It doesn’t do “The Long Walk” any favors slapping the previews to the remake of “The Running Man” on before the opening credits. “Walk” is “Running” without the running or the amped-up game show “entertainment” elements.
The title and the trailers give away the whole derivative story — a dog-eat-dog “Hunger Game/Maze Runner” on foot, contestants walking until they falter and are summarily executed by The State, fifty young men marching hundreds of miles until all but one drop.
The subtexts to all this, the real nature of “a draft,” which is how the contestants are chosen (young men selected for “sacrifice”), a nation splintered after a second civil war, in need of healing, the violence and hatred that must be overcome to unite us against a common enemy, are opaque. The character arcs are dull.
It’s a chatty film, where a group of the lads bond, share and do everything but sing “Kumbaya” on their death mark, and director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner do little save for bursts of violence and a flashback to animate it.
“Boy, I would KILL for a foot massage right now.”
The performances aren’t generally bad. They’re limited by the story and working conditions.
Young actors walking and talking, even if they typically turn fatigued or injured enough to merit execution rather abruptly — as opposed to steadily weakening and collapsing — isn’t the best way to deliver pages and pages and pages of dialogue. Endless words and even whole sentences are lost in the effort to briskly walk and thoughtfully talk.
But kudos to Mark Hamill for managing his best Michael Ironside as the heartless “Major” who reiterates the rules and barks out motivational pitches behind black aviator sunglasses from his open top armored vehicle.
“There is only one ‘winner’ and no ‘finish line.” It’ll take “courage, determination and ambition” to win it all, with the sole survivor earning a big cash prize and an all-encompassing “wish” granted to boot.
Judy Greer gets across the stakes in an opening scene where she drops off her only son, Raymond (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour H.) at the Louisiana starting line. Fifty young men, one representing each state, have been “chosen,” and Raymond chose not to opt out.
He’s not in great shape, but he has his reasons for participating in this “patriotic” bloodsport. And Mom collapses in tears when the weight of the moment overcomes her.
Raymond is the “home state” boy in the field, theoretically knowing the terrain (it was actually shot in Canada) and used to the climate. His Mom can stop by the “race” to check on his progress, or if he’s survived the first hour, first night or first three days.
Philospher Raymond bonds with smart and sensible Peter (David Jonsson), and they connect with nerdy Hank (Ben Wang) and tall and thin Baker (Tyt Nyout). They’re the (four) “Three Musketeers,” urging each other on, propping each other up as ankles, legs, will and bowels give way and The Major and his escorting, guarding, executing and televising troopers “thin the herd.”
Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer) is a sadist, an emotional wreck into taunting others thanks to his own issues. Stebbins (Garrett Wareing) is the tall, thin and fit blond who seems like everybody’s safest best to win this thing. There’s a “sissy boy,” a kid who must have lied about his age to get in, a young guy (Jordan Gonzalez) who’d like to “write a book” about event “from the inside” and a Native American from Iowa (Joshua Odjick) who endures as a loner’s loner.
The characters are a veritable checklist of “types” given the color-blinding casting tratment. And the conversations flirt with the idea of being “about” something — a generational cry of “Nobody signed UP for this!” — but never quite amount to making a statement.
It’s about pliable, conformist young men at that heedless age when armies all over the world draft them into service. It’s about a future “Gen Z” trapped in a world of older generations’ making, and sacrificed for that. “Helpless” describes their resigned-to-their-fate state in a single word.
Horrific? Only in the eyes-averting gore and graphic death mark diarrhrea sense.
I couldn’t decide if the generic backdrops and endless conversations made this more suited to a podcast series, as Stephen King had good luck with some of his more dialogue-heavy books on radio in the ’80s, or whether “Long Walk” is just another 65 minute movie in a 105 minute package.
The resolution’s both predictable and perfunctory. “Unsatisfying” comes with the package, and that goes for the movie itself — lazy pop psychology, underdeveloped sociology and psychology and an allegory that never comes close to sticking the landing.
Rating: R, graphic violence, bodily functions and profanity
Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Mark Hamill, Garrett Waering, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Tut Nyout, Joshua Odjick and Judy Greer.
Credits: Directed by Francis Lawrence, scripted by JT Mollner, based on a novel by Stephen King. A Lionsgate release.
Running time: 1:48
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