- 3 months ago
Film Brain joins the pack in this long-awaited adaptation of one of Stephen King's very darkest stories - and yet there's a surprising amount of humanity. You know what else is surprising? How good it is.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Cooper Hoffman and David Johnson
00:04lead the pack in a Stephen King adaptation that'll keep you on your toes, The Long Walk.
00:10Set in a dystopian America every year, The Long Walk is hell, led by Mark Hamill's The Major
00:32and broadcaster Boost Morale, with 50 teenage boys chosen from every state to compete for
00:38a cash prize and a wish at their choosing.
00:41This year, it takes place in Maine, and the hometown hero is Raymond Garrity, player Cooper
00:46Hoffman, who holds a personal reason for joining the contest.
00:50The rules are as simple as they are brutal.
00:54Participants must keep pace above three miles per hour, and if they don't, they will be
00:58executed after three warnings, and the walk will continue until only one is left standing.
01:06The Long Walk is based on the Stephen King novel, the first one he ever wrote in the mid-60s,
01:11but not the first one published.
01:13The book was so bleak that it took several years for it to be finally published in 1979,
01:19and even then it was under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.
01:22And King's Bachman books are especially dark and nihilistic even by his standards.
01:27Yes, even from someone that wrote Pet Sematary.
01:30And it's been a good year for Stephen King adaptations.
01:33Still a booming business after it.
01:35We've had the gleefully twisted The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, The Institute on TV, and
01:41later this year we've got another Bachman book, The Running Man, getting readapted by
01:45Edgar Wright, in a version that's presumably going to be a lot more faithful than the previous
01:50film.
01:51Sorry Arnie, but I'm pretty stoked for that.
01:53The Long Walk has had itself a long road to film.
01:56The various parties, including Shawshank Redemption's Frank Darabont, have tried for decades to
02:01bring it to the screen.
02:02It now finally arrives directed by Francis Lawrence, who has had plenty of experience with dystopian
02:06sci-fi, having held The Hunger Games sequels and prequel, and the script is adapted by JT
02:11Molnar, who made a splash with the twisty horror thriller Strange Darling.
02:16King also did have some involvement with the film, and approved not just the cast, but also
02:20the changes the film makes.
02:23More on some of that stuff later.
02:25But perhaps the reason it has taken so long to be turned into a film, when adaptations
02:29of King's work are just as prolific as his own writing, is that the premise is a tricky
02:34one to make cinematic.
02:36I will fully admit that when I first saw a trailer, I too was sceptical as to whether it would be
02:41able to translate well into a movie.
02:43And I'm glad to admit I was wrong.
02:45The Long Walk doesn't just work.
02:47It does so well that it joins the ranks of some of the best adaptations of Stephen King's
02:52work on film.
02:53Perhaps one of the reasons why The Long Walk is a challenging story to adapt is that it's
02:58fundamentally an allegory for the Vietnam War, and it will always be at the core of the text.
03:04The visual of young men being marched towards their cruel, senseless death at the hands of
03:08a brutal, inhumane military-industrial complex is utterly unmistakable.
03:14Whatever their reasons for joining the army, sorry, I mean The Walk, they won't matter.
03:20Their dreams or ambitions for their futures, like Jordan Gonzalez's Richard Harkness, an
03:25aspiring writer with something of a resemblance to King, will be snuffed out indiscriminately
03:30and forgotten in the face of their demise.
03:33There is no time to stop, to reflect, to mourn, or to do anything but keep moving forward,
03:39and on to the next victim.
03:41And the next.
03:42And the one after that.
03:44Friends, hopes, ambitions are gone in the most barbaric fashion possible.
03:50They're one minute, gone the next.
03:53Maybe the allegory isn't actually so much the problem, because unfortunately it keeps
03:57being all too relevant.
03:59I do think the reason why The Long Walk has gone the distance all these years is that
04:04the allegory is malleable and can be read and interpreted in different ways.
04:09The dystopian American setting, for instance, is especially potent at our current tumultuous
04:14political moment.
04:15The film version plays upon this further by implying that it's partially the product of
04:19civil war that has led to a major economic downturn and further amplifies the source's
04:24critique of America.
04:26Part of the reason for The Long Walk is that it's meant to serve as a sick inspiration
04:30for the people, claiming it boosts the country's GDP, grinding up young men in the gears of
04:36capitalism like a ritualistic sacrifice.
04:39In that sense, the film does have echoes of something like The Purge in its political
04:43critique of a nation banding around a callous tradition.
04:47Despite the claims of the major, though, the sights the boys march through on their walk
04:51largely go through areas showing stark deprivation and hardship and dead-end empty towns.
04:57This is in America under a state of decay under totalitarianism, and the participants mostly
05:03signed up for the prize to try and escape their dreary circumstances.
05:08They'll soon find out that prosperity is not on the menu.
05:11But you could also interpret it on a much more existential level, and at times I thought about
05:16The Long Walk as being a metaphor for life, that you're constantly moving forward and,
05:21as you do, you gradually lose those around you.
05:25To compete in The Walk means having to accept the certainty of death, as we all do in life,
05:31and having to understand that fact.
05:33They don't know how far they'll get before they're struck down by injury, misfortune,
05:38or just plain exhaustion.
05:40The boys walk in the shadow of death, and every moment could be their last.
05:46As the boys discuss amongst themselves at several points, if they are going to go,
05:50it's better to go out on their own terms, usually as a deliberate act of rebellion and insubordination,
05:56rather than obeying the rules of a cruel game stacked against their favour from the outset.
06:01That counts as a minor victory.
06:04Even just choosing to simply sit down becomes a decision to confront their fate
06:09with a dignified acceptance, rather than an agonising pain.
06:13There's a nobility in that.
06:15And Lawrence puts the horror of the situation directly at the forefront,
06:19and the unfortunate first elimination, played by Jojo Rabbit's Roman Griffin Davis,
06:24showing a graphic close-up for maximum shock effect.
06:27The title doesn't appear until directly after this moment,
06:31and it sets the grim tone for what is to come.
06:33The walk is violence as ceremonial spectacle broadcast across the country,
06:39much like the war reports on the news.
06:41It's an idea that King has come back to.
06:43Hello again, the running man.
06:45But it means the film has to, um, tread carefully when it comes to depicting the viciousness.
06:51This is a horror film, after all, and there are the expected moments of gore,
06:55including a particularly grisly moment involving a tank,
06:59or some gnarly injuries as the miles accumulate on ankles twisted at unfortunate angles.
07:05But these are exceptions, rather than the norm.
07:08Instead, one of the boys gets their ticket punched, as the major euphemistically calls it,
07:13it's often represented by the sound of a gunshot,
07:16loudly ringing in the air and the hard final silence that follows.
07:21And usually the illumination is in the distance at the back of the frame,
07:25and a few very minor characters are simply heard off-screen.
07:29I hope I never get used to that,
07:31Rey and McVrees agree amongst themselves.
07:33And thanks to the film's effectiveness,
07:35the audience never does, either.
07:37The violence is largely staged with discretion,
07:40rather than trying to sensationalise every fatality,
07:43which would have quickly blunted their impact in repetition.
07:46You make the first shot linger and disturb,
07:49so that the audience thinks of it every time they hear that sound onwards.
07:54You don't need to keep on showing it, because the mind is doing the work.
07:59And yet, somehow, despite all the horror,
08:02there's a lot of humanity to be found amongst the film.
08:04And that's because of the extremely talented cast of young actors.
08:08Even in the supporting cast,
08:09they manage to make these characters distinctive and stand out.
08:13There's a natural camaraderie that develops among the boys
08:15that becomes a solidarity as their numbers narrow.
08:19They start referring to themselves as the Musketeers,
08:22in a valiant attempt to try and work together for as long as they can.
08:26And despite knowing that they shouldn't because of exactly the kind of game they're in,
08:31they can't help but form the kind of bond
08:33that is forged by spending every moment together in tense circumstances.
08:38The kind of young brashness mixed with gallows humour, not to mention intimate.
08:44The walk stops for nothing and no one.
08:47They have to sleep while walking,
08:49which Rey is astonished to find that his body can somehow do.
08:52But that also includes toilet breaks.
08:55So they have to somehow find a way to do their business,
08:58yes, even number twos, on the move without stopping for too long.
09:03There is one memorably unfortunate sod with an upset stomach.
09:07The walk is a messy business in every sense.
09:10But that spirit and that humour isn't just a welcome respite for them,
09:14it's one for the audience as well.
09:16I think it would have been very easy for the long walk to become a grim trudge,
09:20just a succession of kids getting their ticket.
09:23Instead it makes you care about the characters and you find yourself rooting for them despite
09:28knowing the odds.
09:30The film was actually shot in sequence,
09:32so you can almost see the real life friendships among the actors developing through the film
09:37and enhances their characterisations and performances.
09:40It becomes genuinely heartbreaking when they reach their last mile.
09:44There's an emotional weight to them and you start to feel their absence.
09:48As the body count gets ever larger, you start to feel the mounting toll and weariness on the survivors.
09:56Among some of the most memorable members in the supporting cast are Ben Wang,
09:59recently seen in Karate Kid Legends, as the gum chewing Hank Olsen,
10:03Joshua Ojik as Collie and especially Charlie Plummer as Barkovich.
10:08Barkovich is easily the most antagonistic of the boys,
10:11whose gloating and bullying quickly makes him unpopular and ostracised amongst them.
10:16But underneath that is a frightened kid who desperately wants to be liked and validated,
10:22and Plummer's twitchy turn gives an unsympathetic character some nuance.
10:28In the lead as Ray is Cooper Hoffman, who is the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman,
10:33something which the actor has admitted influenced his performance,
10:35playing a character who has lost his father.
10:38And Ray's motivations for joining are greatly expanded upon in the film version.
10:43Judy Greer appears in a handful of key scenes playing Ray's mother,
10:46who is utterly distraught at having her son compete in the walk,
10:50having already lost her husband, and now, facing the likelihood,
10:54she may also lose her son as well.
10:57And that's a grief that is just too terrible to even think about.
11:01It's also worth noting that, again, like Licorice Pizza and Paul Thomas Anderson previously,
11:07Hoffman is working with a director who previously worked with his father,
11:11as Lawrence directed him in the aforementioned Hunger Games films.
11:14But Hoffman is a solid actor in his own right,
11:17and he gives Ray a sensitive everyman quality,
11:20as he's particularly shaken by the mounting losses,
11:23and his resolve that the walk is a cruel spectacle grows with each passing mile.
11:28Ray tries to rally and lead the group and help them as they struggle,
11:33but sometimes that's not enough, and the results often leave him shaken and shell-shocked.
11:40But the real standout of the long walk is David Johnson as the scarred McVries,
11:44who admits he spent much of his life on the road already.
11:48And yet, in spite of that, he remains the most upbeat, positive member.
11:52And Johnson is already a rising star.
11:55He was great in Rye Lane,
11:57and his standout role in A.N. Romulus put him on a lot of people's radars.
12:01His performance in this confirms him as a star.
12:04He has an immense charisma about him.
12:06You can hardly keep your eyes off of him throughout the entire film.
12:09He's absolutely magnetic.
12:12He makes for an excellent double act with Hoffman,
12:14as Ray and McVries become fast friends early on,
12:17just as the actors have in real life.
12:19When Ray begins to spoil, McVries is the one pulling him out,
12:23telling him to take it moment by moment.
12:27If the dynamic between the boys sometimes recall Stand By Me,
12:31then the relationship between the two is reminiscent of Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman
12:35in the Shawshank Redemption,
12:37and the kinship and solidarity that comes from keeping hope in the most dire of circumstances.
12:43Albeit with far less redemption in the end.
12:47And it is worth noting that J.T. Moliner's script does make fairly substantial changes to the source
12:52material, which is not uncommon to bringing King's work to the screen.
12:56Some alterations are also to wrongfoot those who have read the book,
12:59and playing with the expectations of those already familiar with it,
13:03not just new audiences.
13:05So some characters are less prominent in the film than they are in the book, and vice versa,
13:09and some of the dynamics between the characters are altered and reversed.
13:13I suspect some of these changes might divide readers of the book,
13:17particularly a different ending.
13:19The way the original King book ended was on a bleak but somewhat ambiguous note
13:23that's open to interpretation.
13:25The film's ending is equally grim but in its own way,
13:29and does provide a facile sense of catharsis on a surface level,
13:34but still ends on a defeated note.
13:36There's arguments for both endings,
13:38but I think both work towards the same message about the effect that violence,
13:42and war, don't forget, has on the mind, and the emptiness of it all, ultimately.
13:49But yeah, I really enjoyed The Long Walk, if that is really the right word for it.
13:54It's a tough watch to be sure, but it shouldn't be anything less than that.
13:58It's very well directed and fantastic performances throughout from the entire cast.
14:04I do wish that we got slightly more of Mark Hamill's The Major,
14:08a regular of King adaptations, and only very recently seen in The Life of Chuck.
14:12Hamill's Major is more of a figure than a character,
14:15Uncle Sam by way of a drill sergeant who never takes off his sunglasses,
14:19who largely watches over the proceedings from the back of a jeep.
14:23When the boys try to cuss him out, he just smiles right back,
14:27glossingly, while periodically giving macho encouragement,
14:31like just how much balls it takes to get this far on the walk.
14:35Regardless, I left The Long Walk somewhat shell-shocked myself,
14:38and I think it ranks among some of the very best Stephen King adaptations on film,
14:42which is pretty high praise given the caliber of some of those movies.
14:47King films tend to either be great or terrible, there's very few that fall in between,
14:52and as I walked home, I couldn't stop thinking about it,
14:55with the sound of gunfire still ringing in my ears long after it had ended.
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15:24Until next time, I'm Matthew Buck, feeding out.
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