The Long Walk is a relatively straightforward story.The film is Speed mixed in with Hunger Games and Battle Royale. The premise is that in a world where the economy has basically ruined the world (could be set in 2025), 50 teenage boys take part in a contest where they have to walk and walk until there is just one person left and that person gets a life changing amount of money and one wish. It’s what they would call the elevator pitch.
Based on a Stephen King novel, these tend to have a mixed record but I have to say that this is one of the better ones. The simplicity of the plot means that this film is more of a character piece than anything else. The film centres around Garetty (played by Cooper Hoffman) and his small band of friends. For all but two scenes the film takes place on the road
There is one thing that I could have done without and that is the defecating. We see it not once, not twice but three times and that's gross. I understand that they would need to do this at some point but we didn’t need to see it actually be done. I’m surprised they showed restraint and didn’t zoom in on the butt cheeks. Thank heavens for small mercies.
The film centres around Garraty but the film has other people for us to be interested in. McVries is someone that becomes a close friend and ultimately wins the contest and I liked David Jonsson’s performance. To strike up a solid duo with great chemistry so quickly isn’t an easy thing and yet both Hoffman and Jonsson achieve this. I also liked Tut Nyuot as Baker. There were people who we were clearly not supposed to like as much and they did their job perfectly. Garrett Wareing as Stebbins was one of those and it was clear that he had some relationship with the Major so it wasn't a surprise when that was revealed. He did manage to claw back some empathy by the end of the film but for the most part I disliked him and that was what he was supposed to do. Charlie Plummer was the film's antagonist as he just came across as such a horrible person and it was his actions that led to someone dying. Like Stebbins, he does claw back some empathy by the end but it took him stabbing himself with a spoon to achieve this.
Mark Hammil pops up as the major and there is very little we know about the Major except for a few flashback scenes where he killed Garraty’s dad. I think this might be the first new film I have seen Hammil in since The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019. It’s a great performance by him and in a few short scenes he makes you dislike him. If he is on screen for 10 minutes in total then I would be very surprised yet he still felt like a big part of the film. The Major’s involvement is what motivates Garraty to do what he is doing, he is walking barefoot at one point and the pain must have been indescribable and so its this that makes Garraty more of a hero in the world of this film than he probably would have been without the flashback.
I don’t know how much the film differs from the book but what we got in this film was very good. Except for the defecating, this was a highly enjoyable film with strong characters and credit to Francis Lawrence for making a film about walking seem intense and dramatic. This isn’t a film that feels the need to include a bunch of sentimental stuff into the plot because the performances have enough of that and I also like the fact that we know very little about the world except for the explantation at the beginning and then the story ends, the film ends with McVries walking into the sunset. The film gets in and gets out which I can appreciate. At 108 minutes, the film is the perfect length and doesn't feel the need to pad things out.
Overall I really enjoyed ’Speed on Foot’. Great performances, good direction and a story that works very well in today’s society.
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