The Long Walk is one of those movies that sounds absolutely stupid on paper but somehow ends up working way better than it should, just a bunch of guys walking until they drop dead or get shot sounds boring as hell but this thing actually keeps you locked in for the full two hours witch is pretty wild when you think about it, they just walking but its their interaction, the things they talk about, their "Moments" as Pete describe it on the movie. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson carry the entire movie on there backs and the chemistry between these two is insane, you actually end up giving a shit about what happens to them, witch is pretty rare for a movie where you know damn well only one person makes it out alive at the end. Francis Lawrence directed this and he also did most of the Hunger Games movies so he knows how to handle these death game type stories, the guy gets how to make it feel real and heavy, instead of just cheap entertainment for people who want flashy action scenes or cool deaths. This aint some flashy death match with crazy explosions every five minutes, its just people talking and walking, and slowly falling apart both in there heads and there bodys, literally their bodies give up before their mind and somehow it never gets boring or feels like a slog to sit through, witch is pretty impressive when you think about such a very simple action of walking, just keep walking, there is no finish line or ending.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
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The rules are super simple and thats what makes it work so damn well, walk at 3 miles per hour or you get warnings and after three strikes your done, soldiers shoot you right there on the road and the movie doesnt hold back from showing how messed up that whole situation is for everyone involved, every other guy on this walk loose it as they see the rest going down walking on blooded foot or even totally broken ankle. The movie doesnt waste any time with boring setup that drags on forever and dont even care about giving much context of the why this is all going on its just straight to the bone, it gives you the basics real quick, then jumps straight into the walk without spending 40 minutes on backstory nobody cares about anyway. Mark Hamill shows up as the Major and he was good in the role but it feels like easy paycheck work for him, nothing to crazy or memorable compared to some of his other stuff over the years. The whole concept is based on a Stephen King novel from the 60s and apparently this was the first thing he ever wrote, even though it didnt get published until way later under a fake name, the book had 100 contestants walking but the movie cuts it down to 50, witch makes it feel more manageable and focused on the characters that actually matter to the story, feels more personal, they even form a group and call themself Musketeers.
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The entire story develops on a very fucked up world after War as Major describe there is an epidemic of laziness and it does look like from the environment we watch on the country side, after a big war that happend 19 years ago and left everything in complete ruins for everyone, the government is run by this totalitarian regime that bans books and music from before the war and also look like everyone is poor, anyways thats not the important part of the movie so doesnt really matter. The point is that every year they do this Long Walk thing, where one person from each state has to participate in the event and the last one standing gets money and one wish, supposedly this is meant to inspire the nation and boost productivity for the economy but really its just propaganda bullshit, to keep people in line and distracted from how terrible there lives are. Raymond Garraty is the main character and he joins the walk because he wants revenge on the Major for killing his dad in front of him and his mom, his father was executed for reading banned books and thinking for himself, witch in this world is basically a death sentence that you cant escape from, this hole story reminds me a lot of a movie that Bale did many years ago called "Equilibrium". Pete McVrees is the other main character and he was basically Rays best friend, even wanted to be his actual brother, thats all he wanted in life and this topic show up throughout the whole thing, David Jonsson plays him and the dude is phenomenal in this role. There chemistry together is what makes the movie work so well because you believe these two guys actually care about each other as friends, its not just fake movie friendship where they say nice things but you dont buy it for a second cause the acting sucks. Judy Greer plays Rays mom, and she has very few scenes in the whole movie but shes absolutely heartbreaking in both of them, specially the opening when shes driving her son to the start line, knowing theres a good chance hes never coming back home to her again.
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One thing that really stood out was how the movie shows all the messed up stuff that comes with walking non stop for days without any breaks, like how do you go to the bathroom when you cant stop moving forward, what happens when you get a cramp in your leg that makes you slow down, what if you get a rock in your shoe or your ankle breaks from walking so long. All these everyday things become life or death situations and the movie doesnt shy away from showing how brutal it gets for these young guys, one kid has explosive diarrhea and the movie shows is straight up no blur or cover up scene, another kid breaks his ankle and kept walking basically on his bone for hours witch seemed pretty unbelievable to me for me that was the beauty of this movie. The kills are super graphic and straight forward head shot and there faces explode into pieces, one kid gets run over by a tank when he tries to talk to the camera crew filming everything, another one tries to grab a soldiers gun and gets killed instantly without hesitation. The end is a bit confusing so I decided to look up about the story and found out that movie was shot in sequential order witch means they filmed everything in the actual order it happens in the story, this was a smart choice because it lets the actors actually bond with each other over time, just like there characters do in the walk and you can see them getting more tired and beat up as the movie goes on and there bodys start giving out. Francis Lawrence and his crew deserve a lot of credit, because filming something like this where almost every scene is outside in the elements and people are constantly moving without stopping, must have been exhausting as hell for the cast and crew, even if the story has some logical holes in it that dont quite add up.
The ending is pretty different from the book as I mention and its also a bit confusing because things happen out of no where and I think it works better for what the movie is trying to say about sacrifice, in the book Ray wins and just keeps walking off into nothing like a zombie but in the movie Pete ends up winning after Ray sacrifices himself so his friend can live and go home. Pete asks for a soldiers gun as his wish and the Major gives it to him thinking Pete wont actually do anything with it on live television, that sounds totally stupid but it could be just the fact that power got him blind, Pete shoots the Major right in the face in front of the whole country watching on there TVs, witch was pretty damn satisfying to watch after everything but still felt a bit hollow for me, it was just too easy and too simple. Like me some people might want a more clear ending, with everything explained but I think the ambiguity works here for this type of story, I always have this idea that adaptations main point is to sell more books or video games so ending the movie in such gray area works for people to get interested and want to know more about or even buy the book, the message is that even when you win you still lose in the end, because this whole system is designed to break people down, until theres nothing left of who they used to be before. Ray wanted revenge against the government and Pete wanted money to escape his shitty life and terrible childhood, but in the end neither of them really get what they wanted out of it. Its a pretty flat way to end things but it fits the tone of the whole movie perfectly, this isnt a feel good story about overcoming adversity and winning against the odds, its about how governments use young people as pawns and grind them down for entertainment and propaganda purposes. I love this movie and even though it has a few holes in the story I cant stop from giving it a 8.5 out of 10, its probably one of the best Stephen King adaptations in recent years and definitely worth watching if your into this kind of dark depressing stuff, just dont expect to feel good after its over, because you absolutely will not be smiling.
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