-fast shooting schedule. Sinise is really great in the film, bringing a hometown goodness and decency to Stu Redman, and shining (no pun intended) like the movie star he would become. And Utah is a pretty place.
It was long (spread over four nights), but I think it could have been one night longer (between chapters 2 and 3, it feels like a whole section is gone) and been a bit more satisfying. It did push the limits of what could be shown on television, though, and TV was the only place a film of its magnitude could be told. One of the problems I had with the film was that of Flagg. He was so scary, so unimaginably evil in the book (and he was faceless, both in the way that book characters are and in a literal way), that I really disagreed with the choice of casting a long-haired, good-old-boy-looking stranger like Sheridan in the role. But in watching it again, and listening to King's words (on the commentary) about Flagg, I see that they made a choice to make him handsome and drinking-buddy-ish, and in a way, that does work. I still don't think his demon makeup worked though, with purple hair and big floppy ears, he didn't look at all scary, but actually rather silly. The climax doesn't really work either, not really the fault of the special effects as of the idea being presented visually (in the book it worked fine, because it felt more symbolic, and not as literal as actually seeing it).
The screenplay was written by King himself, so it probably couldn't have been more true to the book (in spirit, anyhoo), and the feel remains much the same, even though a lot of the scares are gone. But in this particular story, I prefer the human moments to the horror movie ones (even though the book scared the crap out of me), and the best scenes are those that remind us about the best of humanity (scenes like the singing of the National Anthem, scenes focusing on true friendship, and a moment near the end involving a prayer). That alone makes this a miniseries worth seeing.
Best Scare: The first night has the most scares, mostly involving dead bodies or dreams. But the whole thing, involving a virtually deserted America, is somewhat unsettling.
I'd Recommend It To: King fans, mini-series fans, and especially people who have not yet read the book, before those that have (read the book after).