: The Stand
Author: Stephen King (book)
This is the old mini-series from 1994. I’d heard good things of it and even read part of the book, but had never seen it. It was on SciFi channel over the weekend and I thought I’d fast-forward through most of it, but I found it compelling and ended up watching it. The series has an odd 80s feel to it (music, clothing, language, etc.) for a film from the 90s, and there’s overuse of digital morphing (showing the chief bad guy as a demon). The story is familiar — a government-created biological weapon escapes a lab and kills most of the people on the planet — but Stephen King does something different than the mere fight for survival by introducing an interesting spiritual element. Basically the survivors are split into two groups (good and evil), each with their own leader who recruits via dreams. Ultimately, there’s a battle between these two forces that will determine the future of the human race. It sounds hokey and at times it is, but many times it comes across as sincere, and it ads depth and a metaphorical richness to the drama. Surprisingly good.
Topic: [/movie] |
