If you ask any Stephen King Fan what the name of the first novel he wrote is, I believe the majority would say Carrie.
However, while this was the first book King published, it was not the first he wrote.
No, that honor goes to The Long Walk, which was eventually released under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.
Many decades after the novel’s release, we finally have our first adaptation, directed by Francis Lawrence, and, man, it is depressing.
Set in a dystopian version of America, The Long Walk is a competition where 50 young men are chosen from 50 states to walk continuously at a pace of three miles per hour.
If they fall below the speed three times in three hours then, in the words of Mark Hamill’s villainous Major character, “You get your ticket.”
In simpler terms, you get your brains or guts blown out in a grim and gory fashion.
Joining The Long Walk this year is Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman, son of the late great Philip Seymor Hoffman), who has joined the life-or-death competition for very personal reasons.
However, over the exhausting days of his journey, he unexpectedly finds a close camaraderie and even brotherhood with his fellow walkers.
This makes the inevitable, gruesome demises of these characters all the more gut wrenching, leading to various emotional sendoffs.
Hoffman is excellent as Garraty, and every other actor in this film does a similarly great job.
There are two I want to highlight though.
The first of these is David Jonsson as Peter McVries, the man who grows closest to Garrity during The Long Walk.
Jonsson was one of the best parts of Alien: Romulus and this trend continues in The Long Walk.
The second actor I want to praise is Judy Greer, who plays Garrity’s mother and delivers some of the most gut wrenching acting of the film in her few scenes.
As I mentioned before, the deaths in this film are gruesome, made all the worse by how likeable the characters are.
Their deaths range from shocking, to abrupt, to heroic, to even one of the most undignified deaths I have seen put to film (trust me, you will know what death I am talking about when you see it).
All of this builds to a crushing ending, which diverts from the book, and leaves a lot to interpret.
Personally, I liked the change and have my own interpretations of what it all means.
Overall, The Long Walk is one of the best films of the year.
It is full of great characters with fantastic performances, whose constant deaths get you emotional.
That being said, while The Long Walk is a great film, it is certainly not an experience which generates much happiness, so I cannot imagine myself rewatching it that often.
Still, if you are looking to be emotionally destroyed, The Long Walk is the film for you.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 