La danza de la muerte

Prior to the release of It, The Stand was my favourite King novel. It's a gargantuan effort which weaves a huge cast of disparate characters into an epic tale of the struggle between good and evil on the eve of Armageddon. I used to think about what kind of a movie could be constructed from the novel, even going so far as to pick a cast, but I always knew in my heart that the sheer magnitude of the undertaking would undoubtedly make an effective translation to screen impossible.

My worst fears were realised when I walked into my local video store one fine day last year and saw a poster for its upcoming release. The words "teleplay" struck instant fear into my heart, having been burned before by the made for TV adaptation of It, and when I scanned the cast list I nearly started screaming. Molly Ringwald?!! Rob Lowe?!! As Nick Andros?!! It was horrible, just horrible, and I resolved never to subject myself to the nightmare which I knew waited inside that double-cassette cover.

But one day I got bored, a few hours to kill before I went out on the town, so I figured what the heck, might as well give it a go, I can always drown my sorrows after it's over. I took the video home, made myself a strong cup of coffee, and sat down to partake of the carnival of horrors which had patiently waited to entrap me.

The film runs for a tad under six hours. I watched nearly five that day, and only left the last hour until the following day because the sun had set and fellow partygoers were banging on my door. This scene has been repeated by virtually everybody I know who has hired the film, and with good reason.

The Stand is a tour de force, a film which proves that a good story well told with a capable cast can overcome any censorship restrictions television cares to impose. I just don't know where to begin in my praise of this masterwork. I could praise those concerned for enticing King himself to write the teleplay, thereby ensuring it followed the novel almost to the letter, allowing the characters time to grow, to become real people, people we can love or hate, people we can root for or hiss at. Every major scene is there, lovingly recreated for our viewing pleasure, and it proves that King can claim a keen eye for the visual medium amongst his many talents.

I could praise the casting, which is as damn near perfect as you're ever going to get. There's Gary Sinise ("Lieutenant Dan" from Forrest Gump), who plays Stu Redman like he was born to the role. Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe actually turn in stellar performances. The characters I'd known and loved - Tom Cullen, Lloyd, Glen Bateman, Larry Underwood - are all there, and when the movie was over I discovered that, however I had pictured them when I had read the novel, it was now impossible to imagine them as anything else. That's perhaps the highest praise which can be afforded an actor, and whoever the casting director was should have a statue erected in their honour. I would also like to mention the superb casting of Randall Flagg, "The Walkin' Dude". I couldn't believe it when he first appeared - "That's not him!" were the exact words which issued from my lips. The Walkin' Dude was supposed to be evil, fer chrissakes, and this guy looked liked he'd just stepped out of a Levis commercial. However, as the film wore on I realised just what a magical piece of casting had been wrought. Flagg is evil personified, sure enough, but he's also charismatic. After all, how many people, however blackhearted, would follow someone who actually resembled the evil he represented? So we have this good-looking, amiable dude who runs around recruiting his dark army, but there's always something not quite right about him, an edge to his smile, a flash in his eyes. Then, as things begin to fall apart, his true character reasserts itself, and it's even more shocking by virtue of the "nice-guy" image which he'd previously worn. Classic stuff, and it proved beyond a doubt why I'm an accountant, not a casting director.

I could praise the music, which unfailingly matches the mood, and which positively soars during the Wild Bunch-style scenes in which the four chosen ones commence their pilgrimage to Vegas. This is the kind of thing which doesn't take much to do, but which lends an epic quality to the proceedings.

And that's what really nails this film down as a classic - the little touches which ensure the film stays in the mind long after the credits have rolled. The slow degeneration of Ed Harris' general. Molly Ringwald's understated reaction to the death of her beloved father. Lloyd's realisation that things are falling apart, countered by his knowledge that he's committed, for better or worse. So much could have gone wrong in these six hours, so many cliché's enacted, and every potential obstacle is avoided with the expert skill of an Olympic slalom competitor.

I urge you to head down to your video store this weekend and rent this film. Take the phone off the hook, draw the blinds, stock up on Coke and munchies and settle in for six hours of unadulterated brilliance.

It *shines*, friends. I can say no more than that.

The Stand is perhaps my favorite novel of all time, and I always knew that translating it to the screen - big or small - would be a pretty heavy task. Still, I followed the progress of the making of the miniseries from casting through production, up to release. One of the things that amazed me was the fact that some of the casting was so dead-on and some so far off. Nick Andros was my most favorite character in the book, and I can tell you that he was in no way, shape or form Rob Lowe - period. Molly Ringwald took on the role of Frannie Goldsmith - a strong, opinionated, outspoken, and conscientious woman - and turned her into a selfish, whiny little girl. And I do mean that every line she spoke seemed to come out as a whine. And it wasn't the dialogue, but her delivery.

Still, I think the character most ruined in the transition from novel to miniseries was Harold Lauder. Harold in the book was one of the most fascinating fictional characters of all time, in my opinion, and in the film they turned him into a stereotypical nerd who, like most "bad" characters, is portrayed entirely unsympathetically. That was so disappointing!

Of course, there were other performances that exceeded expectations. Gary Sinise was a perfect Stu Redman, and Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Ray Walston, Adam Storke, Bill Fagerbakke, and the dreadfully underappreciated Miguel Ferrer, among others, all turned in strong performances.

I suppose I should not have expected perfection - an 1,100 page novel is a hard thing to fit into 6 hours, especially on television with all the unpleasantries that can't be portrayed. And it's not necessarily a bad movie - it's just not quite the same as the book (which I still read at least once yearly). All in all, I'd say it came out as well as it could have under the circumstances - I only wish they'd thought a little harder about some of their casting choices before making them. But bravo to Stephen King for writing the teleplay himself - that alone makes it better. And I will watch this again sometime - after all, it's a way to see Stu, Glen, Larry, Lloyd, Tom Cullen, and all the others come to life outside of the novel.

This mini-series begins at a secret government lab in California that accidently releases an extremely lethal modification of the flu into the air which quickly infects everybody within the vicinity. Realizing the danger that this virus poses to his family, a security guard by the name of "Charlie Campion" (Ray McKinnon) hurries out of the compound and--with his wife and small child--drives as fast as he can in order to put distance between them and this horrific contagion. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts the virus takes hold and in a state of complete exhaustion he eventually succumbs to the disease and crashes into a gas pump at a grocery store in East Texas. Naturally, this sudden development brings out all of those inside the building-which then exposes all of them to the virus as well. So, with containment no longer possible, the virus soon spreads to all parts of the country leaving most of the population dead within weeks. The small number of people who do survive become split up into two factions with the main characteristic being a specific vision that each of them have. Those who are essentially good dream of an old black lady by the name of "Abigail Freemantle" (Ruby Dee) who beckons them to join her in Nebraska. The other dream involves a sinister man named "Randall Flagg" (Jamie Sheridan) who urges his followers to come to Las Vegas and join him. And it's this split that results in the horrors yet to come. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, having read the book by Stephen King a couple of years prior to this film, I have to say that I was a somewhat disappointed overall in that it didn't quite capture the dark horror to its fullest extent. But then, more often than not, that's typically the case for films based on novels anyway. In any case, this movie still managed to combine enough of the original suspense with some decent acting all around and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

I sat down to watch this with real trepidation as I have read the novel so many times that it has become incredibly real to me. Like so many other fans of the book, I had created the characters in my mind and could actually visualise them. After the hack job that was the TV adaptation of 'It' I could not imagine that I could be anything other than sorely disappointed.

I am glad to report to other 'Stand' fans that it aint' half bad. Granted there are some horribly miscast parts. Molly Ringwald failed to portray Fran's immense courage and determination and was (I'm sorry to say) neither young enough nor pretty enough. Corin Nemec as Harold was just a TOTAL joke. Harold was FAT, FAT, FAT with long greasy hair -not a skinny dweeb in a track suit. When I think of Harold I imagine Philip Seymour Hoffman (or Meat Loaf in his Rocky Horror days). Finally I must also mention Laura San Giacomo as Nadine - she played her like some kind of manic depressive( ! ). However, there is enough about the film that is excellent that it kind of makes up for that. I have to single out Gary Sinise as Stu - he must have read and loved the book himself as his performance had incredible depth and thoughtfulness. In addition Adam Storke and Rob Lowe were tremendous as Larry and Nick respectively and Bill Faggerbacke WAS Tom Cullen.

The music and cinematography were an integral part of the film's power to pull you in and bewitch you. I watched the whole thing in one go as I literally couldn't switch off.

If you are a Stephen King fan you shouldn't be afraid to watch this and if you aren't then it's a cracking story, very well told.

I have to admit that I didn't start watching The Stand with great expectations.. but, surprisingly enough, I didn't find it all that bad. The acting definitely was done well, and considering that it must have been quite a chore to turn such a huge novel into a film, I must say that, despite a few little goofs, the directors have done a really good job.