Internet Janitor
I have read everything Stephen King has ever written, and his most disturbing story that stuck with me the longest was The Long Walk. While the theatrical version makes a number of significant changes, it had the same effect in that I left the theatre in a stunned state. The topics within are timely, more so than they have been in decades. As the wicked country beneath Canada descends into authoritarianism and fascism, it lends the film a barbed edge.
In the future, America is recovering from a brutal war. Which one? They don’t say, but just don’t go watching the news, or you could possibly hazard a few guesses. Poverty is rampant, and young men across the country apply to be accepted for The Long Walk. The prize of riches, of having a wish fulfilled, almost any wish is better than the lives they must have. To win is simple. Walk and keep walking until everyone else has died. If you stop, you die; if you walk below three miles an hour, you die. CrossFit ain’t got nothing on this.
What makes The Long Walk so uncomfortable is that we’re right there the whole time with these kids. Right up in their faces. In the books, there was a lot more fanfare and onlookers, but here, until the end, no one seems to care anymore, aside from the kids. Much like The Purge, if you think this kind of thing happening isn’t possible, you’re complicit or not paying attention.
The performances are exceptional. The best of all is Dan McVires (played by David Jonsson, who stole the show in Alien: Romulus and does so again here), who is part of the heart of the group. In fact, that’s another thing which makes this get under your skin. There are no villains, not really, among the kids. A few are jackasses, but not really a villain, so there’s no one to relieve your concern over because they had it coming. You walk with them, you get to know them, and you are there to watch them die. Everyone seems like an honest fellow, trying to overlook the odds and find a better life.
The walk is presented as the most patriotic thing they can do. In a post-war world where independent thought is against the law. Where reading the wrong books, listening to the wrong music is outlawed. Sound familiar? It should. History always repeats itself.
As King himself wrote, Ka is a wheel.
Yes, the ending is different, but I think it works. Yes, the crowds are mostly gone, but I think it works. The heart is there, and this adaptation is up there with Misery and The Shawshank Redemption.
Perhaps we can learn from this? Oh, what am I saying? Let us speak foolishly now. If people could learn from the past, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
So we just keep walking.