I watched Stephen King's The Stand over the last few days. This is probably the fifth time that I've seen it.
My mom asked me if I notice something new each time that I watch it. I'm not sure if that's the case, but my reaction to certain scenes is not always the same.
The first few times that I watched The Stand, I loved Parts I and II, while Parts III and IV struck me as boring and lame. Now, I appreciate Parts III and IV a lot more.
When I first saw the miniseries, what went through my mind was Calvinism. At the time, I was absorbing the Calvinist doctrine of predestination through John MacArthur and Charles Spurgeon, and The Stand evoked that doctrine for me. Basically, the movie is about a plague that wipes out most of North America. God spares a few people, however, and those who survive are not necessarily better than those who die. Fran Goldsmith's father is a good man, yet he dies. Larry Underwood, by contrast, is a near-do-well who owes drug pushers money and only sees his mom when he wants something. Still, he lives. The people God spares are not necessarily better, but they become better because they're saved by God's grace.
Every time that I watch the miniseries, I identify with Harold Lauder. Harold is a nerd who loves the beautiful Fran Goldsmith, but Fran doesn't love him back. When they are the only two people in their town who survive, Harold thinks he stands a chance with her, until she falls for Stu Redman, who's played by Gary Sinise, before he became Lieutenant Dan. (You see a lot of this on The Stand. There's Rob Lowe, before he became Sam Seaborn; Laura San Giacomo, before she became Maya on Just Shoot Me; and Shawnee Smith, before she played on Becker. But there were also people on the miniseries who were big at the time. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a role as a street preacher, for example). Harold tries to project a positive attitude, yet he remains bitter and broods throughout the movie. He gets even angrier when he proposes a committee to get society moving again, only for Mother Abigail to reject him from being on it. At the end of Part III, he gets his revenge on the committee by blowing up its meeting house, killing and wounding many people.
I've never read The Stand from cover to cover, but the wikipedia article's discussion of Harold is rather illuminating: "Harold quickly becomes a respected and well thought of member of the Boulder Community. Often, his ideas are used to better the community. In a moment of clarity, Harold realizes that he truly is accepted and valued in this strange new world, and that he has the freedom to choose a new life for himself as a respected member of society. Unable to escape his past humiliations, however, he rejects his last chance at redemption and surrenders instead to his dreams of vengeance...Soon after this, Nadine Cross approaches him and reveals an in-depth knowledge of Harold’s insecurities, hatreds and fears. She hints at her own...Harold succumbs to Nadine’s seduction. He fulfills Flagg’s wishes and creates a bomb to destroy the Free Zone Committee."
That's interesting. I remember reading in the book that Harold was an outsider, but maybe that wasn't totally the case. Harold had a choice: He could be a productive and valued member of society, or he could remain trapped in his bitterness about the past. Bitterness can strangle us, keep us from enjoying life, and deprive us of a future, if we let it.
I often viewed Part IV as lame, but I've appreciated it more the last few times that I saw it. Part IV is where four of the good guys journey to Las Vegas to challenge Randall Flagg, a demon with his own set of survivors (only they're wicked). Stu breaks his leg on the trip and has to stay behind, and Larry is reluctant to leave him, even though it's God's will. "I'm sick of hearing about God!" Larry exclaims. Stu responds, "We all set out on this journey believing in Mother Abigail's God. If he wants to feed me, he'll send me food. If he wants to give me water, he'll send rain."
I liked this because it wasn't pretentious. He just said that God was the basis of what he did up to that point, so it makes sense to keep on following him. That's the way I am. For me, God makes life sensible and meaningful, so why stop believing now?
Elsewhere in the movie, there were other approaches to theodicy. In one scene on Part III, Fran has a dream in which Mother Abigail tells her that Stu (her boyfriend) will soon be leaving to confront Flagg. Fran is upset because she wants Stu to be there when she's having her baby. "Do you think Flagg will care about your baby if he takes over?" Mother Abigail asks. This is the "God's ways are reasonable and work well for people, so follow him" approach.
At the end of the movie, Fran's baby is born, and Fran weeps for all the empty baby beds in the hospital. "What about the other babies, the ones who died in the plague?" she asks. But Mother Abigail waxes poetic about a new beginning and the beauty of childbirth. This is the "There are good things in life, so there must be a God, despite the existence of evil" approach.
And then there is Mother Abigail praying to God about the plague. "I think you went a little too far this time," she says. That's the David and Jeremiah "Complaining to God about injustice" approach.
What also stood out to me in Part IV was the inner disintegration of evil. Several of Flagg's associates wanted to flee to South America, where there were "just plain folks," as opposed to a sinister embodiment of evil like Flagg. When three of the good guys go to Flagg's community to confront him, Flagg's cops arrest them at the border. The chief punches Ray Walston (a good guy) in the stomach, and Ray says to his companions, "They're unravelling. They're coming to an end. Can't you feel it!" Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction, and (in my opinion) that's what will happen at the end of days prior to Christ's return. We'll feel evil's unravelling as the time draws near.
At the same time, even evil had its good side. I liked it when the people on Flagg's side were picking up trash to rebuild Las Vegas, which was to become Flagg's headquarters, for that showed that they were taking pride in their community. Flagg's Number One man stood by Flagg until the end because Flagg gave him a chance, something no one else had done for him in his miserable life. And Flagg cracked down on drugs and prostitutes, to the dismay of several of his followers. (The chief of police, however, liked Flagg's stern law-and-order stance.)
Still, Flagg was evil. He wanted worship, dominance, and destruction of all who got in his way (and even those who didn't, such as Mother Abigail's community). At the end, he was going to punish two of the good guys by public dismemberment. Good thing God stopped him!
A touching scene in Part IV is when three of the good guys are in Flagg's prison. Flagg orders his Number One man to shoot Ray Walston because he wouldn't bow down to him. When that happens, the other two good guys clasp one another's hand through the prison bars in mutual support. That reminds me of a scene in Moses (with Ben Kingsley), in which Aaron puts his hand on Moses' shoulder as Moses tells Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" There's something beautiful about community.
So this miniseries is truly a faith-affirming movie that covers all sorts of issues. I definitely recommend it!