PLOT: In an economically depressed future, American male teens volunteer every year to take part in The Long Walk, a competition where fifty boys are forced to walk continuously until only one remains standing. Anyone who can’t continue is shot. Two young volunteers, Raymond Garrety (Cooper Hoffman) and Peter McVries (David Jonsson), with their own reasons for taking part, quickly develop a deep bond, but when there can be only one winner, how far will their loyalty get them?
REVIEW: The Long Walk is an adaptation of the first novel Stephen King ever wrote. Initially written in the mid-sixties, before he found success as a writer, the book was only published in 1979, after he had already found fame following a series of bestsellers. The book was actually published under his pen name, Richard Bachman, with his true identity only revealed in 1985, six years after the book was published. The Bachman books, with the exception of The Running Man and Thinner, have never really gotten much attention from Hollywood, but with King adaptations once again red hot at the box office, filmmakers are digging deeper into the archives in an effort to put out fresher, less familiar versions of his works.
Indeed, The Long Walk is a movie that feels tailor-made for the era we live in. With unemployment something a lot of people have to grasp for, a future where the majority of the population struggles to make ends meet isn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination, making The Long Walk feel uneasily timely. Scripted by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling) and directed by a guy who knows a thing or two about dystopian futures, The Hunger Games’s Francis Lawrence, The Long Walk is a terrific adaptation of King’s novel that will hit close to home for a huge audience, and could well become a cult classic for young adults, who’ll appreciate the no BS, R-rated tone which couldn’t be further removed from The Hunger Games.
The film is anchored by the lead performances of Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, whose bond is the heart of the film. While it may seem foolhardy to ever become friends with someone you’re in a life-or-death race against, The Long Walk does a good job showing how their group of fifty young men can’t help but develop bonds and cliques. Both Hoffman and Jonsson are somewhat heroic, with them trying to keep weaker members of the walk from being murdered, even if their deaths give them more of a chance to win. One thing that’s noteworthy is that The Long Walk was all shot in sequence, so the cast becomes realistically dishevelled and rangy-looking as the movie goes on.
Hoffman and Jonsson are among the brightest up-and-coming actors, with the latter especially chameleonic. It’s hard to believe this is the same guy from Rye Lane and Alien: Romulus (although he does occasionally slip back into his distinctive English accent from time to time). Hoffman is eerily similar to his father, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, with this the kind of role he could have for sure played back in his younger days—and he’s terrific. The supporting cast is strong too, with a foul-mouthed Ben Wang (Karate Kid Legends) stealing scenes, while Tut Nyuot breaks your heart as one of the more good-hearted volunteers. Best of all is Mark Hamill as the movie’s villain, The Major, a fascist leader who rides in a truck alongside the boys, executes them if need be, and never takes off his sunglasses (check out our interview with him HERE).
The Long Walk is perhaps a little too grim to catch on in the same way as something like IT, but like the best King adaptations, it’s rich in characterization and wildly entertaining. In an era where so many films are watered down, it’s refreshing to see a movie like this come from a legit studio. It’s well worth seeing in theaters.
