Young men compete in a punishing walking race for which there can only be one survivor, in an adaptation of a Stephen King allegory about male-dominated society.
Stephen King, America’s most popular fiction writer, is an expert at writing books and stories that get adapted into films, the majority of which are horror. King’s excellence at horror I attribute, at least in part, to his frank recognition of evil as a powerful force in society. Evil in his books is something we participate in, whether we want to or not.
The latest King adaptation is called The Long Walk, directed by Francis Lawrence and adapted by JT Mollner from a 1979 book that King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. In the future, a terrible civil war has ended with the result that the U.S. is now ruled by a militarist totalitarian regime. One of its rituals invites young men to enter a contest where the prize is unimaginable wealth. About 35 contestants are chosen for a walking race where whoever is the last man still walking will win. What the audience soon realizes is that all the non-winners, those who stop or can’t keep to a mandatory three miles per hour, get three warnings before being shot dead.
We’re told that the miserable economic situation attracts the contestants, which I find implausible, but King’s story is really an allegory about life in a society based on power and domination. Once you accept that it’s symbolism, the bonding between the men makes sense. They’re all facing death together, and the fear of their lives ending drives them to continue on this punishing road.
Cooper Hoffman and David Johnsson play the two young men we get to know the best. There is much sarcastic banter between all the guys, even as their ranks are thinned. Some of the dialogue is a bit flat-footed. I should add that if you can’t stand seeing characters getting shot in the head, and all the gore that involves, this movie is not for you. The violence, however, is not meant to be humorous at all.
Mark Hamill has a small role as the sadistic officer in charge of the long walk. Evidently a big Stephen King fan, he also plays a key role in this year’s other King adaptation, The Life of Chuck.
I find it remarkable that “The Long Walk” was written 46 years ago, because the movie hits hard at the things we’re going through right now. It’s no accident that it’s all men in this race—King clearly has something to say about the violence permeating society’s male upbringing. We do meet one woman, the Hoffman character’s mom, and I think it’s significant that his strong attachment to her is not depicted as embarrassing or shameful.
The Long Walk, you may have figured out by now, is dark, very dark even for this author. Horror is usually fun—we get a vicarious thrill from the depiction of fear—this film can be terrifying, but it’s not fun, and it’s not supposed to be, in the same way tragedy isn’t supposed to be. This is a case where Stephen King didn’t try to sugarcoat the darkness or redeem us from our predicament. It’s a cold indictment of the world we’ve made, and I was shaken by it.
