I hit the theater early this week to check out The Long Walk based on the 1979 Bachman book (Stephen King) of the same title. I read this story back in high school one summer after visiting my sister on vacation. It really messed me up for weeks. It also helped cement my status as a lifelong Stephen King fan. Going into this one I was both really excited and quite nervous. Hoping that director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games franchise) along with writers JT Mollner and King himself would successfully encapsulate the story in this big screen adaptation and do it the justice it deserves.
Let me start by saying if you haven’t read the book or are already familiar with the story, fair warning: this movie is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. The Long Walk is one of King's most disturbing stories set in a dystopian near-future America ravaged by totalitarianism. It’s bleak, brutal, intense, and graphic AF. Like the book this film doesn’t pull its punches. You don’t so much as enjoy the story as endure it over its hour forty-eight-minute runtime. The physical and psychological toll the competition takes on the participants becomes yours, step by grueling step and man it’s a rough.
Even having read the book, knowing what to expect, this film stressed me to my limits and had me flinching, agonizing, dreading with anticipation, shocked and shook. The timing, brutality, and blocking of every ticket punch plays out masterfully.
The Long Walk is about as far from a summer popcorn movie as you can get.
The harsh exploration of these young men's desperation, trying to cling on to life in hope of a better and more fulfilling existence on the other side of the finish line, and the knowledge that such a life may not be possible is grim. The atmosphere hangs heavy seeing people at their ugliest and most desperate. Yet the fleeting bonds of friendship, brotherhood, and laughter make these personal, intimate stories of everyday people grappling with questions about mortality, religion, and what makes life worth living bearable.
The cast is phenomenal.
Other than Mark Hamill I had no idea who any of the actors are, save for a passing “he looks vaguely familiar” for Ben Wang (Karate Kid Legends). But after this movie, call me a fan of each one with Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) as Ray/#47 and David Jonsson Peter/#23 topping the list. They absolutely dazzle in their performances, and their chemistry is electric. Garrett Wareing /Stebbins #38, Tut Nyuot/Arthur #6, Charlie Plummer/Barkovitch #5, and Joshua Odjick/Collie Parker #48, wow. Just wow. Amazing performances all.
Strong direction. Great pacing, editing, and cinematography. The makeup and effects people worked their movie magic.
The Long Walk is a relentless, tension filled, anxiety producing gut punch, misery that explores why we bother getting up each morning. To survive? To push others forward? To have a purpose? Because that’s all we know how to do? It’s bleak, harsh, emotional, cruel, and beautiful much like life itself. You laugh, you cry, you love and you lose.
All in all, The Long Walk follows the book until it doesn’t but still delivers an amazing film worth watching, even with the Hollywoodification. I'm not sure I'd have been able to walk out of the theater if they stuck with the book. It may have been one blow too many.
I can’t say I loved, enjoyed, or was entertained by The Long Walk in a traditional sense because it’s not that kind of film. It's engaging for certain. Never boring. And damn good, I’m glad I went, it lived up to the original source material, and I’m more than satisfied with the end product.
The Long Walk gets a 10 from me.
#TheLongWalk
