Opening with text, reading that our main character Raymond (Ray) Garraty played by Cooper Hoffman, through his voluntary submission into the Long Walk has been accepted through lottery, that if he wins, unimaginable riches and one single wish awaits him, he is then told to be present at the starting line on May 1st by 8:00am. The immediate next scene is a road, with a car, and Ray being present in said car, being driven to the starting line of the Long Walk. Next to him is his mother, looking evidently disheartened, expresses her feelings on how he doesn’t have to do this, and that he can still back out, Ray, although visibly doubtful, stands his ground.
Once arriving at the starting line he meets Peter McVries played by David Jonsson, they both conversate and take a look around, observing their competition, after that they quickly introduce a couple others, namely; Hank Olsen played by Ben Wang, Arthur (Art) Baker played by Tut Nyuot, and then some. As they continue to speak to each other, a vehicle pulls up to the starting line, who is quickly introduced as the Major, he gives everyone their numbered tags and starts explaining, “Walk until there’s only one of you left.”, everyone is expected to continue a pace of three miles per hour, if anyone slows down they are given a warning and 10 seconds to make back their pace, 3 warnings and they are issued their ticket, which in this case means they are shot dead.
The Long Walk, a gripping dystopian thriller that brings the 1979 Stephen King novel to the big screen for the first time. Directed by Francis Lawrence, and written by JT Mollner, with a cast of new faces and insane talent. This movie is incredibly depicted, even through its violence and gruesome takes, it still manages to grasp the viewers attention.
The movie is set in a totalitarian regime, where 50 boys around the country get chosen every year to be on a televised spectacle that features them walking till their death or slim chance of victory, after all there can only be one winner. Throughout the obvious bodily exhaustion, and the psychological torment they face, these boys create bonds, an entwined attachment they have for one another that is highlighted in extremely graphic and emotional scenes.
In such movies, there is an expected antagonist, which there seems to be an obvious one in the first chunk, but the more that is explored and watched, it is revealed that even the most morally ambigious people in the film, not only have their reasons but are uncovered as something that can be better described as a tortured soul.
When taking the decision to sit down and consume this film, its hard not to notice how graphic this film can get. When most may take the understanding of it being unnecessary, Stephen King himself told both the screenwritter and director that if they weren’t going to show the boys being shot, then not to bother with the film at all, and therefore “they made a pretty brutal movie” King told The Times Of London. He felt as if not showing the brutal aspects of the film would make the film flavorless and it wouldn’t have the real and raw portions that the book wears.
This movie was well rated overall, won multiple awards, and was well received, many loved the movie mentioning the emotional aspects of the film, where the film really left a lasting impact on them implying that the movie is definitely worth the viewers time. In contrast, a lot of the negative reviews for this film involve that the movie didn’t fullt grasp all the interesting and plot changing aspects of the book, how the book left a lasting impression on the viewer but the movie didn’t live up to the hype.
As for a recommendation, the movie is really good, it evokes real emotion from most of it’s viewers, which is transparently more often than not tears. Yes, the movie has great scenes, and the bromance is depicted really well, there are a lot of items in this film that can be analyzed to a far extent, and some could talk about it for hours. However, I can acknowledge how the movie felt far away from the book, the book had very important messages that weren’t at all mentioned in the film, for example there was talk about domestic violence in the book, but it is no where to be seen in the movie. I can see where the veiwers come from when they mention that the movie might have prioritized more gruesome over points that could have added more value to the film.
Overall, this movie is a good watch, not much of the film is boring, and it flows really well, there are points where it felt slow or that the plot was not going anywhere but it works with the tempo well and escalates very quickly. Continuing on, there are countless numbers of Stephen King novel adaptations, but this one is debatably one of the better ones.
