The Long Walk (2025)

Rated R for gore, death, and a lot of language.  This is almost the quintessential Stephen King adaptation.  It really feels like you are reading one of his works, swearing and all.  Sure, the dialogue is a little snappy and everyone's just a little bit more vulgar than they would be in reality.  But the R rating really comes from the bluntness of violence.  Sometimes you see it.  Sometimes you don't.  It really doesn't matter because it all is jarring.  There's also a fair amount of issues that come with bowel movements.  R.

DIRECTOR:  Francis Lawrence

Guys, I'm deep in the hole again.  I have bitten off more than I can chew and I'm trying to find time to write these things.  I hope that no one notices me writing or that I look like I'm doing something important enough to justify quiet time.  Still, I am a little bummed that I didn't write this blog immediately after watching the movie.  

Golly, people said that The Long Walk was going to be something special and they were right.  Very rarely does that happen with me.  I tend ot get my hopes up way too high when it comes to movies that are generally well liked.  Maybe it is one of those movies that embraces the notion that genre is almost more tonal than formulaic.  Like The Walking Dead, The Long Walk ​(which I now realize have very similar names), the setting and the genre are horror, but the genre is almost utilitarian in nature.  With The Walking Dead, the conceit of a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland means that people can't sit still.  They have to be moving and you see what happens to human nature when the concept of home is stripped from them.  (Hence, when they get to Alexandria, there's something that is sacrificed from the formula.) 

The Long Walk uses the notion that the boys can't stop walking to see how people's codes of ethics hold up under the threat of death.  And, honestly, even though this is a post-apocalyptic allegory, it has an oddly optimistic view of humanity.  (I want to get into the political stuff very soon, so please, remind me!)  If you ignored all of the political stuff that is pretty thickly folded into The Long Walk, you still have a fantastic story about the way that humanity and brotherhood works.  Honestly, points to Stephen King for building their characters the way that he does because I would be tempted to show a lot more of men's demons rather than the goodness that is woven into people.  Ray and Pete are fantastic protagonists (even though technically one of them is the antagonist, if we're really following characterization rules closely).  These are two guys who understand that both of them can't survive.  Life and death is woven into the story so inherently that it's almost a little weird that anyone in this walk would talk to each other.  And, to be sure, there are characters in the story that choose a different attitude than the musketeers do (a very Stephen King concept that teenagers name themselves after Alexandre Dumas books).  But these guys establish a precedent that they view life --even life beyond their own --as sacred. 

Listen, this is weirdly a story about the inherent empathy that people should have.  Yeah, not everyone has that.  But Ray and Pete know that this walk will probably end in their deaths.  But they also want all 50 people to continue walking --by their limited perspective --forever.  It's a battle between heart and head.  Their heads tell them that the sooner that their peers fall, the more likely that they survive without the torture of having to walk for days.  But they also know that these are human beings.  They recognize their universal brotherhood and inherent value.  That's wonderful.  This is a movie where most of the cast is shot brutally and, yet, I can't help but think that this is a truly pro-life movie (in the strictest definition of pro-life.)  Okay, sure, Ray wants to shoot the Major through the head.  But Pete also tries talking Ray out of this wish.  I also recognize that Pete fulfills Ray's wish, but that almost mirrors the end of Supergirl, so read that for a look into my thoughts about that ending.

I confronted someone online again.  My wife kind of hates when I do this.  This is someone whom I view as intellectually superior (mainly because that's the persona he displays online), but morally different enough from me that I'm genuinely concerned at times.  He had the argument (without actually saying the word "woke") that science fiction and fantasy has gotten too political.  He claims that he grew up saying that his science fiction wasn't political.  Well, I went on a rant (a very polite on both sides discussion, really) claiming that those things that he liked as a kid were actually quite political.  It's just that those things either aligned with his politics or shaped his politics.  My point is that when people complain about politics in their storytelling, I think it's because the politics have been executed poorly.  I loved Quantum Leap.  I got really excited when the show came back.  I watched every episode (and am sad that I'll never find out what happened to Dr. Sam Beckett).  But there was an episode that was so intensely political that I couldn't help but roll my eyes.  I even agreed with the politics portrayed in the show and I still thought it was terrible.  I think we tend to lean towards "too woke" (and when I say "We", I mean "You") when the quality of the storytelling makes it seems like the creators are preaching.

The Long Walk's biggest strength is that it is probably My Dinner with Andre, but there's a chance that Andre's head is going to get blown off if he doesn't eat fast enough.  (Okay, I've never actually seen My Dinner with Andre.  It's on my list.)  Immediately, there's a commentary on the rising tide of Nationalism and the dangers of American exceptionalism.   It highlights how we use violence blindly without actual need for violence.  It's probably the most obvious thing about the story.  There's this explanation about the role of the Long Walk by the Major as a means to inspire Americans out of laziness (a commentary on the welfare state).  But there is never really an explanation for the need for violence beyond the most obvious answer:  America loves violence.  Like, this could just be a walk across America where we root for stamina and endurance.   But then we, as Americans, wouldn't have any stakes for watching people walk.  It's incredibly depressing, thinking that this is what we want.  And yet, it resonates as true.  

The Long Walk's glory lies in its simpleness.  When people have no excuse but to walk, we get to see simple, honest stories.  I was wondering what differentiates this from something like Speed.  After all, both have the conceit that people can't go slower than a certain velocity before they are killed.  And I think Speed is great.  Sure, it's been decades since I've seen it. But I do think it is great.  But it is a very different movie than something like The Long Walk.  The Long Walk occupies a space of character.  Yes, it is nervewracking and anxiety-inducing.  The entire movie, I wonder how characters are going to survive.  But I also know which characters are going to go.  It's more of a matter of which two characters it comes down to and what the walk does to them.  Do I get sad when characters die?  Absolutely.  Even the more antagonistic and unlikable characters generate sympathy before their deaths.  Heck, that might be the biggest trick that this movie pulls off: characters you start hating become sympathetic.  Sometimes it happens quickly.  Sometimes it happens slowly.  But you don't want anyone to die.  The attitude that Ray and Pete have towards the others becomes contagious.  We understand their perspectives towards life because they believe it. 

I really liked this movie, but there are a few things that I would do differently.  I love Mark Hamill as a person.  I really do.  I don't love this performance.  He loves this character that I've seen him do more than once.  But beyond that, I would have ended the movie one minute earlier.  I know that Lawrence wanted to end the movie with more walking in a movie all about walking.  But I would have ended the movie with "I want a carbine."  But besides that?  Man, I loved this movie.  Like, I kind of want to buy it because I enjoyed it that much.  It's hard for me to wax poetic, at least in isolation, when I like something a lot.  But honestly?  Check it out.