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Television The Stand (1994)

axl blaze

axl blaze

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The_Stand_%28TV_miniseries%29.jpg


Stephen King's The Stand is one of the most influential novels in my life. it is an American epic that showcases an epic struggle of good and evil, post-apocalyptic style. it is highly influential for me having faith in God. a lot of Directors get King's novels wrong, even when they're cinematic masterpieces (King wasn't 100 percent happy with Kubricks's The Shining) - but this teleplay that aired in the 90s gets King 100 percent RIGHT!

it's epic on a scale of Lord of the Rings, only instead of Middle-Earth, we are in Earth - where 99 percent of the population have died. the survivors choose between good or evil, essentially, and just like any good King book the meat and bones is in the characters themselves and the tapestry that they weave, connecting and disconnecting with one another

here is the nice and official description of the Stand, followed by a youtube link of the entire tele-play. it's long and very 90s, but if you have 5 hours to kill and are curious about this then please click the link and watch the TV series!!

At a remote U.S. Army base, a weaponized strain of influenza, officially known as Project Blue and nicknamed "Captain Trips", is accidentally released. Despite an effort to put the base under lockdown, a security malfunction allows a soldier, Charles Campion, to escape with his family. By the time the military tracks the already-deceased Campion to Texas, he has triggered a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions which eventually kills off 99.4% of the world's human population.
As the pandemic intensifies, a multi-faceted narrative -- told partly from the perspective of primary characters -- outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through widespread violence; the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak; the military's increasingly violent efforts to censor information; and, finally, the near-extinction of mankind. The emotional toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as virtually everyone they know succumbs to the flu.
The expanded edition opens with a prologue titled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created.
Click to expand...

watch it here = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBbQ3k9I24U&feature=player_detailpage

so what do ya think? do you like The Stand as much as I do??
 
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I really loved the book......the TV adaptation was just okay for me. It felt a little bit rushed (I know, even at 5 hours) to me but the book was over 1200(?) pages long and had a lot of character set up along with how everything tied together. It was probably near impossible to tie it all nicely and make everyone happy. I will probably watch it again someday though.
 
glad ya fellas liked the book as much as I did. I remember discovering it when I was a kid and being utterly fascinated with it's cover, the Angel Dude frozen-in-a-sword-fight with the Devil Dude

King did tone a lot of what went on in the book down, for the show to acceptable for TV (the rapes come to mind quickly)

and the lead baddie was none other than Homeland's Jamey Sheridan, my friend! and you really didn't like his performance? he forever burned the image of Randall Flag, RF, or the Walkin' Dude in my mind for further King books (the Dark Tower series). when I watched Sheridan's performance I got the feeling that Heath Ledger used him as a muse for his Joker...

th
 
IMO the tele-film version is inferior in every way to the book. It's my favourite book of all time; I've read it every year since 13 years old and was very disappointed with the film. Saying that, the Randall Flagg actor was pretty superb actually, probably the most well-casted character. The only memorable part of the film for me was the initial opening shot with the Blue Oyster Cult song. I think the problem is budget; it deserved a proper movie budget to pull off such an epic story.
 
^ YES! that scene is great! this is what a Stephen King American epic novel should be on film - all rock n roll jingle jangle blasting through guitar amplifiers!

speaking of - I always thought Captain Tripps would be a great band name. it's probably already taken tho

RF was great, wasn't he? I'm telling you - he burned an image of the Walkin' Dude into my mind that when reading any King, I can't displace. as far as casting - I thought Trash Can Man was good, Lloyd was good, Stu was good, Tom Cullen was good, and Rob Lowe was good... Adam Storke as the Musician Larry Underwood I absolutely loved too. Stephen King is a character writer so I think that you of all people would understand that I feel like King wrote a character who just like me. his moral questioning when a leader, his problems, his female interactions, and him being a musician are very much so axl blaze

dopeme - did you think that Shawnee Smith was AN AMAZINGLY Julie Laurie? OMFG I think she's so hot - to bad they didn't show the sex scene (all of the sex was taken out of this teleplay - goddamn TV). Shawnee Smith has stuck with me ever since then

here is the Blue Oyster doing the Stand's intro - it's worth a watch = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUAvTn3uz5w
 
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I'm going to watch this sometime.

I'm just wondering if there was 4 episodes of it or 6? The streaming site I use has this -

Season 1
Episode 1 - The Plague
Episode 2 - The Dreams
Episode 3 - The Betrayal
Episode 4 - The Stand
Click to expand...

But then imdb says -

Technical Specs
Runtime: 366 min | 359 min (DVD) | 60 min (6 episodes) | 345 min (DVD)
Click to expand...
 
I felt like they spent far too much time on insignificant things in the mini series. It came across as long and full of filler like all the lengthy character building scenes with the dullard, Rob lowes character, etc.. Also I feel like in the show they spent an eternity at aunt jemimas house or maybe its the many flash backs/dreams of her farm. I just think to do it justice he would have had to condense and possible spend a bunch more on the production side. Bolton did do a decent job I will concur.
 
LOL stop fucking calling him Michael Bolton goddammit

yo poledriver:

1st part-0:00:00 to 1:28:50
2nd part-1:28:50 to 2:57:41
3rd part-2:57:41 to 4:26:42
4th part-4:26:42 to 5:59:35
Click to expand...

but maybe your version is some sort of cut and edited version - as much as I like Stephen King we all know he can use some cuts in some places

oh and only Four Parts btw. the Stand is the last episode
 
axl blaze said:
^ YES! that scene is great! this is what a Stephen King American epic novel should be on film - all rock n roll jingle jangle blasting through guitar amplifiers!

speaking of - I always thought Captain Tripps would be a great band name. it's probably already taken tho

RF was great, wasn't he? I'm telling you - he burned an image of the Walkin' Dude into my mind that when reading any King, I can't displace. as far as casting - I thought Trash Can Man was good, Lloyd was good, Stu was good, Tom Cullen was good, and Rob Lowe was good... Adam Storke as the Musician Larry Underwood I absolutely loved too. Stephen King is a character writer so I think that you of all people would understand that I feel like King wrote a character who just like me. his moral questioning when a leader, his problems, his female interactions, and him being a musician are very much so axl blaze

dopeme - did you think that Shawnee Smith was AN AMAZINGLY Julie Laurie? OMFG I think she's so hot - to bad they didn't show the sex scene (all of the sex was taken out of this teleplay - goddamn TV). Shawnee Smith has stuck with me ever since then

here is the Blue Oyster doing the Stand's intro - it's worth a watch = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUAvTn3uz5w
Click to expand...


Oh yeah, "that lil bat-faced gal" in the words of RF-very well acted and sexy in a rather sexless film, as you pointed out. Also perfectly cast. I have to admit, the series had some impressive acting talent on display, with some pretty big stars. Except Frannie Goldsmith; I found her shrill and annoying. I also didn't like Nadine or Harold Lauder in the film; in the book, Lauder makes a radical transformation from bullied overweight kid to svelte politician/terrorist- a complex character-I felt in the film he was a bit two-dimensional. One other part of the film I had a problem with was that they didn't do enough with RF's Vegas society-they kind of all came over as schoolyard bullies, in the book it was more complicated than that; they weren't all "evil" people, just flawed or weak, although many bad-asses were attracted to Flagg.

Poledriver, it was only one series, each episode was based on a chapter of the book. If you really want to experience The Stand in its full glory, you really need to read the book, it's just so much wider in scope and better than the mini-series. (A very long book btw-over 1400 pages in the uncut version.) I really hope they make a proper movie of the stand one day, with a full Hollywood budget to do justice to the source material.
 
Yeah that's true about most books to tv shows or movies I've seen before. I'll try and hunt down the book, but am not reading as much anymore, I used to read so much more, but last few yrs I seem to be watching alot more than reading. I'll remember the name and see if I come across it sometime.
 
I feel ya about Harold "the Hawk." as far as acting goes Molly Ringwold (I think that's her name) was absolutely horrible as Frannie Goldsmith. and in the book and even the movie Frannie is such a central character

overall, the biggest book-to-movie flaw was, as you say, RF's Las Vegas community - or the lack thereof. the Las Vegas people weren't necessarily evil. in fact, I found myself sympathizing with Lloyd Henreid (RF's Second-in-Command), and Mr. Henreid started the book off on a crime spree that was mostly armed robbery, with a little murder thrown in there

I mean - when the Dark Man aka the Walkin' Dude aka Randall Flagg recruited Lloyd he was dying of starvation in his jail cell. I always think, who the hell wouldn't pledge their unholy allegiance to this supernatural guy who can bust you out of your starving cage if you just make a deal with the man who is "pleased to meet you, hoped you guessed my name"?
 
Yeah, Lloyd Henreid was actually one of my favourite characters in the book.That's exactly my point; Lloyd was a very sympathetic character imo, he was kind of like a reverse Larry Underwood in a way-both found a kind of redemption, just in different ways. I guess thats always going to be a problem with book-film translations though; the screen versions tend to lose a lot of subtlety and subtext in the translation. Saying that though, I thought the Green Mile film was pretty close to the book.
 
and I see your point exactly, and then some! I never even thought about comparing Lloyd Henreid to Larry Underwood, my two fave characters from the book/even teleplay, in the way that you just did. the best thing about Stephen King is that he is visceral and psychological - sure he relies on horror instead of terror, but there is a huge psychological build-up to anything King does, which just doesn't translate very well into the very superficial medium of film

for example, you just showed me that Larry Underwood could have easily just have been Lloyd Henreid, and then one can switch people and that fact is true
 
Yeah, I see what you mean; Stephen Kings writing doesn't really scare me much on the whole, but he is still probably my favourite author overall. A lot of people say he isn't a great author and that he churns out "disposable" entertainment, but I'd say he's written some great fiction. Don't get me wrong, he's written stuff I couldn't stand. I hated Lisey's story for example, I found it boring and pretentious. For me, he's just got that storytellers gift of putting little hooks into you and making you need to turn over the page to see how it all turns out; it's actually quite a rare gift, even among successful authors.

The Stand is without doubt my favourite of his books, closely followed by the Dark Tower series. I've read a hell of a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, and nothing even touches the Stand for me, because it's not merely about the end of the world; you could say it's as much about sociology, or even Christianity.
 
as someone who is also obsessed with post-apocalyptic fiction - have you ever read George R Stewart's Earth Abides?

I have had troubles tracking the book down, but it looks fantastic, and King gave the book props saying it was a big inspiration for The Stand (perhaps the best sociological post-apocalyptic book ever written)
 
I've never even heard of it to be honest, so thanks for the reccomendation; I'll have to check it out. I'm also obsessed with anything post-apocalyptic btw. I've read so many zombie novels, but none of them have really grabbed me the way the Stand did; they all seemed so flat and formulaic in comparison. One book I've been desperate to read is Swan Song, sorry I can't remember the name of the author-it was recommended to me by the mod HisNameIsGuy, but I can't find the damn thing anywhere though. Apparantly, it's very close to the Stand, but an excellent book in its own right.

Any post apocalyptic films you enjoy. I've just seen the eighties tele film, The Day After, which shows a full scale nuclear attack on the US. Very grim; it must have been seriously scary living through the Cold War. I like 28 days later too.
 
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