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The Stand: A top-notch Stephen King adaptation - Laramie Movie Scope
05 February 2005
One of my favorite Stephen King adaptations is "The Stand," a huge book adapted to a six-hour TV miniseries in 1994. I watched the whole thing last night and this morning, finishing at 6 a.m., just in time to see the groundhog emerge at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. I could not stop myself. It had been years since I first saw "The Stand," but I recently picked up the two-cassette VHS edition of it at a second-hand store for a buck. It is also available on DVD. The made-for-TV movie was even better than I remembered.
"The Stand" is an apocalyptic story about a battle between good and evil after most of the world has been wiped out by a plague. The good guys are holed up in Boulder, Co. and the bad guys are holed up in Las Vegas, Nev. The good guys are led by 106-year-old Mother Abigail Freemantle (Ruby Dee of "Do the Right Thing"), a holy woman. The bad guys are led by a demon in human form, Randall Flagg, (Jamey Sheridan of "Life as a House"). Flagg is evil, but he's got a sense of humor and style. Flagg's top aide is Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer of "Traffic") and pyromaniac Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer of "Dawn of the Dead"). Mother Abigail's top aide is Stu Redman (Gary Sinise of "Forrest Gump").
The early part of the film is taken up by the story of the plague. It starts in a government bioweapons lab and spreads like wildfire across the nation. The government tries to keep the plague secret, which, of course, causes it to spread faster. General Starkey (Ed Harris of "The Truman Show") is in charge of misinformation, which includes gunning down newsmen and talk show hosts (Cathy Bates plays a talk show host in the film). This kind of nonsense appeals greatly to conspiracy theorists. It is also an amusing pre-Internet scenario. A few people are immune to the plague for no known reason. The plague spreads too quickly for scientists to come up with any answers.
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