The Long Walk: A Review (Review #2043)

THE LONG WALK

Mark Twain once observed that golf is a good walk spoiled. I don't know what our literary wit would have thought if he knew that another writer created a walk that went on, nonstop, for 331 miles. The Long Walk gives us a dystopian world that did make the viewers care about the characters' plight. While not without some issues, The Long Walk mostly works.

There has been a terrible civil war in the United States that has led to a military government. In order to inspire the general public to new patriotism, the government televises an annual competition where one young man from each of the 50 states will walk until there is only one. They are chosen at random, but the government has no shortage of applicants for this Trail of Death. 

As a side note, I suppose that no one cares about Washington, D.C. or the various territories like Puerto Rico or Guam since there are no representatives from those places in the long walk. Moreover, there are no girls or transgender men in this competition. Just a thought.

This competition is in Maine, and representing the Pine Tree State is Raymond Garrity or #47 (Cooper Hoffman). His mother Ginny (Judy Greer) begs him to pull out before they begin, but Ray reluctantly won't. He soon makes acquaintances of other boys undergoing this public ordeal. There is the arrogant and cruel Barkovitch (Christopher Plummer). There is the youthful looking Olson (Ben Wang). There is Native American Parker (Joshua Odjick). Of all of the other boys, Ray bonds mostly with Pete McVries (David Jonsson). 

Bonding is a curious turn of phrase given that all of the boys know that the others cannot survive if they are to win. Why would they willingly put themselves through all this? The winner gets a life of fortune, and one wish granted that cannot be denied. With the economy in ruins and no prospects, the young men are willing to endure misery and even death at a chance to lift themselves up.

The rules are simple, explained by the Major (Mark Hamill). They must keep a pace of minimum 3 miles per hour. They will be given food and water along the march, but they cannot stop. If they fail to maintain those rules, they will be given three warnings before they are executed. 

As they march, day and night, with no chance to rest or relieve themselves (them stopping to defecate will be cause for the military to bark out warnings), the various boys do start bonding. It makes it harder for them to see the others either die, get killed or commit suicide. Nevertheless, Ray persisted. Why does he persist so? The Long Walk reveals a connection between the Major and the Garrity family, particularly Ray's beloved father William (Josh Hamilton). Will Ray avenge William? Who will ultimately win The Long Walk?

While the Stephen King novel that The Long Walk is based on was published in 1979, I think many would look upon The Long Walk as a bit derivative of things like The Hunger Games or even King's own The Running Man. It is interesting that both The Long Walk and The Running Man both involve televised competitions where a totalitarian government will kill contestants if they fail. 

Credit should be given where it is due. The Long Walk oddly never feels that long, running at about an hour and fifty minutes. Francis Lawrence's direction never lags or at least lags for long. We get a few breaks from this death march with flashbacks involving Ray and his parents. Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner also kept things moving forward quite well. The audience that I saw The Long Walk with were at times deeply moved. Such was a moment when the nerdish Harkness (Jordan Gonzalez) is finally shot. I heard people audibly cry and express horror at the sight of it all. 

Harkness had been walking with a broken ankle for miles, and the wear and tear (physical and emotional) was finally too much. The Long Walk showed him talking to Ray and Pete, telling them that he was writing his experiences down for a memoir that he planned to write once he won the competition. That was a clever move in telling us this before his gruesome end.

There were some ends that were gruesome. Other ends were not seen. With fifty contestants, it would be impossible to know all the contestants. I figure this is why the sequence where they march up a hill had so many of them dropping dead. It is a credit to Lawrence and Mollner that even Ray looked like he was about to bite the dust here. 

The performances were almost all universally good. I would not go as far as saying that Cooper Hoffman has fully emerged from the shadow of his father, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. However, with solid turns in his earlier films Licorice Pizza and Saturday Night, the younger Hoffman is building up a strong resume. The Long Walk is probably his first major leading role, and he does excellent work as Ray. He makes him humble, kind and caring. However, Hoffman also brings in the pain and rage within him, pushing him onwards despite his senses. There is a brief moment when he reencounters his mother during the long walk. Risking his life to hold her and beg forgiveness from her, it is a deeply moving moment. 

As a side note, I wonder if his scenes where he talks about his late father were reflective of how Cooper Hoffman lost his own father at a very young age. 

The younger cast did universally excellent work. Jonsson's equally caring Pete was a standout here. Wang brought a touch of comic relief as Olson, the man who wanted nothing more than "a good meal, a good screw and a good s--t". Who knew he could be a philosopher? I was not quite as convinced by Plummer's arrogant and cruel Barkovitch. Late in the film, he wants to be part of the smaller group. Yet as played by Plummer, I took it to be some part of Barkovitch's scheme to win. 

The singularly worst performance and what kept The Long Walk from ranking higher was Mark Hamill. Making his second appearance in a Stephen King adaptation after The Life of Chuck, Hamill devours the scenery with abandon as the crazed Major. I understand that he was supposed to be the villain. I understand that his gravelling voice was meant to evoke that villain. I just thought that it was unintentionally comedic. I could not take him seriously, and every time that he popped up, I thought The Long Walk was a bit of a joke.

One element that also pushed The Long Walk down slightly was what I thought was the implausibility of a lot of the plot. There are a few mentions of how this death march is played on television. We even get a brief moment of a solitary girl going all fangirl on Ray. However, I saw nothing in the walkers that would elicit such a response. Were audiences also listening in on their conversations? I think that The Long Walk mostly forgot about this element.

I also think that, despite the psychological torture the participants were put through, most people genuinely would not watch unless they were either sadists or forced to. Also, given the need for sleep and relieving oneself, I think hitting 331 miles is implausible. Again, I get that it is fiction. However, I could not fully accept that some of the participants at this long walk as well as those from the past would not have literally keeled over due to lack of sleep or sheer exhaustion. 

I do have to recognize that the audience that I saw The Long Walk with did feel for the guys. I am taking audience reaction into consideration. I also saw some good performances and a pretty engaging story. The Long Walk is good, not great, but worth looking into.

DECISION: C+