The Long Walk

 Stephen King may have started his published career with Carrie, but he actually wrote another novel, The Long Walk, almost a decade earlier. It was eventually published in 1979 under his short-lived pseudonym, Richard Bachman, who also has another novel with a film on the way. But let's walk on over to the film out now.

Instead of yet another crummy future, we have a crummy past. In it, a second Civil War has led to a second Great Depression and a Totalitarian United States. Every year, fifty boys, one from each state, are chosen by lottery for The Long Walk, the nation's biggest sporting event. Supervised by a sinister Major (Mark Hamill), the contestants walk hundreds of miles until only one remains. The winner gets a huge cash prize and whatever else he wants; the losers, particularly those who can't keep up the pace after three warnings, get "ticketed" by their military convoy.

At the starting line, we find the likes of Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), Peter McVries (David Jonsson), Hank Olson (Ben Wang), Billy Stebbins (Garrett Wareing), Arthur Baker (Tut Nyuot), and Collie Parker (Joshua Odjick). Ray, who has it out for the Major, bonds with Peter, the idealist. How long can they keep up the pace?

Francis Lawrence, with his work on The Hunger Games franchise, is quite an appropriate director. Indeed, your mind might veer to Panem once the radio exposition establishes its bleak world. It might not have a huge budget to fully visualize its world, but the desolate landscapes filmed by Jo Willems more than suffice. There's barely any life on the beaten path, as if the Dust Bowl never ended. That's how bad it is. A particular highlight is when the walkers pass by two parked cars - a police car and a burning car. You'll be wondering what happened there.

You may also wonder how a film like this can be engaging. Well, Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner accomplishes that with their cast. It's quite compelling to watch Ray and Peter bond with each other and their fellow walkers. You'll want to keep up with these "musketeers" as they help each other keep up the pace. The tension is high whenever the convoy starts issuing warnings. The walkers just narrowly avoid getting ticketed multiple times, and it's never redundant by the time they finally get it.  What makes the convoy really cruel is how they keep warning obviously unfit contestants (one comes down with epilepsy, another suffers the worse broken ankle you'll ever see). The long-delayed mercy kills are nowhere near a relief.

Let's discuss a few characters. One walker, Gary Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer), gets on everyone's bad side - on-screen and off - when he gets another walker ticketed. His flippant behavior does little to change that opinion, but after a while, we fully understand how broken he is. We eventually pity him when he ends his own life. The Major isn't a nice man, to say the least, but he surprisingly takes it in stride when the walkers shout treason (or something like it). And finally, we have Judy Greer as Ray's mom Ginnie, who mostly just weeps hysterically. Considering the situation, you won't blame her too much. In fact, it's because of her presence that the film's ending, which is significantly tweaked from the novel, takes on a bit of a sour note. 

 Those that walk on by will get themselves a masterful dystopian thriller. You'll be surprised how funny most of the movie is, at least until the final stretch. At face value, the ending is rather bleak, but it's still interesting to think about. Of course, if The Long Walk doesn't suit your speed, then that other movie surely will. You bet that I'll run on by that film once it hits on November. That's it for this one.