Watching 'The Stand' on Netflix.

[Stonepounder]

OK, have I completely lost my mind, or has 'The Stand' been butchered almost beyond recognition? I remember all kinds of scenes from watching 'The Stand' years ago that don't appear in the netflix version. For example I remember a scene early on, before the full effects of Capt Tripps have been felt, where Frannie and her dad are talking and she tells him that she's pregnant. That scene is totally missing from the version I am watching and we are left with the vague impression that she might be pregnant by Harold. I remember the Holland Tunnel scene as being much longer. When Flagg decides it is time to get rid of Harold by sending him and his motorcycle over the side of a mountain road that Nadine tosses him a pistol before riding off on her pink scooter. And so on.

Did I see this in an alternate reality, or has the DVD/Netflix version been drastically cut, removing much of the nuance and leaving the story almost unintelligible?

[fizzgig]

1. i didn't know it was up

i'll check it out and get back to you.

[Pharaoh]

2. Nothing beats the book

But if Lord of the Rings can be done as well as it was I would wish someone could do justice to The Stand.

[Stonepounder]

3. Oh, I agree. Stephen King just doesn't translate all that well to the small screen.

But the version of The Stand that I remember - the one from the alternate universe - was actually pretty well done, IMHO. I also saw an adaptation of Salem's Lot many years ago that I thought was pretty good. There are a number of King's books that a would NOT want to see on the screen, and I haven't seen Carrie, Cujo, or The Shining.

[Pharaoh]

5. The thing about King

that can not be transferred to film is that his story's involve a lot of the internal thoughts of the characters. It's way more than just the dialog, which is what makes him so good!

[Stonepounder]

6. Precisely.

Now, get Peter Jackson working on The Dark Tower. Can you imagine?

[Pharaoh]

7. That would even be harder than LOTR

I think. But I would love to see Peter Jackson and/or James Cameron do the Gunslinger Dark Tower series, After the Stand it was his best work..........

[Glorfindel]

8. Alas, now that Ruby Dee has passed, Mother Abigail Fremantle has, too....

no one will ever play that part as well.

[Agschmid]

4. Weird that they would edit it?

[2banon]

9. maybe you're misremembering? crossing over from memory of the book to current viewing of film?

don't know myself. I wonder if wikipedia might shed light on your question? Might be footnoted, possibly.

[Stonepounder]

10. I'm positive there was a scene in the mini-series where Frannie tells her father she is pregnant.

In the version I watched on Netflix, the conversation omitted that, just that she and her boyfriend had split up. The scene where Harold goes off the road and ends up killing himself - the gun was in his pack, that one I did misremember.

[2banon]

11. yeah.. odd isn't it?

did you wikipedia the film yet? wonder if they mention the edits.

[Stonepounder]

12. Wikpedia doesn't mention any edits, but ...

interesting bit of trivia:

Originally, parts of the miniseries were to be filmed on location in Boulder, Colorado. After the passage of Colorado Amendment 2, which nullified local gay rights laws, the production was moved to Utah in protest.

It appears that have been several releases - on DVD, Laser-Disc, DVD. The current rights have reverted to Paramount, which has not released it on DVD yet.

I think I have a bootleg copy floating around somewhere. I'll have to try and find it and see if I'm right, or whether senility is setting in.

[2banon]

13. interesting.. seems like edit cuts might have been made in the transferring, possibly.

could have been deliberate censorship or just plain engineering snafu, well good luck on that research project!

[They_Live]

14. I can not remember

if that dialogue/scene was there or not without watching it again. I almost remember it being there, or at least a nod that her father knew about her pregnancy. Although I haven't watched the streaming version on Netflix, I have seen this several times and I actually own the Laserdisc and the first DVD release. I noticed some different running times over at "not always correct" imdb - 366m, 359m and 345m (which is possibly a European PAL speed up). Are you thinking of scenes that you read about in the book?