With a humanist approach to a bleak story, The Long Road adapts King's story for maximum emotional impact.
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Based on his filmography, Francis Lawrence seems like a natural choice for this movie. He's directed all but the first film in the Hunger Games franchise, and two other dystopian properties including I Am Legend and multiple episodes of the Apple+ show See. So if you've got a script about a dystopian future contest where 30 young men have to keep walking at 3 miles per hour or die, Lawrence feels like a natural choice. Who better to make a compelling film out of 1.5+ hours of young men bonding, walking and dying? Which I mean whole-heartedly, because Lawrence and company have crafted one of the most bleakly compelling movies of the year.
The Setup
Set in a war torn and economically desolate 1970s America, the film centers around Raymond Garraty, a young man who submitted himself and won the lottery for a chance to compete in "The Long Walk." A competition between 30 young men who all have to keep walking at 3 mph or die...until one of them is left standing, with riches and a wish of their choosing waiting for them at the finish line. Which raises the question, who will be the last one standing..and what kind of hardships will they have to endure to win?
The Long Walk has a difficult job. The first is making a bleak story about a bunch of young men being unceremoniously, and often quite cruelly, killed in a competition compelling for at least 90 minutes. The second is differentiating it from other dystopian fiction that the audience is already familiar with including, would you look at that, The Hunger Games.
So what's The Long Walk's secret weapon? Humanism.
A lot of the horror in "death game" stories comes from a thick extra layer of social commentary put on top of the story. In The Hunger Games, the titular games are presented as a punishment of former revolutionaries and a means of placatting the masses with gladiator-styled games, while also being an inhuman culling that forces young people to become monsters against one another. Likewise, the death game in Battle Royale is a punishment carried out by an embittered teacher against his students.
In both of these films there's an undercurrent of lingering rebellion (in both cases literally) simmering beneath the surface as our protagonists become symbols against the tyranny of the existing rulers/oppressors. It means that when Katniss fights in the Hunger Games she's fighting a battle on multple fronts. The political battle, the societal battle, the personal battles.
But the Long Walk doesn't involve conflict. Because the contest is just walking and the rules appear to prohibit fighting, the most any of these young men can do is at most invoke mind games or threats. There's no Lord of the Flies descent into madness. These young men are just trying to help one another keep going as long as they possibly can before representatives of the state execute them.
Which means the movie has the feeling of a war movie, in that every death is a tragedy, without the war.
So while there is inherent social commentary about how broken a society is that would literally feed its young men into a death game to "increase worker productivity" (literal quote), the focus is always on the walkers. We're not seeing how the walk is being broadcast to put them into a larger context (in fact spectators are basically not allowed). Instead we see our walkers demonstrate almost unequivocal solidatory with one another, where they all bond over being desperate enough to be in this situation.
We're staying with these boys as they continue to walk, struggle and die. We get to know them. What they're feeling. What their dreams are. Their faults and frailities. It means that when these boys are killed, it never feels easy or justified, and sadly demonstrates how given a long enough timeline, all of them could've been friends or family to one another, and helped make the world a better place. And how cruel it is, that this world and this competition wouldn't let them.
While I know King imagined this story as a his personal response to kids his age being drafted and sent to Vietnam, this humanist perspective ends up being one of the best examples of class solidarity put to screen in recent memory. Our walkers are all poor young men looking to change their life by winning the contest in broad or personal ways. But of course, no one survives, even a winner-take-all death game, alone so they all lean on each other and become friends and brothers in spite of the powers that be.
The emphasis on the walkers also means you can lean on an extraordinary young cast. The core four here are Cooper Hoffman (yes Philip's son), David Jonsson, Tut Nyuot and Ben Wang as the "Musketeers" who quickly bond, gently tease and support each other. Ben Wang is great as our foul-mouthed silly guy and Nyuot's proudly religious Arthur Baker is effortlessly charming.
And I need to give a shout out to Judy Greer who is in two-three scenes in the whole movie and gives an absolutely heart-breaking performance as Garraty's mom. It's nothing but gut punches from her and gives the audience a reminder of what's really happening and what's at stake.
But the core of this movie is Hoffman and Jonsson.
Hoffman has a heavy lift as the movie's main emotional focal point. Because how he feels about what happens is more or less the tone the movie takes. We see what he sees. We're horrified when he's horrified. He's also young, angry and motivated. But...he's got blind spots where his hurt and hate have hidden obvious truths to him.
And that's where Jonsson, the movie's true emotional anchor Peter McVries, comes in. Jonsson doesn't have an extensive filmography thus far, but at this point, give him any role he wants. Becuase he just has it. He inhabits characters so effortlessly and is so moving/compelling whether he's playing a mostly buttoned up morale booster like McVries or our android friend in last year's Alien: Romulus.
Now a role like this seems a lot easier than it is. Because you just act laid back while the guy next to you goes through the gamut of human emotions right? Well no, because McVries is both like the group's cheerleader and the movie's heart. He's the one guiding Garraty's emotional journey, the one who keeps the boys focused on their ultimate goal and survival. So when he finally does emote, man it packs a serious punch. Because the signs have all been there in his reactions and what questions he does or doesn't answer, but hearing him finally express all of that means something.
Put all together, you've got an emotional potent and moving drama that turns its simple premise into something far greater.
The Verdit: Affecting
With a humanist approach to a bleak story, The Long Road adapts King's story for maximum emotional impact. 8/10
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