Review: The Long Walk

Image courtesy of Lionsgate

It looks like we're in the mist of what could be one of the best years for Stephen King adaptations, first with Mike Flanagan's superb "The Life of Chuck" and, later this year, a new version of "The Running Man" by Edgar Wright. This week, Francis Lawrence's film "The Long Walk," based on a novella during King's Richard Bachman years, finally sees the light of day.

The film, which was apparently in development hell for a long time, is a solid picture in the King tradition of male bonding exercises such as "Stand By Me" and the mostly all-male "It." Much like some of King's other "Bachman" works - including "The Running Man" - this story is set in a dystopian future in which a dictatorship keeps the public at bay through bloody spectacle.

We don't get much in the way of explanation for why the country has turned out this way - although a quick glance at the evening news these days is probably good foreshadowing - but we learn that a great war has led to an extended period of joblessness and poverty among the populace. 

A cruel man known as The Major (Mark Hamill, who I didn't even realize was in the film until I saw his name in the credits) leads the titular stroll in which one young man from each state in the union is picked via a lottery to take part in a grueling walk in which there can only be one winner. Those who can go no further are given warnings and then shot.

Although there are memorable characters among the participants - wisecracking Olson (Ben Wang) or the unruly Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer) - the film mostly focuses on the friendship between Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and McVries (David Jonsson), who along with Olson and a young southern man named Arthur (Tut Nyuot) make up the self-proclaimed "musketeers," although there are four of them.

Garraty has a secret reason for taking part in the contest - and he's the only one to volunteer - that is only gradually revealed, while optimist McVries wants to use the prize money to do something good. The yin and yang of these characters makes for a compelling partnership and it helps that both actors are so good in the roles.

While "The Long Walk" doesn't exactly go places that you won't expect, it's a solid example of how the success of a film often depends less on what it's about than it does how it goes about it. This film succeeds because of its strong performances, imaginative camerawork that prevents a scenario that could become visually boring from becoming so, and some interesting back and forth between the characters about what it means to be a friend and to put others before oneself. It's a solid little genre picture with heart.