The film The Long Walk is a dystopian tale of survival and an apt metaphor for the struggles and fruitlessness people face in America. It’s a bleak, grimy, heartfelt story of brotherhood that can arise in the worst of times.
Bachman, Lawrence, and King
Of the many Richard Bachman books and the many film adaptations we’ve had over the years, it’s kind of crazy that it took them this long to make one based on this film, considering they’ve already done two The Running Man movies. The Long Walk, as implied by its title, is an annual competition where whoever can walk the longest wins untold riches and a single, unlimited wish. In an “alternate” America that is rendered destitute by losing an unnamed war, people are subjected to poverty, punished for thought crimes, live in a police state, and being rich is an ultimate fantasy.
If this sounds very “young adult novel”-y, then you’d have made an apt comparison. So why not go get the guy who made the most successful young adult novel adaptations of all time to make this one? Maybe we’ll get a few sequels! Remember how much we enjoyed the last “young adult novel”-esque movie, The Woman King?
It is fair to note that the performances are great, the plot is compact, the emotions are raw, the gore is visceral, and thematically, even if the metaphors are heavy handed, the film pays off. On a technicality. Notably, despite being an adaptation, I didn’t think that any of the changes from the novel were egregious. The soul of the film and the original set of characters is there. The changes that Lawrence chose to make were only the interest of compressing a massive, dense Bachman novel into a concise, 108 minute movie.
Pace Puns
The only negative critique that I can think of is that the film didn’t feel emotionally impactful, ironically, the pace of the film speeds up considerably at the end. Almost frantically, the final walkers are picked off scene after scene, and it feels like a near sprint through plot resolutions. So whatever emotions we felt, we were forced to walk off. When we get to the climax, we haven’t had time to sort these feelings enough to process the final scene of the movie.
In a film like The Long Walk, we’re not setting up for some large-scale action scene or exciting final battle. Luckily, given Bachman’s tendencies, if the film is emotionally driven, then the climax won’t bother with gunfights and explosions and a hamfisted “a handful of teenagers just took down the authoritarian government!” ending. A film like this ends with a dramatic ending, one wrought with emotions, leaving you sole searching as you leave the theater.
It’s fair to say then, that if the film is footloose with big emotional moments at the end of the film, it’s going to get difficult for most people to parse through those feelings efficiently enough to circle around the most important, climatic emotional moment. So as we’re figuring out the impact of previous moments on our character and ourselves, the film already skips away to the next bit. Whatever the character learns or however they change, we’ve barely had any time to register it. It makes empathizing with the final decisions that much more difficult, even if we can logically connect to that change and decision.
I’m going off on the ending, but it’s truly not bad. If you like subtle dystopian set up, kind and empathetic characters, moments of brotherhood and bonding, and can stomach tragedy and a bit of gore, then The Long Walk is absolutely up your alley.
I rate the film The Long Walk
YMMV
Pun intended. I watched The Long Walk on HBO.
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