Subject: REVIEW: THE STAND

From: [email-masked] (Ram Samudrala)
Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 15:18:57 GMT

THE STAND
		       A film review by Ram Samudrala
			Copyright 1995 Ram Samudrala

     The best review for THE STAND is to read Stephen King's book on
which the screenplay is based.  But that might be somewhat time
consuming since the uncut edition runs well over a thousand pages, thus
defeating all purpose of a "review."

     As the title suggests, the story is about a stand between the
forces of good and evil.  The end of world arrives with the escape of a
lethal virus from a government laboratory.  The virus spreads like
wildfire and soon most of the world's population has succumbed to it,
except for a few survivors.  These few serve as the apostles of good
and evil, and they are chosen by Mother Abigail, the leader of the good
forces, who is 106 years old and bakes her own bread, and Randall
Flagg, the leader of the evil forces.

     The forces of the good gather in Boulder, Colorado, and the forces
of evil gather in Las Vegas.  One of the subplots in this movie is the
blossoming romance between Stu Redman and Frannie Goldsmith, which
leads to the betrayal by Harold Lauder who is actually influenced by
Nadine Cross who was originally involved with Rock 'n' Roller Larry
Underwood (?)  but is actually the concubine of Randall Flagg (as you
can see it's pretty twisted).  Then we have some free spirit adventures
like those of the Trashcan Man, The Monster Shouter, Tom Cullen, and
the dreams and nightmares of the individual people.  All together it
makes for a gripping Stephen King tale.

     The effects involving the face morphing of Randall Flagg were very
effective I thought.  The acting was quite good, but the screen play
was too long.  The movie could've been shortened by at least one
episode.  The end sucks.

     "M-O-O-N. That spells Tom Cullen."

     "My life for you."

Ram Samudrala
[email-masked]