The Long Walk

 I was a big Stephen King fan for about 20 years, and I read The Long Walk as a teenager. King achieved tremendous success with the paperback release of his first released novel Carrie, and rather than flood the marketplace with his prolificacy, five of his non-monster novels were released under a pseudonym, including The Long Walk. The first of King's novels to be completed, when he was a college freshman, The Long Walk is a gripping if bleak dystopian horror novel. Seemingly the least technically complicated King novel to film (all you need is a few dozen teenagers, a few Jeeps, and a road) perhaps the final ingredient required was an appetite for bleak dystopian horror? The director of The Hunger Games would seem to be a fine choice. 

I read and liked The Long Walk as a teenager, but I read it again as an adult and I liked it even more. The story is not about "how much can the human body endure" but "how strong is a young man's spirit, and what impossible physical obstacles is he able to overcome to stay alive". The movie is just as bleak and unflinchingly violent as the book, but the main difference is the addition of heart: the movie is much more of a two-hander between Ray Garratty and Peter DeVries than the book was. The novel's ending would be vague and unsatisfying to film; I found the rewritten ending organic and satisfying.

Quibbles: in the final scenes of the book, I remember massive, surging, cheering crowds of onlookers as the last few Walkers trudge through Danvers, Massachusetts. In the movie, the Walkers explain that crowds are not permitted until there's only two Walkers left, but when that time comes, for some reason we only see two small groups of onlookers, under umbrellas, in the pouring rain, at night, on a completely generic-looking city street. This is supposed to be a nationally-broadcast exhibition, where every American is watching, yet when the terrible finale is upon us, it looks like two dozen people showed up? The whole movie leading up to this was beautifully shot on location in the gorgeous landscapes of Winnipeg (standing in for Maine). This final scene felt cheap and out of place. Maybe they could not afford massive, surging, cheering crowds of onlookers, and this moment suffered for it.

My other quibble can't be helped: it's frustrating watching dramatic dialog scenes between talented actors... when their faces never stop moving... because they're on The Long Walk. This is the first movie ever where the director cannot let the actors stand still for a meaningful closeup, because the characters will get shot in the head. I didn't get motion sick, but I was sick of the motion.

Of the many adaptations of King novels, this ranks high on the "King vibes" scale. For fans of King and the novel, I recommend it.