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The Long Walk -- a review

I first read The Long Walk back in the mid 1980s. Stephen King had the book published under Richard Bachman, his pseudonym (King would also publish The Running Man, Rage, and Roadwork under the Bachman name). I probably never would have bought The Long Walk if I hadn’t been tipped off by a bookstore clerk, who informed me in the store that it had really been King who wrote the book. It had also later been widely reported in the media at the time about King having written more books under the Bachman name.

The Long Walk refers to a forced march that is made of a group of teenage boys in a dystopian United States. There is no finish line; the boys keep walking until they are shot to death by a military escort that travels with them--usually because they have fallen behind from exhaustion. The last boy remaining is the "winner." I liked the book well enough, but I can’t really say it was one of my all-time favorites. It’s been forty years since I’ve read it, and it’s hard to remember the exact details of the novel.

The Long Walk, the movie, was capably directed by Francis Lawrence, who also directed The Hunger Games films 2 through 4. Lawrence also directed the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as well as Red Sparrow, which starred his Hunger Games lead, actress Jennifer Lawrence. The cinematic version of The Long Walk places the story within an alternate Earth during the 1970s. The United States, after suffering a civil war, is now a totalitarian regime. The production design, with its ruined 1970s landscapes, is very impressive for such a low budget (just $20 million).

Mark Hamill (Star Wars, The Life of Chuck) is great as The Major, who presides over The Long Walk, and who acts like a ghoulish cheerleader for the fifty boys--one from each state--who are stuck in this grim tragedy. The winner is promised a grand sum of money, as well as one wish that will be granted. The always great Judy Greer (Jurassic World, the 2018 Halloween) is also superb as the mother of one of the boys, Garraty, who’s very well played by Cooper Hoffman (Saturday Night), who’s the son of the late actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman (the senior Hoffman worked with Lawrence on the Hunger Games films). David Jonsson, who was memorable as Andy in Alien: Romulus, delivers another fine performance here as McVries.

The movie is very well done all around, with the ensemble cast of “walkers” all having been ably brought to life as real people, thanks to the strong script by JT Mollner. It has a what I call a “hard R” rating, which means it doesn’t pull back on the gore and cursing, and it can be hard to watch because of this, so fair warning. But thanks to how smartly and creatively The Long Walk has been brought to cinematic life, this is one walk that’s well worth taking. --SF

The Long Walk is available on physical media and streaming.
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