“The Long Walk” is a movie adaptation of the 1979 Stephen King book of the same name that was published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Officially debuting on the silver screen on Sept. 12, “The Long Walk” reached a 93% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and a rating of 7.6/10 on IMDb as of that date.
Like most movies based on King’s books, it’s an R-rated movie, likewise very graphically violent and containing a lot of foul language. If you are uncomfortable or have trouble watching on screen violence, especially gunshots or very visual blood, I would not suggest for you to sit down and watch this adaptation.
In a war-torn totalitarian America, the Long Walk is a chance to escape from poverty. It’s what dreams are made of; money is an afterthought when you can have anything you could ever dream of just with a simple demand. But, for all of that, you must walk. Walk on asphalt roads alongside 50 other boys. No rest, no sleep, always motion. If you lag behind four miles per hour you’ll get a strike, three strikes and you’ll be suffering from a mild case of lead poisoning on the side of the tarmac. There is no finish line; the last man standing in this grueling race wins it all.
Our main character is Raymond “Ray” Garraty, played by Cooper Hoffman. Garraty’s trauma-stricken life is intertwined with our antagonist, the cold-hearted and arrogant Major, played by Mark Hamill.
And, our secondary main character is Peter McVries, played by David Jonsson. McVries an altruistic, goodhearted man who saves Garraty’s hide a good too many times during the walk. More of the cast is the vulgar-mouthed and comedian Hank Olson as Ben Wang, the enigmatic and intelligent Stebbins as Garrett Wareing and Gary Barkovitch, the unstable bully and the foil of Garraty, McVries and himself, played by Charlie Plummer.
“Teenagers walking.” How could that be a movie?
I walked into the theater with absolutely no information about the movie, only a vague idea of the plot, that thought being “walking to the death.” Sitting down in my seat, I was captivated by the start that left so much to wonder about the world, characters and eventual outcome. I expected a lot from a Stephen King adaptation, but felt let down by the end.
I personally thought this was a movie that starts (and shamelessly continues on) with grisly visuals to hook watchers. Then evolves into something deeper that doesn’t make flinching in my seat the only movement I had during the movie. Except, the deepness evolved into a kiddy pool rather than the beginning puddle. I’d lean closer and feel bad, but the idea of the movie was extremely straightforward. It lacked true substance and depth in plot, but compensated with the brotherhood of Garraty and McVries and the overall acting.
The camaraderie between the two was a showcase of outstanding acting on both Hoffman’s and Jonsson’s, making for a dynamic duo. It remedied the movie and cut the tension that was building in each and every mile that went by in the runtime.
There were also themes of survival and perseverance littered in their dialogue, but mostly, those themes were executed in the movie itself. The indomitable human spirit was the core of the movie. Pushing the body far past what it logically could do and bending those constraints is what those sluggish and cruel last miles felt like to me. Those were the elements of depth that were included.
The ‘survival to the death in a dystopian world televised on television’ idea is undeniably related to its spiritual successor, “The Hunger Games.” In fact, “The Long Walk” was directed by Francis Lawrence, the director who picked up the aforementioned movie series after the first entry’s director did not reprise his role.
The movie was written with deviations from the original IP, with more purpose behind Garraty’s entrance to the Long Walk raffle and a massively different ending compared to the book. (just like most adaptations of King’s books,) I found those as pleasing additions to the overarching story.
But, my praises end there. I will always be an uber-fan of exposure and world-building… and this was an especially missed chance to illustrate something better than the broad strokes of a nondescript America under a corrupt regime. This is what depth is to me, what needs to be changed. There was no further elaboration of who the Major was (minus a cheeky appearance in a Garraty flashback) and for the entire movie, I was expecting a vignette of his life to make me think this hardened manifestation of this government isn’t just replaceable with whatever individuals are underneath him.
A futile ending, but ambiguous and bittersweet endings are my favorite. “The Long Walk” will be aimlessly swimming in my brain until a bigger, better executed concept comes to devour it whole and be the “memorable dystopian fantasy story” for the rest of my life.
The acting is like sweet buttercream icing on an overall mediocre sponge cake story. I would highly recommend “The Long Walk” for its stellar acting, not the overarching plot. Or go for the story, if you like linear and non ground-breaking narratives, I guess. Overall, a solid 6/10 for me, worth the watch.
