Stephen King's The Stand
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
Haven't seen this reported here btw, so if you don't know by now: The Stand will be adapted to a comic by Marvel soon. Apparently, the Dark Tower-series sells good..
Excellent!
Anyway I started a thread many months ago suggesting that The Stand could be remade into a more epic and faithful mini-series on HBO or Showtime that would not be as relatively toned down as the ABC adaptation from 1994.
Also in The Stand, not only was the US Government paranoid and vindictive enough to infect the USSR and the People's Republic of China, but within the US they were also pointlessly killing journalist and the immune (!).
IIRC from the TV adaptation, anything about deliberately spreading the virus was replaced by the notion that the original soldier and his family could have spread it at a McDonald's along the way, and then international flights, more prevalent than when King wrote originally, would have taken care of the rest.
I still remain struck to this day, though, by the scene where the soldiers kill the radio host for basically no valid reason. What point is there in controlling the flow of info then? Were they afraid all those dying people would find out they were sick?
I still remain struck to this day, though, by the scene where the soldiers kill the radio host for basically no valid reason. What point is there in controlling the flow of info then? Were they afraid all those dying people would find out they were sick?
Just watched this mini series and I have a question or two. What good di sending out the spies do? The Judge died before he ever got to Flaggs camp, the girl slept with his head man but got caught and kills herself, and the handi-capped guy gathered some information, but never got to convey it. Yes, he did show up at the right time to save Stew, so I guess he had a valid story point to contribute, but the others all died in vain.
And speaking of dying in vain, what good reason, story wise, were the four town leaders sent out to Las Vegas? Stew gets hurt and stays behind, so much for him. The old man is murdered in his jail cell, no story contribution there. The other two are strung up and about to be killed when "the hand of God" grabs hold of a nuclear weapon and blows them all to bits.
I could see if their being there somehow lead to the destruction of Flagg, but they didn't. There were just there, dying in vain.
So am I missing something? Why were they sent out in the first place? What were they suppose to do? It just seemed a waste.
The book is better. It's a fave of mine, read it.
Glen Bateman's line from the book about the culture of covering up things answers your question.
One of the best parts of the whole book (and the book was fantastic):
"Show me a man or woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call "society." Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare."
I really enjoyed the mini series. While it's not without its flaws, it makes up for it with a strong cast (although I had trouble seeing Rob Lowe as Nick) and a fairly faithful adaption of the book.
Just watched this mini series and I have a question or two. What good di sending out the spies do? The Judge died before he ever got to Flaggs camp, the girl slept with his head man but got caught and kills herself, and the handi-capped guy gathered some information, but never got to convey it. Yes, he did show up at the right time to save Stew, so I guess he had a valid story point to contribute, but the others all died in vain.
And speaking of dying in vain, what good reason, story wise, were the four town leaders sent out to Las Vegas? Stew gets hurt and stays behind, so much for him. The old man is murdered in his jail cell, no story contribution there. The other two are strung up and about to be killed when "the hand of God" grabs hold of a nuclear weapon and blows them all to bits.
I could see if their being there somehow lead to the destruction of Flagg, but they didn't. There were just there, dying in vain.
So am I missing something? Why were they sent out in the first place? What were they suppose to do? It just seemed a waste.
I always thought the spies also served as decoys to draw Flaggs attention from boulder and focus it on the spies. The fact that they died in Vegas was better than Flagg going to boulder and nuking it.
To be fair, that's not exactly the government. It's a group within the military, acting without authorization from the President or Congress.
Well, at that point, it wasn't about keeping the secret of the superflu's origin. It wasn't about loyalty to the United States. It was about power -- about trying to feel in control of an out-of-control situation, and removing someone who made them feel less in control. It's about power -- it's always about power.
I suppose the mainstream government didn't consciously fund or authorized Project Blue, because the premise of a almost 100% effective and nigh on 100% universal 'kill everything' weapon would make little military sense even in comparison to strategic nukes. A self-obsessed Black Project gone utterly mad (the clearly psychopathic US Army general who instigated Project Blue boasted about his project remaining completely top secret, while he sent Captain Trips to neutralize other countries).
Wow, would the US Military really go psycho and mow down hundreds of thousands of innocent people in a situation like that? Mowing down non-Christian brown people, 'fine', but 'fellow' Americans? Most soldiers would buckle and lethally turn on their more corrupted/crazy officers (that happened in the book).
To a certain extent, one can imagine that these 'elite' soldiers are both culled from other units and brainwashed further into 'surround and firefirefirefirefirefirefirefirefirefirefire.'
Its the explanation I use for the Marvel mutant books and X-Files, wherein every soldier ignores every law there ever was.
Its the explanation I use for the Marvel mutant books and X-Files, wherein every soldier ignores every law there ever was.
