I watched the first The Stand while at home on my birthday. My wife had picked up my favorite meal. I finished dinner and sat down to watch as the world broke out in fever and flu symptoms. As I watched, I found myself feeling cold. The meal I finished was having its second round of filling my senses. Before the episode ended, I was in the full throes of a very bad intestinal flu. It was like I was in the movie, so it became so much more real. I agree though, King used what National Lampoon once called the "then everyone got run over by a truck" ending.
Have you seen the Marvel comic adaptation of The Stand? It's really fascinating to see where they hewed closer to the books and where the influence of the 1994 miniseries was obvious. Also a niche plug for the fact that the artists actually studied Boulder and used local landmarks for reference. It's the kind of thing that can only conceivably matter to someone who lived in Boulder at some point, but I did, years ago, so I appreciated the detail lol.
I'll have to track that down. I've never been to Boulder but I completely understand how much an accurate representation of a story's setting can help ground it. I first read the Emberverse books while living in Western Oregon and a few scenes really worked amazingly well knowing the terrain.
To be fair, Trashcan Man is one of those minions who's a asset so long as he's very carefully managed, much like Red Ivan in the original Evil Genius game. In the case of Trash, you give him things to set on fire or blow up, preferably somewhere far away from those things you don't want destroyed. You find him something he can use for target practice and let him have his fun.
I could sense Stephen King’s endings were bad the first time I saw “IT”, and later, reinforced with “The Tommyknockers” and “The Langoliers”. I didn’t realize exactly what the problem was, until my own attempts at writing, followed by reading Stephen King’s “On Writing”, contrasting it against a documentary on “Back to the Future”. King has always written a story from beginning to end, just cranking through the story’s plot in a linear progression, without the ending figured out. In comparison, Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis used a 3x5 card approach, defining the ending of BTTF first, and working backwards, so nothing overshadows the climax.
King's approach has its strengths, particularly from the character side. His characters can be very well developed in part through that sort of aimless style where they do things that fit the character rather than serving the plot. But yeah, it's hard not be anticlimactic with that approach.
Depends, i absolutely love the end of the running man, the shining and the mist. Maybe he's just not good at 'happy endings' because he's naturally a pessimist
King is less of a pessimist and more a realist in his view. While the good guy a go through he'll and back and some die normal they win. Now the stuff he has written under Richard Bachman is cynical and often bleak. Books like the running man, the long walk and the regulators are brutal. So are his short stories.
Thanks for covering this one. I liked the 1994 version a great deal, recorded it on VHS, and watched it several times back when I still had the ability to watch VHS tapes. I didn't watch the 20220-21 version because we were all living through The Stand Lite and what could fiction do against that? I like what you said about the power of choice, of all the characters having to choose where, when, and to whom, as they took their stand. People have always made conscious choices to serve good or evil, to serve wise rulers or greedy tyrants. It made me always a little surprised when Flagg's minions were so shocked when he turned out to be a double-dealer, but then I had been dragged to Sunday School and church services for years, so I knew that the Devil always gets his due. As for the end, yes it seems a little forced, but I think King really hadn't thought of a way for Flagg to be defeated, and he needed an actual victory to go along with the moral victory of the chosen ones. Crunch time was there, so he bit the bullet, made an ending, and sent it to editing. Hey, it works for me, as a Christian anyways. The government thought they had the power, the Council thought they had the power, Flagg thought he had the power, but in the end the real Power intervened.
I would like to note in the complete uncut edition there is a before purchase note by King explaining that the book isn't new and the reasons why he wanted to publish this version of the stand. At the vary end of this note he writes "Finally I write for only two reasons: to please myself and to please others. In returning to this long tale of dark Christianity, I hope I have done both." I think there is a real religious aspect to the book. King while he far from loves religious fanatic does clearly a have some level of faith. Even in his grand dark tower universe which The Stand is part of there is an unnamed power behind even the space turtle that is a major good guy in the dark tower world.
Intellectuals don't think elitist-pluralism is tyrannical. They only recognize middle-class populist politics that way, hyperbolically calling milder forms of nationalism/conservatism ”fascism" without much differentiation.
Anti-intellectualism is part of fascism btw. The people who profit from keeping you hating the people trying to help you like it. "Let's make the rich richer" isn't popular, but racism can be popular, so the rich fund fascism to stay safe from people like you, by making you hate easy targets instead of the people actually hurting you.
I love the 94 mini series.....its the best 6 hours you can spend watching....its iconic with iconic actors playing the parts......thanks for your upload.....love your channel......
1. Ray Walston's best dramatic role 2. When originally written, and perhaps during the revision, King was an active alcoholic, so might help explain his crap endings. I think that has been established as his firm writing path, even after he got sober.
That, and King doesn't outline his stories. He's often talked about not wanting character development to be forced into plot constraints, which I get, but it makes for kinda trash endings if you don't know where the story you're writing is going.
First vid of yours i've seen. I love this take, even the parts I disagree with. Very well thought out, very well directed and written. The script and editing are all perfect. Great stuff man. Subscribed.
I’m a new sub. Your movie list is my movie list: Your reveiws and comparisons mirror mine, yet lend words to the subconscious aspects i take away as well & don’t access near as easily. Thank you for providing zero-fluff, timely, thought-provoking (and much needed) content! Have heard of, or watched, the decade-old series “Travellers”? It may, possibly, be worth your time. As well as the 9/11 CBS series “Jericho”? That one is a personal favYou have a great spectrum of quality & relevance! Again thank you, and I plan to binge watch what you have!
It begins with the beautiful thumbnails. Then your fascinating voice, the interesting location choices, media education and at the resolution I am learnt, turnt with my illusions burnt
Ah, but 'tis well known He moves in Mysterious Ways! And the Devil wasn't killed. He teleported from Vegas just before the blast - in both the book, and the 1990s series. You see his clothing collapse as he vanishes, just as King described. Haven't seen the 2020 version yet.
So many great performances in the original but Jamey Sheridan really popped! Likewise Matt Frewer, Laura San Giacomo, Bill Faggerbakke, Ray Walston, Ruby Dee, Rob Lowe....
I've been reading the Dark Tower graphic novels lately. Based on this video, I'm surprised that Randall Flagg even has the capacity to show weakness or cowardice. He's such a great, connivingly unstoppable villain in DT.
I've only read parts of the Dark Tower books, but I kind of want to go back for a specific comparison of DT Flagg with v1.0 late '70s Flagg from the Stand.
@@Ghoulonoid there is a good reason for this, and that is they were supposed to be, but eventually got retconned into being R.F probably one of my least favorite changes to King's universe
It always surprises me how we imagine the end of civilization, he seems more like the story of Noah than actual points in history where urban civilization regressed. We have that fantasy that a small bunch will band together to rebuild from the ashes of the previous civilization. When in fact, and from what we can infer from the archeological record, most highly specialized skills disappear very quickly. There's a regression of sophistication and complexity in art, technology and trades. Supply chains shorten to the resources that can be locally gathered, and societies either revert to their preferred social structures or are frozen with the one that managed to navigate the collapse. People don't go great distances from the old urban center, they spread out nearby where they can grow something to eat. And most die, of starvation or disease.
First read the stand at age 14 (1982). Even then it freaked me out, my high school played at (& against) Dugway High (where if it happened things would start). Last time I re-read the book (2017?) Right after I finished it my volunteer ambulance training was pandemic protocols. The Stand is the only King novel I'll read as I've realized he HATES humanity. Laughing (ridicule) is the best way to face those in power. I'd lo😂ve to see you talk about Stirling's emberverse in the future.
The stand off scene, between Glen and Flagg, (circa 08:20) reminds me of the scenes in the "Birdman of Alcatraz" with Burt Lancaster and Karl Malden. There too, the lack of respect for the (illegitimate) power, is what drives the dynamic.
If you really like the Stand and want the best visual representation of it. While not a show, imo it is the best. The graphic novel follows the story almost to a T and represents the characters perfectly.
Are you related to Matt Frewer? I knew your voice and delivery reminded me of someone, but I couldn't figure out who. Seeing Frewer in the 1994 Stand, it finally hit me!
@@feralhistorian I recently discovered your channel and have been binge watching. I was thinking either Frewer or Dwight Schultz (Murdock from the A-Team TV series). Love your work, no matter which celebrities you are or aren't related to.
I recall a line from the end of the book when one of the characters decided to leave town because the 'sheriff' was campaigning to arm the department because of a bar brawl
I want to quickly note that while the new mini series suck in many ways the last episode which is written by King is amazing. You can skip the rest and just watch that episode really it is so good and full of tension that the rest of the series just doesn't have.
The ending of the miniseries with the "hand of god" was just so B-film stupid that it's the only part I ever remembered. I love the way you explained how it must have been written into the play.
I read the unabridged version of the book in middle school not knowing the miniseries was in production, it came out that summer after I finished the book (the book was better).
I recently watched a documentary about Steven King movies and shows. The show-runner for the most recent remake of The Stand said Randall Flagg is Donald Trump. Rolled my eyes so hard.
@@frankg2790 It was a documentary about all the movies and TV shows, and everybody interviewed was a show runner or a director for his movies. It was on AMC+. It was really good, but when I heard that I was like, geez, that’s so dumb. I only watched it cause you can get a free 7 day trial. I wanted to see what they had on it lol. The director of Shawshank Redemption said that Tom Cruise wanted to be the main star of it and wanted Rob Reiner to direct it. He said that he really wanted to make the movie since it meant something to him so he passed on the offer.
The President *koff* in the earlier movements of The Stand was a brilliant George HW Bush however. Perfect stand-in for the military-industrial CIA glowie. If he was in the 1978 version I'm impressed with King's prescience. (Or maybe he was predicting that Bush/Carter race which didn't happen because Ronnie pushed in front.) An obvious ox was gored but, heck with it, that ox deserves it.
I've always thought that the Trash Can Man should have figured out how to arm the nuke and set it off in Vegas to see the "big fire" and maybe the sacrifices and Flagg see the hand of God in it but no one else does.
While I do largely agree with you concerning the ending and all the other times choices played a part it's actually right up gods alley to let someone give people the choice in this case mother Abigail, and then once all the sides are picked, and everyone is in their place he zaps the opposition with all his might using the "you made your bed now lay in it" method just like in the story of job, the flood, etc where people are given choices and time to pick their team before he quite literally blows the opponents to hell, but I do agree it'd be better if left with the man in black being abandoned instead especially since we know he's not really dead least not till the movie sequel to the dark tower books kill him lmao
I have a weird relationship with stephen king. I dont like the man or his books, but i love a great deal of shows and movies based on his books. Its like Hollywood collectively went I want to make that, but good.
Love the novel. I think Larry is my favorite character, but Harold is great too, one of King’s best non-paranormal villains-Big Jim Renny in Under the Dome is his best, imo. I’ll have to try the 90s adaptation. I tried to watch the 2021 adaptation, but it just pissed me off.
I do wonder if the original '78 book version was influenced by the end of the Vietnam war as well as the Watergate scandal, in terms of its portrayal of the System or loss of faith in leaders? As someone who works in IT, i also wondered about the idea that all the 'techies' would go to Flagg. IIRC, in the book they mention how Boulder finally got a computer working (Apple IIe?), so maybe one of us did know better. On a different note, i did wonder why the base working on the Super Flu didn't have a nuclear device ala 'The Andromeda Strain'? Then again, it would've ended the story real quick. =P
I like The Stand, although Robert McCammon's Swan Song is more my speed as apocalyptic epics go. Very similar stories, but Swan Song being post-nuclear means we get giant mutant creatures, and Swan Song features a masked pro wrestler among its heroes and the dog is a heroic pit bull instead of sweet but kind of boring golden retriever. McCammon tends to be a better plotter than King, too.
It also shows in the opening act why all power structures are doomed to fail, their fatal weakness being that they are made up of autonomous individuals. These individuals have their own needs and wants and there eventually comes a point when the hierarchy's goals and those of its members no longer align, and when that becomes the case the members invariably act in their own interest. It's why authorities have always placed such an emphasis on things like Duty, Honor, and Loyalty to try and get people to push aside their own interests just that little bit more so their leaders and institutions can have a smidge more control.
I rather like this story, as well as many of the earlier works of Steven King. I also kind of like the '94 miniseries as well, and even though I had read the book before I saw it (I was still a child at the time, incidentally), I can't help but imagine the appearance and sound of the actors who played the parts in the miniseries, though for some they weren't there, or for Harold that just doesn't work until after he lost weight.
If you want to know what would happen to the UK in one of these apocalypse scenarios, I suspect that we would would find viable heir to the throne, keep calm and carry on!
Considering how prolific a writer King was back in the 70's & 80s, even having to use a pen name for some books so as not to overwhelm fans with so many books per year from a single author, it's doubtful Kings publicist was raging at him to get another book out.
The more likely scenario is that King put all that pressure on himself, and then decided eff it, it has to be the hand of God because I made this thing about good versus evil, and painted myself into a corner.
I've read The Stand several time, and my big problem with the story was always "Why make a Super-Flu?". Not only why make it, but why make something that's 99% communicable, 99% lethal, for which you have no vaccine, and which will absolutely mutate, because that's what viruses do. I shared this with a friend of mine who'd been a Military Nurse, and she said, "Let me tell you about this exercise I was on..." JAMES
The 90's CBS mini series holds up pretty well (Found and rewatched it on YT). The Amazon remake was a cartoonish pile of steaming crap. The book was/is awesome.
23:11 I always felt that Stu overreacted here. Guy just wanted to have someone to eat chicken with. A simple _no_ _thank_ _you_ would have been sufficient.
The first apocalypse level "flu kills 99% of the world" novel I recall reading was Earth Abide (George R. Steward 1949). King seems to have copied someone else's homework.
It would be nice to have your take on Clifford Simak's works. I've always found them both wholesome, kind, but sometimes acutely depressing as his endings are sometimes pretty bleak for humanity as we know it
@@feralhistorian I hope you find him worth a video once you're done. When I was a child, I literally inhaled his books, and reread them now from time to time. There's heavy peacenik vibes, which is understandable given the time period, and quite some disappointment in humanity as is. His robots (to me) are ones of the most memorable in sci-fi (just like Isaac Asimov's, Ian M. Banks', and Neal Asher's are), and his aliens are quite peculiar. I would like to thank you for your work; while your viewership is strangely low, you should know you are very much appreciated for both the content and the visuals.
Zombies, spaceships and wastelands tend to appeal to people who hate nearly/more than half of the people around them. I'm quite sure my favorite frequenter of KFC said that once. Ending should have been easy, but King wasn't much of a math and science guy. You simply add a failsafe to the warhead. Military bureaucracy and corruption leads to a low level technician not replacing the capacitors in the failsafe, since he's been selling them. So, the fizzle detonation which should have been the failsafe takes longer to initiate and doesn't happen until Trash gets the warhead to Vegas. Maybe make the warhead some experimental adjustable yield mini-nuke or something to give you more flexibility....and since Trash was certainly going to be getting the nuke from Area 51. The remake will be remembered less fondly? Uhhhhh....what remake?
My problem with the modern interpretation and the very use of "power structures" bothers me as someone who keeps his focus on pre-industrial history. The obsession with power structures is bound to the industrial wars and atrocities that we saw during the 19th and 20th centuries. And it always finds a way to link itself to Hitler. But the reality is that there is always going to be... power. Positions of power and people in power. This is inevitable. Even if we were to somehow achieve fantasy Anarchy, to wipe the whole thing clean and start fresh and all were to be equal in material possessions, some dude would inevitably gather a bunch of other dudes, and there we go again. Everything that has always been, has been with the tip of a blade or barrel of a gun. A Constitution guaranteeing individual rights and liberties is a worthless piece of paper if it does not have the guns to be enforced. A Court to provide good and proper justice can only function if it is backed up by force. ------------------------ If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. - James Madison. ------------------------- And also, the quote "power corrupts" is horrid and nonsensical. And so I am glad that you use the more appropriate here, which is that positions of power attracts the corrupt. There have been a great many good men through history who have wielded extraordinary power. And yet they stayed good and they did good with that power. The question is, who do you put in charge? And how do you choose them? And for this, both hereditary succession and universal democracy has proven itself entirely worthless. And has only given us monsters of various types and degrees. Yet, the question of Totalitarianism in all its forms. Whether it is a central strongman, or a populist demagogue, or an overpowering and all-consuming bureaucratic structure using universal suffrage as a tool for their own legitimacy and mass consumerism to dull the masses. Now those are certainly things that should be despised and confronted wherever it comes to be. But that is not a question of power. This is the question of complete and total power. Of reducing the individual down to nothing but an insect. ------------------- “In the hive and the ant-hill we see fully realised the two things that some of us most dread for our own species - the dominance of the female and the dominance of the collective.” - C.S. Lewis.
I think the '94 one is better. It's certainly got its flaws, but if your only experience of The Stand is that mini-series you'd have a good sense of what it's about, who the characters are, and the major story beats even if some big details were changed. The remake is oddly less memorable. Most of what I remembered about that one were things that they changed for the worse.
Would love to see your take on Arcane. Posted your Mad Max video on Bluesky and it generated a fair bit of conversation. As you likely know, the platform leans pretty liberal, and folks were suspicious of what seem to be your libertarian leanings. Even so, several people were familiar with your work, and respect it. I am solidly Keynsian, and suspect we would disagree on many things. Nonetheless, I feel like they could be mutually informative disagreements, politely engaged.
In my experience the best conversations are with people that don't agree on things. Debating in good faith of course. "Why do you think that?" is so much more interesting than "you're wrong."
Meh. The Stand was the first book by Stephen King I read that left me thinking WHAT THE FUCK?!! It's the book version of the tv series "Lost" before the tv series "Lost". Extremely compelling and accelerating at a rapid pace until the, let's be real, stupid fucking ending. Later I read "Pet Cemetery", recognized King's disgusting formula and never read anything else by him again. I'd be wary of taking social criticism from Stephen King. A counter culture desire to tear down everything does not a functioning society make.
I watched the first The Stand while at home on my birthday. My wife had picked up my favorite meal. I finished dinner and sat down to watch as the world broke out in fever and flu symptoms. As I watched, I found myself feeling cold. The meal I finished was having its second round of filling my senses. Before the episode ended, I was in the full throes of a very bad intestinal flu. It was like I was in the movie, so it became so much more real. I agree though, King used what National Lampoon once called the "then everyone got run over by a truck" ending.
"Rocks fall; everyone -" -- when the DM gets sick of his players
Holy cap, man. I just found your channel and your content is fantastic. I don't know how you don't have more subs!
the sprinkle of covid denialism, and other allusions to conservative propaganda doesn't help.
Let it start with us.
Have you seen the Marvel comic adaptation of The Stand? It's really fascinating to see where they hewed closer to the books and where the influence of the 1994 miniseries was obvious.
Also a niche plug for the fact that the artists actually studied Boulder and used local landmarks for reference. It's the kind of thing that can only conceivably matter to someone who lived in Boulder at some point, but I did, years ago, so I appreciated the detail lol.
I'll have to track that down. I've never been to Boulder but I completely understand how much an accurate representation of a story's setting can help ground it. I first read the Emberverse books while living in Western Oregon and a few scenes really worked amazingly well knowing the terrain.
You are the most engaging critic on RUclips I've come across. Thanks for the effort and expertise. Life enhancing
M.O.O.N.
That spells good video.
I've been saying this for years! King can't do endings! You got my sub.
I am become algorithm, sustainer of channels
More like destroyer of channels😂
I AM the engagement!
I am viewer, the main power source of the algorithm...without me you are nothing.
Comment for the comment god, words for the algo throne!
😂
Its always great to find someone you agree with, but who sees things in a new and interesting way. Subbed.
Finally! A proper critique channel with a unique perspective! Instant subb my man.
To be fair, Trashcan Man is one of those minions who's a asset so long as he's very carefully managed, much like Red Ivan in the original Evil Genius game. In the case of Trash, you give him things to set on fire or blow up, preferably somewhere far away from those things you don't want destroyed. You find him something he can use for target practice and let him have his fun.
I've always wondered what happened in the rest of the world. I love your idea of the kid letting panda's out of the zoo.
I could sense Stephen King’s endings were bad the first time I saw “IT”, and later, reinforced with “The Tommyknockers” and “The Langoliers”.
I didn’t realize exactly what the problem was, until my own attempts at writing, followed by reading Stephen King’s “On Writing”, contrasting it against a documentary on “Back to the Future”.
King has always written a story from beginning to end, just cranking through the story’s plot in a linear progression, without the ending figured out.
In comparison, Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis used a 3x5 card approach, defining the ending of BTTF first, and working backwards, so nothing overshadows the climax.
King's approach has its strengths, particularly from the character side. His characters can be very well developed in part through that sort of aimless style where they do things that fit the character rather than serving the plot.
But yeah, it's hard not be anticlimactic with that approach.
Depends, i absolutely love the end of the running man, the shining and the mist. Maybe he's just not good at 'happy endings' because he's naturally a pessimist
Carrie has a tidy ending. The story is told through someone investigating it years later because everyone died horrifically lol
King is less of a pessimist and more a realist in his view. While the good guy a go through he'll and back and some die normal they win. Now the stuff he has written under Richard Bachman is cynical and often bleak. Books like the running man, the long walk and the regulators are brutal. So are his short stories.
@@stephennootens916 I like his short stories in The Night Shift. Kinda goofy, but entertaining. That was when he was young, I think.
I am loving this channel and Feral Historian's analysis. So refreshing!
Thanks for covering this one. I liked the 1994 version a great deal, recorded it on VHS, and watched it several times back when I still had the ability to watch VHS tapes. I didn't watch the 20220-21 version because we were all living through The Stand Lite and what could fiction do against that? I like what you said about the power of choice, of all the characters having to choose where, when, and to whom, as they took their stand. People have always made conscious choices to serve good or evil, to serve wise rulers or greedy tyrants. It made me always a little surprised when Flagg's minions were so shocked when he turned out to be a double-dealer, but then I had been dragged to Sunday School and church services for years, so I knew that the Devil always gets his due. As for the end, yes it seems a little forced, but I think King really hadn't thought of a way for Flagg to be defeated, and he needed an actual victory to go along with the moral victory of the chosen ones. Crunch time was there, so he bit the bullet, made an ending, and sent it to editing. Hey, it works for me, as a Christian anyways. The government thought they had the power, the Council thought they had the power, Flagg thought he had the power, but in the end the real Power intervened.
I would like to note in the complete uncut edition there is a before purchase note by King explaining that the book isn't new and the reasons why he wanted to publish this version of the stand. At the vary end of this note he writes "Finally I write for only two reasons: to please myself and to please others. In returning to this long tale of dark Christianity, I hope I have done both." I think there is a real religious aspect to the book. King while he far from loves religious fanatic does clearly a have some level of faith. Even in his grand dark tower universe which The Stand is part of there is an unnamed power behind even the space turtle that is a major good guy in the dark tower world.
Intellectuals don't think elitist-pluralism is tyrannical. They only recognize middle-class populist politics that way, hyperbolically calling milder forms of nationalism/conservatism ”fascism" without much differentiation.
Anti-intellectualism is part of fascism btw. The people who profit from keeping you hating the people trying to help you like it.
"Let's make the rich richer" isn't popular, but racism can be popular, so the rich fund fascism to stay safe from people like you, by making you hate easy targets instead of the people actually hurting you.
Godless heathens wouldn't know fascism if it hit them on the ass.
Thank you.
Indeed. 😎
Ho ho.
Not intellectuals at all; just have enough over the brim self-regard to have disgust.
I love the 94 mini series.....its the best 6 hours you can spend watching....its iconic with iconic actors playing the parts......thanks for your upload.....love your channel......
When you were laying out the vision of kings desk you left out the mountain of cocaine. Which is how we got the abomination at the end of IT.
This...👆
1. Ray Walston's best dramatic role
2. When originally written, and perhaps during the revision, King was an active alcoholic, so might help explain his crap endings. I think that has been established as his firm writing path, even after he got sober.
That, and King doesn't outline his stories. He's often talked about not wanting character development to be forced into plot constraints, which I get, but it makes for kinda trash endings if you don't know where the story you're writing is going.
He hates humanity so a positive ending is out of the question but he's in denial so he can't write a decent dark ending either.
@@stolman2197 "Pet Sematary" ended well. Same with "Carrie". Very early novels admittedly.
First vid of yours i've seen. I love this take, even the parts I disagree with. Very well thought out, very well directed and written. The script and editing are all perfect. Great stuff man. Subscribed.
Loving the channel hopefully you get the views and subscribers your level of quality deserves.
There's a tortoise-like quality to the channel. Slow but steady.
I’m a new sub. Your movie list is my movie list: Your reveiws and comparisons mirror mine, yet lend words to the subconscious aspects i take away as well & don’t access near as easily. Thank you for providing zero-fluff, timely, thought-provoking (and much needed) content!
Have heard of, or watched, the decade-old series “Travellers”? It may, possibly, be worth your time. As well as the 9/11 CBS series “Jericho”? That one is a personal favYou have a great spectrum of quality & relevance! Again thank you, and I plan to binge watch what you have!
It begins with the beautiful thumbnails. Then your fascinating voice, the interesting location choices, media education and at the resolution I am learnt, turnt with my illusions burnt
Star Trek 5: “Why would god need a starship?”
The Stand: god uses an atomic bomb to kill the devil?
But He didn't kill the devil. He got away.
Flagg isn't the Devil he is more so a high ranking officer. That distinction belongs to the Crimison King.
Ah, but 'tis well known He moves in Mysterious Ways! And the Devil wasn't killed. He teleported from Vegas just before the blast - in both the book, and the 1990s series. You see his clothing collapse as he vanishes, just as King described. Haven't seen the 2020 version yet.
So many great performances in the original but Jamey Sheridan really popped! Likewise Matt Frewer, Laura San Giacomo, Bill Faggerbakke, Ray Walston, Ruby Dee, Rob Lowe....
I've been reading the Dark Tower graphic novels lately. Based on this video, I'm surprised that Randall Flagg even has the capacity to show weakness or cowardice. He's such a great, connivingly unstoppable villain in DT.
I've only read parts of the Dark Tower books, but I kind of want to go back for a specific comparison of DT Flagg with v1.0 late '70s Flagg from the Stand.
Would probably have to do that in stages. Early book Flagg and later books Flagg might as well be different characters.
@@Ghoulonoid there is a good reason for this, and that is they were supposed to be, but eventually got retconned into being R.F
probably one of my least favorite changes to King's universe
Finish the series. It’s great. No spoilers
@@feralhistorian...ooh! Dark Tower! 😎
It always surprises me how we imagine the end of civilization, he seems more like the story of Noah than actual points in history where urban civilization regressed. We have that fantasy that a small bunch will band together to rebuild from the ashes of the previous civilization.
When in fact, and from what we can infer from the archeological record, most highly specialized skills disappear very quickly. There's a regression of sophistication and complexity in art, technology and trades. Supply chains shorten to the resources that can be locally gathered, and societies either revert to their preferred social structures or are frozen with the one that managed to navigate the collapse. People don't go great distances from the old urban center, they spread out nearby where they can grow something to eat. And most die, of starvation or disease.
Bingo. Survivors with creative talents are not going to live long trying to sell art, or music. They will become farmers and hunters, or die trying.
Good analyses on this channel.
Post-COVID, (post- 9/11, really), I find that a LOT of things wind up spelling 'misanthropy.'
Ain't that the truth.
This has been happening forever. Post WW2 japanese media. Artworks from the plague eras. Every major human malady spawns an era of misanthropic art.
Ain't whislin Dixie
M-O-O-N....
First read the stand at age 14 (1982). Even then it freaked me out, my high school played at (& against) Dugway High (where if it happened things would start). Last time I re-read the book (2017?) Right after I finished it my volunteer ambulance training was pandemic protocols.
The Stand is the only King novel I'll read as I've realized he HATES humanity.
Laughing (ridicule) is the best way to face those in power.
I'd lo😂ve to see you talk about Stirling's emberverse in the future.
I'm working on some Emberverse stuff. It's taking a lot longer to write than it should, but it's on the plate.
I recommended your channel in a scifi fan group on Facebook (related to the "Monster Hunter International " series)
Not a disagreement just ignorance on my part that I hope you can correct, what makes you say that Stephen King is a misanthrope?
Spend ten minutes scrolling through his X feed and it becomes really self evident.
The comments thread touches on this. The man has pretty consistently misanthropic endings to his stories.
The stand off scene, between Glen and Flagg, (circa 08:20) reminds me of the scenes in the "Birdman of Alcatraz" with Burt Lancaster and Karl Malden. There too, the lack of respect for the (illegitimate) power, is what drives the dynamic.
If you really like the Stand and want the best visual representation of it. While not a show, imo it is the best. The graphic novel follows the story almost to a T and represents the characters perfectly.
I remember can man detonating the bomb ; "all for you!!"
Must be at least 20 years since i read the book though. I'll have to read it again some time.
Are you related to Matt Frewer? I knew your voice and delivery reminded me of someone, but I couldn't figure out who. Seeing Frewer in the 1994 Stand, it finally hit me!
No relation, but you're not the first to ask.
@@feralhistorian I recently discovered your channel and have been binge watching. I was thinking either Frewer or Dwight Schultz (Murdock from the A-Team TV series).
Love your work, no matter which celebrities you are or aren't related to.
My favorite book. I got one of the original books from 78 with an almost intact dust cover.
I recall a line from the end of the book when one of the characters decided to leave town because the 'sheriff' was campaigning to arm the department because of a bar brawl
*I wonder how much Colombian magic snow does it take to write a good story like King did?...*
It's like if paul Harrell talked about movies
I want to quickly note that while the new mini series suck in many ways the last episode which is written by King is amazing. You can skip the rest and just watch that episode really it is so good and full of tension that the rest of the series just doesn't have.
I like that last episode better as a stand-alone piece than as an addendum to the rest of it.
The Stand needs to be a 6 season series.
THIS
Hey baby can you dig your man? He’s a righteous man, baby
"sometimes a mangling" really hoping it's a subtle King Mangler reference
The ending of the miniseries with the "hand of god" was just so B-film stupid that it's the only part I ever remembered. I love the way you explained how it must have been written into the play.
I read the unabridged version of the book in middle school not knowing the miniseries was in production, it came out that summer after I finished the book (the book was better).
Oh man do I have OPINIONS on King and The Stand, but I don't want to keep you guys here all day.
I recently watched a documentary about Steven King movies and shows. The show-runner for the most recent remake of The Stand said Randall Flagg is Donald Trump. Rolled my eyes so hard.
Leftwing/liberalism is not only sin it is evil.
Steven King would agree. He hates that demonic guy
More proof that the writers of the 2020 Remake were pretentious hacks.
@@frankg2790 It was a documentary about all the movies and TV shows, and everybody interviewed was a show runner or a director for his movies. It was on AMC+. It was really good, but when I heard that I was like, geez, that’s so dumb. I only watched it cause you can get a free 7 day trial. I wanted to see what they had on it lol. The director of Shawshank Redemption said that Tom Cruise wanted to be the main star of it and wanted Rob Reiner to direct it. He said that he really wanted to make the movie since it meant something to him so he passed on the offer.
The President *koff* in the earlier movements of The Stand was a brilliant George HW Bush however. Perfect stand-in for the military-industrial CIA glowie. If he was in the 1978 version I'm impressed with King's prescience. (Or maybe he was predicting that Bush/Carter race which didn't happen because Ronnie pushed in front.)
An obvious ox was gored but, heck with it, that ox deserves it.
I've always thought that the Trash Can Man should have figured out how to arm the nuke and set it off in Vegas to see the "big fire" and maybe the sacrifices and Flagg see the hand of God in it but no one else does.
E4 Mafia strikes again...
Excellent video
Is the hand of God a literal "Deus Ex Machina"? King getting the last laugh/killing joke to the reader?
I guess that kind of depends on how literal you take the 'made in His image' thing.
Love the 94 show.
While I do largely agree with you concerning the ending and all the other times choices played a part it's actually right up gods alley to let someone give people the choice in this case mother Abigail, and then once all the sides are picked, and everyone is in their place he zaps the opposition with all his might using the "you made your bed now lay in it" method just like in the story of job, the flood, etc where people are given choices and time to pick their team before he quite literally blows the opponents to hell, but I do agree it'd be better if left with the man in black being abandoned instead especially since we know he's not really dead least not till the movie sequel to the dark tower books kill him lmao
I have a weird relationship with stephen king. I dont like the man or his books, but i love a great deal of shows and movies based on his books.
Its like Hollywood collectively went I want to make that, but good.
Love the novel. I think Larry is my favorite character, but Harold is great too, one of King’s best non-paranormal villains-Big Jim Renny in Under the Dome is his best, imo. I’ll have to try the 90s adaptation. I tried to watch the 2021 adaptation, but it just pissed me off.
The 94 show is pretty faithful to the novel. I liked it more than I thought I would, probably because of the good cast.
I do wonder if the original '78 book version was influenced by the end of the Vietnam war as well as the Watergate scandal, in terms of its portrayal of the System or loss of faith in leaders?
As someone who works in IT, i also wondered about the idea that all the 'techies' would go to Flagg. IIRC, in the book they mention how Boulder finally got a computer working (Apple IIe?), so maybe one of us did know better.
On a different note, i did wonder why the base working on the Super Flu didn't have a nuclear device ala 'The Andromeda Strain'? Then again, it would've ended the story real quick. =P
I like The Stand, although Robert McCammon's Swan Song is more my speed as apocalyptic epics go. Very similar stories, but Swan Song being post-nuclear means we get giant mutant creatures, and Swan Song features a masked pro wrestler among its heroes and the dog is a heroic pit bull instead of sweet but kind of boring golden retriever. McCammon tends to be a better plotter than King, too.
It also shows in the opening act why all power structures are doomed to fail, their fatal weakness being that they are made up of autonomous individuals. These individuals have their own needs and wants and there eventually comes a point when the hierarchy's goals and those of its members no longer align, and when that becomes the case the members invariably act in their own interest. It's why authorities have always placed such an emphasis on things like Duty, Honor, and Loyalty to try and get people to push aside their own interests just that little bit more so their leaders and institutions can have a smidge more control.
I rather like this story, as well as many of the earlier works of Steven King. I also kind of like the '94 miniseries as well, and even though I had read the book before I saw it (I was still a child at the time, incidentally), I can't help but imagine the appearance and sound of the actors who played the parts in the miniseries, though for some they weren't there, or for Harold that just doesn't work until after he lost weight.
I only enjoy the first half of the book and stop reading once the collapse is complete. He really managed to describe that scenario well.
Good one! i love your last line!
If you want to know what would happen to the UK in one of these apocalypse scenarios, I suspect that we would would find viable heir to the throne, keep calm and carry on!
Grew up on this movie came in a giant box with 4 vhs tapes
I've long intended to read this novel. Maybe someday.
Comparing this to the feudalism video is... very interesting.
Trash can man is a wild card. He’s on no one’s side.
The Stand is all fun and games until you're driving through Nebraska during a pandemic and find Hemingford.
Considering how prolific a writer King was back in the 70's & 80s, even having to use a pen name for some books so as not to overwhelm fans with so many books per year from a single author, it's doubtful Kings publicist was raging at him to get another book out.
The more likely scenario is that King put all that pressure on himself, and then decided eff it, it has to be the hand of God because I made this thing about good versus evil, and painted myself into a corner.
You remind me of Ed Harris who had a minor but as usual well acted role in the original miniseries.
❤ Ed so much
I've read The Stand several time, and my big problem with the story was always "Why make a Super-Flu?". Not only why make it, but why make something that's 99% communicable, 99% lethal, for which you have no vaccine, and which will absolutely mutate, because that's what viruses do. I shared this with a friend of mine who'd been a Military Nurse, and she said, "Let me tell you about this exercise I was on..."
JAMES
The villain wasn't Flagg it was Fauci
@@zimriel Well, I suppose that meant something...
@@Eoraptor1 I was commenting that, in real life, Dr Fauci and others were funding Gain Of Function research in Wuhan.
@@Eoraptor1 I'd explain but RUclips would censor me. Look up "gain" and "function" in conjunction to the name I dropped.
The 90's CBS mini series holds up pretty well (Found and rewatched it on YT). The Amazon remake was a cartoonish pile of steaming crap. The book was/is awesome.
The book "One Second After" is the kind of apocalypse I'm not a fan of, I'd rather zombies than everyone alive with no power
Great video. Comment for algorithm.
very good video
23:11 I always felt that Stu overreacted here. Guy just wanted to have someone to eat chicken with. A simple _no_ _thank_ _you_ would have been sufficient.
I was hoping for a dissection of the extremely nuanced motives and character arch of The Rat Man. 😢
Dude I popped huge for rat man
" ... that spells misanthropy!" has me giggling.
For the algorithm.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻⚡🥃
I liked the stand the mini series. Also the book. I’ve not seen the new series
The first apocalypse level "flu kills 99% of the world" novel I recall reading was Earth Abide (George R. Steward 1949). King seems to have copied someone else's homework.
Earth Abides was great, I've been meaning to re-read that to cover it at some point.
It would be nice to have your take on Clifford Simak's works. I've always found them both wholesome, kind, but sometimes acutely depressing as his endings are sometimes pretty bleak for humanity as we know it
Somehow I've never read any of Simak's work. I'll remedy that this winter.
@@feralhistorian I hope you find him worth a video once you're done. When I was a child, I literally inhaled his books, and reread them now from time to time. There's heavy peacenik vibes, which is understandable given the time period, and quite some disappointment in humanity as is. His robots (to me) are ones of the most memorable in sci-fi (just like Isaac Asimov's, Ian M. Banks', and Neal Asher's are), and his aliens are quite peculiar.
I would like to thank you for your work; while your viewership is strangely low, you should know you are very much appreciated for both the content and the visuals.
That is one old E-4.
Thanks for saving me the torture of ever reading the book. And I mean that. A LITERAL deus ex machina lol
Minus the goofy ending its actually quite a good read imho, especially all the preamble stuff with Captain Tripps taking down society as we know it.
Agreed. I really like it except the weak ending.
Kings strength is character description and dialogue. Not plotting.
And lovingly describing old people's bodily functions. And eroticizing cornfields. Those are truly his strengths.
I fucking love the Emberverse Books. All three of them. Those other 9 books don't count
Comments good video I'm sick of having comments deleted so that's all I'll say
Perhaps a look at LA CONFIDENTIAL. Corruption. Book v Film.
Zombies, spaceships and wastelands tend to appeal to people who hate nearly/more than half of the people around them. I'm quite sure my favorite frequenter of KFC said that once.
Ending should have been easy, but King wasn't much of a math and science guy. You simply add a failsafe to the warhead. Military bureaucracy and corruption leads to a low level technician not replacing the capacitors in the failsafe, since he's been selling them. So, the fizzle detonation which should have been the failsafe takes longer to initiate and doesn't happen until Trash gets the warhead to Vegas. Maybe make the warhead some experimental adjustable yield mini-nuke or something to give you more flexibility....and since Trash was certainly going to be getting the nuke from Area 51.
The remake will be remembered less fondly? Uhhhhh....what remake?
My problem with the modern interpretation and the very use of "power structures" bothers me as someone who keeps his focus on pre-industrial history.
The obsession with power structures is bound to the industrial wars and atrocities that we saw during the 19th and 20th centuries.
And it always finds a way to link itself to Hitler.
But the reality is that there is always going to be... power. Positions of power and people in power.
This is inevitable.
Even if we were to somehow achieve fantasy Anarchy, to wipe the whole thing clean and start fresh and all were to be equal in material possessions, some dude would inevitably gather a bunch of other dudes, and there we go again.
Everything that has always been, has been with the tip of a blade or barrel of a gun.
A Constitution guaranteeing individual rights and liberties is a worthless piece of paper if it does not have the guns to be enforced.
A Court to provide good and proper justice can only function if it is backed up by force.
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If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this:
you must first enable the government to control the governed;
and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
- James Madison.
-------------------------
And also, the quote "power corrupts" is horrid and nonsensical.
And so I am glad that you use the more appropriate here, which is that positions of power attracts the corrupt.
There have been a great many good men through history who have wielded extraordinary power. And yet they stayed good and they did good with that power.
The question is, who do you put in charge? And how do you choose them?
And for this, both hereditary succession and universal democracy has proven itself entirely worthless. And has only given us monsters of various types and degrees.
Yet, the question of Totalitarianism in all its forms. Whether it is a central strongman, or a populist demagogue, or an overpowering and all-consuming bureaucratic structure using universal suffrage as a tool for their own legitimacy and mass consumerism to dull the masses.
Now those are certainly things that should be despised and confronted wherever it comes to be.
But that is not a question of power.
This is the question of complete and total power.
Of reducing the individual down to nothing but an insect.
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“In the hive and the ant-hill we see fully realised the two things that some of us most dread for our own species - the dominance of the female and the dominance of the collective.”
- C.S. Lewis.
So the 1994 > 2021? Seems that way. Found that I watch the 2021 and forgot I watched it
I think the '94 one is better. It's certainly got its flaws, but if your only experience of The Stand is that mini-series you'd have a good sense of what it's about, who the characters are, and the major story beats even if some big details were changed.
The remake is oddly less memorable. Most of what I remembered about that one were things that they changed for the worse.
Would love to see your take on Arcane. Posted your Mad Max video on Bluesky and it generated a fair bit of conversation. As you likely know, the platform leans pretty liberal, and folks were suspicious of what seem to be your libertarian leanings. Even so, several people were familiar with your work, and respect it. I am solidly Keynsian, and suspect we would disagree on many things. Nonetheless, I feel like they could be mutually informative disagreements, politely engaged.
In my experience the best conversations are with people that don't agree on things. Debating in good faith of course. "Why do you think that?" is so much more interesting than "you're wrong."
3:55. Subbed.
20:00 LOL
Why does Flagg ring some bells.
Randall Flag was right!
huh. interesting. you're familiar with video toaster? i'm a lightwave guy from way back.
Who could've guessed! The 2020 version completely missed the point and fumbled a well written story!
I read this book while in bed with a cold. Not the best of ideas.
I thought the 2020 show was a mess, everything seemed to be handled much better in the 1990s version.
Meh. The Stand was the first book by Stephen King I read that left me thinking WHAT THE FUCK?!! It's the book version of the tv series "Lost" before the tv series "Lost". Extremely compelling and accelerating at a rapid pace until the, let's be real, stupid fucking ending. Later I read "Pet Cemetery", recognized King's disgusting formula and never read anything else by him again. I'd be wary of taking social criticism from Stephen King. A counter culture desire to tear down everything does not a functioning society make.
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I really like your content,,,, I hope you make bank on it..,bro
Ok but how does it scale against maiden heaven