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ozza posted:Here's an oral history of the miniseries that I found more interesting than the miniseries itself: https://www.yahoo.com/tv/back-to-derry-an-oral-history-of-stephen-kings-153351801.html This is great, thanks.
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Apr 13, 2017 15:58
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ozza posted:I really enjoyed the climax of the book too. Before reading I'd heard that it was underwhelming, but I thought that the rolling destruction of the town combined with the cosmic weirdness of the Losers' confrontation(s) with It was an excellent way to finish the story. Another part I enjoyed that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the time travelling vision of It's arrival on Earth, millions of years ago. It was just the right amount of origin story - a lesser story would have had something vaguer or more specific, but I think King pitched it just right. Agreed on the smoke hole scene - it's been over a decade since I read the book but that part still sticks with me, as brief as it is. It's a great "oh poo poo" moment when they realize just how ancient and inimical It is to everything on earth, and King sells the panic in the description of the scene perfectly. ProperCoochie posted:One reason why Stephen King films always seem crummy is because King spends so much time in character's heads. Too bad when they finally got around to literally doing that (Jonesy and Mr. Grey in Dreamcatcher), it was still a crummy film.
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May 9, 2017 03:55
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M_Sinistrari posted:I would say out of the King miniseries, The Stand's the one that really suffers hard from the limitations of TV. Granted they all do to varying degrees, but something like The Stand really needed the modern cable format to shine (no pun intended). Instead, it got crunched down into four parts with commercial breaks and the content limits from network TV. For back in '94 it was something. I still remember feeling the excitement chills when the camera pans through the complex to Don't Fear the Reaper when it first aired, but watching it a decade plus later, the limits they had are glaring. I think there's a DVD version of The Stand that includes commentary by Mick Garris and King, and it's actually pretty interesting - that's exactly what they talk about, how ABC wanted them to make THE STAND, 99 percent of civilization dying and left to rot, but, uh, we're on network TV, can you not have so many dead bodies in it please? Like you said, the opening credits tour through the Project Blue Facility is limited - Garris said they fought the network on, you know, showing the dead bodies of everyone there. I think The Stand is still my favorite of King's ABC miniseries/movies. There's poo poo they totally nail (that opening with Don't Fear the Reaper, Sinise as Stu, Walston as Glen, Stu's escape from the CDC, Glen facing down Flagg at the end, etc.) and stuff that's seriously meh (anything with Nadine; they needed to do the whole physical transformation with Harold that they do in the book to show how he develops and welp, let's just do Parker Lewis; the literal hand of God at the end; underutilizing Miguel Ferrer, Matt Frewer and others) but overall it does a decent job of getting the feel of the book across even with the content and budget limitations. I'll be honest, I don't get the dislike for Jamey Sheridan as Flagg, I thought he was fine. Flagg is cheesy as hell in the book 90 percent of the time when he's not doing dark magic poo poo, and I thought Sheridan did that stuff well. What screws him is them insisting on "let's give him CGI devil face" anytime he got mad and it looks bad, I think it's clear Sheridan was perfectly capable of doing the abrupt mood switches without that.
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Aug 17, 2017 14:55
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