Throughout the previous decade, a slew of movies based on young adult dystopian novels emerged, beginning with The Hunger Games, followed by The Maze Runner and the Divergent series. While many of these blockbusters were profitable, it was a subgenre that constantly recycled itself and took cues from earlier works, such as Rollerball, Battle Royale, and the Stephen King book that was finally adapted for the big screen.
Published in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King’s The Long Walk is set in an alternative, dystopian version of the United States, where a grueling annual walking contest is held. Participants, known as “Walkers,” must maintain a minimum pace or risk execution if they slow down. Amongst the fifty boys who are chosen through a lottery is Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), who leaves his loving mother (Judy Greer) to compete in the contest, where he befriends some of the participants, even though it ends when only the last walker remains alive, for which they receive “The Prize”, allowing them to get whatever they want.
While King’s source material is a brilliant piece of writing built on the sense of dread that comes from being turned into a bloodsport, there have been numerous attempts by filmmakers like George A. Romero and Frank Darabont to adapt it. The script by JT Mollner maintains the book’s barebones premise by sticking to the Walk itself, with Garrity serving as the POV character. In terms of world-building, there is barely any backstory regarding this dystopian America, ruled by a totalitarian regime best personified by the unnamed Major, played with scene-chewing gravitas by Mark Hamill.
Suppose you are well-versed in King’s fiction. In that case, you can definitely see themes that you associate with the author, from the loss of innocence as seen through the brutal executions by gunpoint, to the friendships between the young participants that are not far off from the youthful dynamics in Stand by Me. While you are watching a brutal slog that the characters must endure if they are to survive, you absolutely enjoy their company as they share some laughs along the way, whilst questioning the point of the Walk at all. With all the fantastic performances from the likes of Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson that make you care and thus scared when any one of the Walkers will bite the dust, Judy Greer really pulls on the heartstrings as a mother who fears what could be inevitable for her son.
Considering he has directed four (and eventually five) installments in the Hunger Games series, which never shied away from showing the brutality of its dystopian setting, Francis Lawrence was ultimately making crowd-pleasing blockbusters, which is not what The Long Walk is. Since the film is essentially one long set-piece, the only obstacle the Walkers have to worry about is themselves, in terms of how much physical and psychological pain they can endure as they continuously walk for hundreds of miles. Whether it is a cramp on the leg or a gunshot to the head, the camera will not look away from displaying the brutal outcome.
Although the adaptation loses some points due to liberties that attempt to reflect the Hunger Games’ theme of rebelling against the system, The Long Walk could serve as an interesting companion piece to the other King adaptation released this summer, The Life of Chuck. Whereas Mike Flanagan’s film is a life-affirming drama bathed in warm sentimentality, Lawrence’s film uses its dystopian setting to have its inhabitants learn to appreciate life at its most precious, even as they walk to a grisly demise.
