The Stand (1994)

 The Stand (1994)

The story of The Stand being adapted to film, is almost as long as the novel itself.  George Romero first approached Stephen King about doing a film adaptation of The Stand soon after it was published, and Richard Rubinstein at Laurel Entertainment was also very excited about the idea of making a film adaptation of The Stand.  Though Romero's interest dissipated in the 1980s as Stephen King had a string of poorly received film adaptations of his work.  At one point Dario Argento was supposedly approached about directing a film adaptation but turned it down.  Finally after the massive success of Stephen King's It as a television miniseries, as well as the box office success of Pet Sematary, King began to warm up to the idea of doing the film as a television miniseries.  King wanted Mick Garris, who he worked with on Sleepwalkers previously, and was happy with his treatment of source material.  Finally after around a dozen different scripts were written and rewritten, The Stand would finally be receiving a long awaited film adaptation.

The Stand was directed by Mick Garris, and written by Stephen King.   The television miniseries aired on ABC from May 8th-12th 1994, and received mostly positive reviews with both fans and critics alike.   The Stand was given a massively large budget of $28 million, more than double the budget of any Stephen King miniseries adaptation at that point.  

The Stand had a massive cast with over 125 speaking roles in the film, so for the cast I am going to list the main characters of a few of the groups in the film, and also list some notable cameos. 
Those Called To Mother Abigail:
Gary Sinise as Stu Redman, Molly Ringwald as Frannie Goldsmith, Adam Storke as Larry Underwood, Ray Walston as Glen Bateman, Rob Lowe as Nick Andros, Bill Fagerbakke as Tom Cullen, Ruby Dee as Mother Abigail Freemantle, Ossie Davis as Judge Richard Farris, Corin Nemec as Harold Lauder, Peter Van Norden as Ralph Brentner, among many others.

Those called to Randall Flagg:
Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg, Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross, Miguel Ferrer as Lloyd Henreid, Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man, Rick Aviles as Rat Man, among many others. 

Interesting Cameos:
Joe Bob Briggs as Deputy Joe-Bob (Joe Bob Briggs hosted TNT's Monstervision in the 1990s and is a fellow fan of b-horror films), Kathy Bates as Rae Flowers a talk radio host out of Portland Maine (Bates has starred in several Stephen King films), Ed Harris as Gen Bill Starkey (Harris has also appeared in several Stephen King films), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the Monster Shouter (Jabbar is a famous basketball player), Sam Raimi as Bobby Terry (the creator of The Evil Dead), and Stephen King plays Teddy Weizak one of many of those called to Mother Abigail. 

The casting of this film was impressive to say the least.   First of all I am a huge fan of Molly Ringwald, she might actually be my favourite actor, and it was so nice to see her in this role, to me she is perfect as Frannie, and when I read the book she is who I pictured as the character.   Also Rob Lowe, Gary Sinise, Ray Walston, Bill Fagerbakke, and Adam Storke were absolutely amazing in this film.  Kathy Bates character was originally written as a male, but Stephen King always had Bates in mind for the role and changed the name very slightly to make it a female character so she could play it.   Originally Whoopi Goldberg was wanted to play Mother Abigail, but she was busy with Sister Act 2, however she would get cast for the role in the 2020 remake that CBS did.    I think the best way to describe this cast is iconic.

So this is Maine Movie Monday, and not only is part of The Stand set in Maine, but it was also partially filmed in Maine.   The locations used were Ogunquit Maine, Nubble Lighthouse in York Maine, and the pier at Old Orchard Beach Maine, among other locations.   All of the locations are in southeastern Maine in York County.  Some other Maine locations mentioned are Portland, Boothbay Harbor, and Kittery.   I always love seeing recognizable landmarks in films, and I have been through the filming locations of this film several times, though I haven't tried to track down the Goldsmith house where Molly Ringwald's character starts off in the film, also where we first meet the character of Harold Lauder.  Though only a small portion of the film is set and filmed here, it is still nice to see my home state in films, and to actually shoot here is even better.   

I did want to mention that I thought it was nice when I read that the scenes set in Colorado were actually filmed in Utah, with the Salt Lake City area standing in for Boulder Colorado, the reason that that is such a good thing is the why it was done.  Colorado has a history of being a conservative state, and around the time that The Stand was being made they had passed Colorado Amendment 2, which nullified local gay rights laws.   Because of the protests as well as the production team morally disagreeing with the amendment, they decided to shoot in Utah where there were many people related to the themes of the original novel because of their religious beliefs.  I found this to be quite interesting, because many fans actually believe that it was filmed in Colorado, because of how similar the two areas look.

For fans of Stephen King, you are probably aware that most of his works in someway tie into his Dark Tower series, which is especially true in the case of The Stand.   A few of these tie-ins include: The Man In Black is Randall Flagg, also in one of the Dark Tower books they come into version of Earth where the Captain Tripps Pandemic had existed, also Tom Cullins plays a part in the Dark Tower Series. 

Overall I absolutely love this adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, it looks great for a television miniseries, it was faithful to the original novel, as much as it could be for the format.   The acting was great, the script was well written, there were parts that ranged from terrifying, humorous, and heartbreakingly sad.   Though I did see a boom mic briefly in one scene, which made me laugh a little that that wasn't caught in editing.   I loved seeing Joe Bob Briggs, who I am a big fan of, and Kathy Bates absolutely nailed her performance, even though both cameos were brief.   I feel like this film is especially relevant in the world today, as we are facing a global pandemic, though thankfully not as deadly as this one, nor have I been having dreams of either a 106 year old black woman in Nebraska nor of the Walking Dude in Las Vegas.    I would definitely say that this is a must see film/television miniseries, and one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King work to film.   If you have not yet seen it I highly recommend checking it out.  I haven't seen the new version that was just released in 2020, but if I ever see it on DVD I will add it to my collection, I don't see how it could be possible to improve on how amazing the original was, and I am sure it will disappoint me, but nonetheless I will see it when I can.