From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon May 15 10:54:02 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nac.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Subject: REVIEW: THE STAND Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03585 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Samudrala Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 15:18:57 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 41 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2979 rec.arts.sf.reviews:767 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 ram@elan1.carb.nist.gov From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:22:33 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:06:58 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!ubnnews.unisource.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news.apfel.de!howland.erols.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Stand, The (1994) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: 7 Jul 1997 04:32:41 GMT Organization: None Lines: 67 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5pprh9$8q1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu Content-Type: text NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08130 Keywords: author=polenz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7574 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1415 The Stand (originally television mini-series) Chad'z rating: ***1/2 (out of 4 = very good) 1994, not rated, 366 minutes [6 hours, 6 minutes] [drama/horror] starring: Gary Sinise (Stu Redman), Molly Ringwald (Fran Goldsmith), Jamey Sheridan (Randal Flag), Adam Storke (Larry Underwood), Laura San Giacomo (Nadine Cross), Ruby Dee (Mother Abigail), produced by Mitchell Galin, written by Stephen King (based on his novel), directed by Mick Garris. The horror genre seems to be dying a slow death in Hollywood. Even Stephen King's film are learning more towards surrealistic drama than straight horror and "The Stand" is a perfect example of this. The story is a long and complicated one, but it has much plausibility to it and it becomes more frightening on a metaphysical level than any horror flick could ever be, period. The story starts off simple enough about a virus manufactured by the government, but something goes wrong and all the scientists who manufactured it die immediately. Only one man and his family manage to escape the base, but do not escape the virus. By the time their car crashes halfway across the country in east Texas, they have inadvertently spread the disease because it is so communicable. The military attempts to quarantine the town, and perform experiments on those who have become sick, but it does no good. We then meet many different characters throughout the U.S. who are somehow immune to the virus while the rest of the planet dies off within a week. The supernatural villain here is not the typical horror movie monster, but just invisible germs, and this is what makes the film so scary because it's an original, realistic nemesis. To think invisible, one-cell organisms could destroy the entire planet's population so quickly is disturbing indeed. Many of these characters have dreams about a farmhouse in Nebraska. They meet an old black woman named Mother Abigail (Dee), who warns them of the coming apocalypse and to beware of the "Dark Man." It's obvious she and her words are symbolic of the ultimate powers of good versus evil. The moody lighting, the music, and the sudden camera movements combined with Abigail's dialogue warning them of the devil, all adds up to an atmosphere that is both fantasy and brutal reality at the same time and is quite sensational. Because the film is over six hours long, the story is slowly paced, but is always interesting to watch. Every character here is chizzled with detail (although some can be annoying and cliche), just watching them going through the motions, learning about their destiny, and their interaction is great. The story is so epic and detailed I won't attempt to summarize the plot any further. Basically it is a modern mythological tale of the final showdown between good and evil with the characters representing the greater forces in the universe. The only problem is they don't necessarily know who or what they are working for, nor really care. Sometimes just hinting at elements of greater beings and/or powers makes for great mystery, suspense, and philosophy (i.e. "2001"), but here it's a bit too commercial to see it as the grand story it puts itself forward as. The film has the potential to be a "Star Wars" of modern-day Earth, but because it was made for television, it downplays its supernaturalism into a story of good guys vs. bad guys. Perhaps "The Stand" tries a too hard to be a fantastic odyssey, but it's certainly entertaining and moving for what it is. Please visit Chad'z Movie Page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz E-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C)1997 Chad Polenz