The Long Walk (2025)

This is now starting to creep into streaming services now in the UK and I thought I'd give it a go. I haven't read Stephen King's book but it seems that from those who have, this film adaptation meanders someway off the writing and many are not pleased.

The backdrop is a USA now under a military regime - a repressive police state, where the government exerts strict control. Civil liberties are severely curtailed. People can be executed for expressing outspoken political opinions against the government and the country is suffering from a severe economic depression. The Long Walk contest organised by the government is a way to inspire patriotism and a strong work ethic in the public.

One hundred teenage boys are selected via a lottery to compete. They must walk continuously along a pre-arranged route. They must maintain a pace over 3mph. If anyone drops below the speed for a specified time, they receive a verbal warning from the armed soldiers escorting them. After three warnings, the next one results in the boy being shot dead. The single boy who lasts the longest wins a large cash prize and the fulfillment of any one wish he desires for the rest of his life. The event is highly publicised and watched by spectators who line the route, turning the state-sponsored murder into a major source of entertainment and betting. This is one of the aspects apparently in the book and not the film, which is almost all set along country roads away from spectators.

King began writing it in the late 1960s, and it was widely considered an allegory for the Vietnam War and the military draft - reflecting anxieties about young men being arbitrarily chosen and sent off to a brutal, often fatal, experience by an unquestionable authority.

So yes, that's about it really. During the walk we get to know the characters and the reasons why they have volunteered to be a part of this - often not just about money. There are one or two flashbacks but the cameras stay mainly with the walkers and a huge part of the film is dialogue driven - interspersed with brutal killings of, yes, you guessed it, 99 of the young men. Much of it is about regret and loss, opportunity and revenge but mostly friendship and the meaning of that - so entrenched, that at times it starts to feel a little like a soap opera!

But it's not - it's more like a thriller in a sense, except that we pretty much know what is going to happen - because it has to. That's the point. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are engaging in the main two leads, surrounded by quirky characters, often annoying, sometimes sweet and moreover experiencing changes of priorities and life/death outlook as they face their end against the 100:1 odds. The pace is pushed along by the pace of the walking and it never feels, unlike the walkers, tired or laboured.

The photography and direction (Francis Lawrence) are well thought through as we have various interesting well-shot close-ups of the killings and out of focus long-shots too - as we trundle along the road with the guys. It's an odd film really. I guess one can look deeply into it, given the above regarding who wrote it, when it was written and what the drive for the story was - but it can also be taken at face value of some futuristic game-to-the-death like Squid Game or the like. Quite entertaining, therefore - and thought-provoking for those who wish to muse.