The Stand was a big deal when it premiered on television twenty-five years ago. Stephen King was still knocking out books and short story collections, and adaptations of his work had reached a fevered pitch. Between the start of the 1990s through 1994’s The Stand, eleven feature films or miniseries bearing the author’s name were released, among them Rob Reiner’s Misery, considered among the best thanks to Kathy Bates’ Academy Award-winning performance as the deranged Annie Wilkes. Back before the days of the multi-volume feature film, King’s longer novels were depicted in the miniseries format, and had seen success with Salem’s Lot, IT, The Golden Years, and The Tommyknockers (the latter which is currently being developed as a feature by producer James Wan). The man who brought King’s epic tale of good versus evil was director Mick Garris, who had previously collaborated with King on Sleepwalkers, and who would go on to collaborate with him again on titles like The Shining (1997), Quicksilver Highway, Bag of Bones, Desperation, and Riding the Bullet.
The Stand, about a super germ
plague that wipes out nearly all of mankind, rendering the survivors to either band
together or divide on the sides of good and evil, respectively, has been hailed as King’s masterpiece
and is overwhelmingly considered the fan favorite of the author’s long career.
Though there is a certain grisliness to the themes and some of the imagery,
it’s been among the most accessible of King’s works while still falling
comfortably into the horror genre. Depressingly, it’s only become more relevant
since its publication; as the planet begins to see real and catastrophic changes from
global warming, the reemergence of diseases that were long thought
to be in remission, and obviously the years-long pandemic wrought by COVID-19, let’s just say post-apocalyptic stories are back in a big
way. (Not to mention The Walking Dead
has been ripping off The Stand for
years.)
With King handling scripting
duties, The Stand is largely
faithful to the source material thanks to its six-hour running time while also preserving his voice. One of the most consistent and unique aspects to King’s
writing can be simplistically described as his cornballism. He has a penchant
for folksy writing and bad Dad jokes, both deeply rooted in the same kind of
pure childhood haze in which Ray Bradbury used to excel. Most directors who
adapted his work would find ways to level this cornballism, keeping it down to
subtle levels or excising it entirely. Garris, however, doesn’t just preserve
that cornballism but elevates it, rendering many of their collaborations
as the corniest of all the King adaptations. (Quicksilver Highway and Riding the Bullet, the latter based on
a short story from King’s Everything’s Eventual collection, are among the
corniest.) The Stand is no
different, and the cornballism shines through, from the characterization to the
actors chosen to play them to the limits of a network television budget. Along
with the corn, certain elements of the story have not aged well, including
singer Larry Underwood’s mother telling him he “sounds black” on his latest
single, to which the white singer responds by putting on a “black” voice and
bellowing, “that brown sound sure do get around!” (We likely won’t be
seeing this exchange in the forthcoming adaptation by Josh Boone for CBS’s All
Access streaming service, considering the actor playing the new Larry is,
indeed, black...but they’d be wise to reconsider. If nothing else, it would serve as
an amusing homage to The Shawshank
Redemption, in which Morgan Freeman’s Red tells Andy Dufresne that people
call him Red “maybe because [he’s] Irish,” a verbatim line from King’s short
story where Red was presented as a white character.)
The cast of The Stand is massive for a TV budget, not just in quantity but
quality, and it features several actors who had worked, or funnily enough,
would work on another Stephen King project at some point in their careers. In no
particular order, the ensemble boasts Gary Sinise (The Green Mile), Ed Harris (Creepshow,
Needful Things), Kathy Bates (Misery,
Dolores Claiborne), Rob Lowe (‘Salem’s
Lot), and Miguel Ferrer (The Night
Flier, The Shining), not to mention a host of Garris regulars who appear
frequently in his other works, like Shawnee Smith (The Shining) and Matt
Frewer (Quicksilver Highway). Along with bigwig horror
cameos from directors John Landis (An
American Werewolf In London), Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), and Tom Holland (Stephen King's Thinner), Garris and King also take small roles, with King forced
to deliver one of the film’s most emotional moments and which he blunders
gloriously. Naturally, despite its ensemble nature, The Stand primarily belongs to Gary Sinise, as his Stu Redman
represents that typically American aw-shucks good ol’ boy who only wants to do
good for the people that depend on him. Among these people is Frannie
Goldsmith, brought somewhat controversially to the screen by Molly Ringwald
(there was fan blowback following this casting choice, and her performance
didn’t do much to make those fans eat their words). Jamey Sheridan does fine
work as the all-denim Randall Flagg, utilizing his unusual features and his wide,
Joker-like smile to full advantage, though his performance is occasionally
undone by the awful monster make-up he’s saddled with during certain scenes.
As is typical with most King
works, The Stand’s conclusion is
underwhelming, feeling rushed, unrealistic, and poorly executed. The “God’s
hand” sequence is still laughed at to this day (deservingly), and is probably
more infamous than the “wtf?” spider finale of the IT miniseries. After a
five-and-a-half-hour buildup, the ending to this years-long conflict is handled
too quickly and too cleanly, not giving any of its main characters time to
resonate emotionally with the audience regarding their fates. Between its
execution and the mere idea of God’s magical, glittery genie hand coming down
from heaven to smack a nuclear bomb, it’s not the ending most people were
hoping for, even if it’s loyal to the book.
The Stand is back, ladies and germs (get it?), and just in time.
We’re not just in the midst of a King-aissance, thanks to the massively
successful two-volume IT adaptation, but The
Stand will be coming back to haunt a new generation in the form of Josh
Boone’s upcoming take on the material, which premiers tonight on CBS All Access. Though 1994's version of The Stand may not be perfect, and it
bungles the horror elements with some questionable effects and imagery, the
drama of the story and the character interactions are enough to keep the viewer
engaged.
