Rent The Long Walk on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: JT Mollner (screenplay by), Stephen King (based on the novel by)
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as "The Long Walk," in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
Verdict
It's a surreal lottery that provides the chance at a better life. The movie is one long walk, and we see the shock of the first death and how the remaining boys become desensitized to it over days of walking. The fewer remaining, the closer they grow, but the experience is physical and mental torture. With no finish line, the horrors seem endless. This is their chance, and they take it despite knowing the likely outcome. You can't stop until it's over. The question of how it will end drives the movie.
Watch It.
Review
This is based on Stephen King's 1979 novel.
This is a competition to walk nonstop and earn a life-changing prize, but if you stop walking you get shot. Times are desperate after a civil war, and that's why boys enter this perverse lottery. There's only one winner. You walk until everyone else has dropped, and there's no finish line. It continues until it's done.
Just fifteen minutes in we see someone close to getting shot for stopping to tie their shoe. Despite knowing what happens, actually seeing it is still shocking. A kid gets cramps and stops walking. There's only one recourse. The walking is bad enough at night as they're tired, but then the road starts uphill. Lots of gun shots start ringing out.
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| Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Tut Nyuot play Ray, Pete, Aruthur |
The boys left start to build a camaraderie. That can be dangerous as there's only one winner. Ray (Cooper Hoffman) is really nice, too nice for this competition. He soon becomes friends with Pete (David Jonsson) as they push each other to keep going.
This is an interesting movie on the technical side. The characters are always walking. Anything that happens, occurs while they're moving
The walk only gets more difficult. The fewer boys walking, the closer they get, but more of them start to lose it. One tries to run away, another runs towards an armed guard. They just can't take it anymore. They've been struggling to survive in the hope they'll win, but now many of them just want this torture to end. While we root for Ray and Pete, we know that if they're the only two left they'll have a difficult decision.
All of them decided it was better to take a chance, knowing the likely end is death. It's one thing to imagine the concept, but the actual walk is harrowing. The first death is shocking, then we see them grow used to it. They realize it's inevitable. As Ray states towards the end, he's no longer afraid of death.
Most of the boys wanted to win to transform their lives. Ray wanted to use his winning wish to change things. I wondered if the the system can be changed or would any action only be symbolic? Just as many boys were happy to enter this lottery knowing the consequences, there will be more after this competition. There's a reason it persists year after year.
In the book Ray wins but keeps walking, unable to comprehend that the competition is over. That's not how it happens in the movie.
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