"The Long Walk" Deeply Flawed, Yet Still Enjoyable

 

    You know what? A surprisingly good film. I'll admit, I've been holding off on this film for basically a month, and frankly the premise didn't leave that much of an impression on me. It seemed a little gimmicky and I don't watch or read many things based on Stephen King's work so that wasn't a draw. Then the movie starts off and you can't help but get a hesitant feeling watching what is supposed to be a group of teenage boys look clearly into their 20's, evoking distinct imagery of for better or worse, 2000's era (and before) high school media which commonly employed this technique (I'm looking at you Glee). Even still, I must admit like the boys in the film it managed to trudge through, keeping me well entertained and my eyes glued to the screen, even as temptation crept in to check my phone every once in a while. So how did it do all of that? Let's talk about it.

    First of all, your enjoyment of this film hinges entirely on your ability to suspend your disbelief for this film, which can be tricky, but is possible. I'm not saying you're better or worse if you can't, it very much just depends on whether or not the film is able to hit the correct emotional heartstrings to quickly endear itself to you before the illusion may fade, or it all washes away too quickly before the film even ends. I will say the fact that you do have to suspend your disbelief for this movie speaks to it's rather flimsy premise, which in my mind almost limits the film to an extent. I'm not saying it's a bad film, or that it uses cheap tricks like shock value or shock factor to achieve a favourable score from me, but I will say I do think the element of surprise in this film really played in it's favour, one might even call it a crutch. I'm just not sure if this film would be as impactful emotionally on further viewings, lowering it's replayability value in my eyes (if that matters to you at all).

    That's enough preamble though, and let me explain why I think the premise is so shaky in my mind. Imagine I told you to conjure up a dystopia in America. Now stop. That's it, you're not allowed to think about it any more. You might say "well I didn't get very far in imagining it," and that's the issue with the film. The "dystopia" it purports to portray is so hilariously generic and incoherent it's hard not to poke holes in a realm seemingly filled to the brim with them. Throw in a little Farenheit 451 with the way they talk about "banned books and idea's," a dash of the Thought Police from 1984 breaking down your door during dinner because you're spreading the wrong idea's, and for good measure make sure to throw in a big conflict that has not quite turned America post-apocalyptic like in The Walking Dead or Fallout but devastated it just enough so that the usual luxuries of a first world are no longer present. That's pretty much the world of The Long Walk. 

    And well, if that just sounds like something that's still incredibly vague you'd be right. You pretty much have no idea why the Long Walk is actually happening. There's no sort of big ideology behind this military leader who somehow has the time of day to personally go execute dissenters himself? I mean the major is literally just referred to as "The Major," and in his beginning diatribe about laziness in America and needing to once again rise up to the top spot you aren't really able to decipher any sort of meaning. Like they'll talk about the long walk as if it's always something that has been in the lives of these young men, but then they'll mention things like Treasure Island and Orange Julius and you just end up wondering what actually happened. If America is too lazy is killing people really the right solution? Why are people cheering for this? Why are women allowed in the military and entrusted with enough power to kill people yet it's only men in The Long Walk. All very good questions that simply never get answered.

    At this point in the review you must be wondering to yourself. Wow, for someone who said that they enjoyed the film at the beginning you sure really do sound like you hate it. And to that I say, I'm just trying to illustrate the point. If you can't get past all of this, I have a strong feeling you will not enjoy the film and just think it's kind of dumb. To me this is the most important factor of the film that will absolutely swing whether or not you're able to enjoy it. The film is a tightrope walker, and they're holding a stick, with one end being very heavy, that end being this very weak worldbuilding that you have to not ask too many questions about for about two hours, and on the other end, hoping to counterbalance it, is some damn good acting.

    You just need to list out the names. David Jonsson, Cooper Hoffman, Ben Wang, Garrett Wareing, Joshuaa Odjick and Tut Nyuot. Without these men I think the film falls apart so quickly. I specifically need to applaud David Jonsson, who without his acting this film would have cratered. They manage to endear themselves to viewers so quickly, even with the limited worldbuilding they are provided. The scenes the film is able to do is very limited by the fact that they're supposed to be never walking, so it's up to the actors to really fill in the blanks and make sure that viewers stay locked into the film, caring about what happens to them, so that with a little bit of music, the film can punch you in the gut. I mean I wasn't close to crying when Ben Wang's character died, but I could physically feel a coldness swiftly sweep over me watching his last moments. It would have been so easy to fill this movie with way too many flashbacks for backstories, since the film is basically just a short series of clips meant to update you on the progress for the boys, but they managed to carry it throughout.

Final Score: 70/100

    I do have to say, this film is severely kneecapped in terms of how high it's score could realistically be for me. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to say that the shock value worked, but was definitely a small crutch for this film. Being willing to show the gory bits, juxtaposed with the relatively cheerful mood of the boys as they walk towards glory and a reward is effective and evocative. Like I can complain about this film's worldbuilding crumbling basically as soon as the film reaches the finish line like an exhausted marathon walker (it basically crumbles right before the credits even roll), I enjoyed the film. I was watching attentively the entire time, not because I couldn't bear to take my eyes off of it, but because I enjoyed it. To me the stakes felt real, there was real emotional impact, but all of that is so subjective. Lastly, on the note of the ending I do think the movie producers did the right thing changing the ending of the book for the movie. Searching up the ending of the book for the movie I think I would have groaned even harder if the movie ended that way, it would have been so cliche for a film set in a dystopia to end that way and I was already quite annoyed with how cliche and underbaked this dystopia already was.