Nothing about Francis Lawrence’s take-no-prisoners adaptation of Richard Bachman’s (aka Stephen King) staggering novel offers one shard of hope for any of us to wrap our bloodied fingers around. Nor should it, given the hellish America landscape it envisions, an undefined time where a rotting-to-its-core nation goads 50 male teens into a grueling contest that demands participants walk at a 3-mile-an-our pace or get a bullet through the head delivered by The Major (Mark Hamill) or his military goons. The victor reaps hard-to-come-by rewards in an unwelcoming, militarized land.
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Needless to say, “The Long Walk” is a brutal and visceral nightmare that rattles and shocks with in-your-face violence and gruesome images that test audiences’ limits. Some will flee from theaters. Others won’t even give it a shot. I get that. But make no mistake, this odyssey through hell and not back (virtually the entire film gets framed around that purgatory-like walking contest) is an artistic and gutsy triumph of filmmaking. Its craftsmanship and use of symbolism are undeniable and its sure-footed excellence extends from the character-rich screenwriting of J.T. Mollner (director/screenwriter of the daring “Strange Darling”). Chiseled, tear-your-heart-out performances are delivered by Cooper Hoffman (as country boy and lead protagonist Ray Garraty) and David Jonsson (as the hopeful and gregarious Peter McVries). And the appropriately off-kilter, kinetic cinematography from Jo Willems and the unsettling decades-blending production design from Nicolas Lepage contribute mightily as well.
Lawrence has a knack for navigating his way through deadly contests (he directed five “Hunger Games” films, including the upcoming “Sunrise on the Reaping”) but here he uses bolder directorial brush strokes to stimulate a conversation starter full of layers. The ending is an incredible cinematic achievement that only gets better with repeat viewings, and is open to different interpretations.
King wrote “The Long Walk” in the 1960s when the Vietnam War and the draft weighed heavily on him. The fact that his tough-as-barbed-wire words remain relevant today proves what a literary giant King. And Mollner and Lawrence further expound on the work to explore uncomfortable themes that are staring at us today: fascism, spiraling hopelessness, a lack of empathy and suppression. “Walk” recalls horrors of past and present era — let’s hope it’s not a window on the future.
‘THE LONG WALK’
3½ stars
Rating: R (strong bloody violence, grisly images, suicide, pervasive language, sexual references)
Starring: Mark Hamill, Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang
Director: Francis Lawrence
Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
When & where: Opens Sept. 12 in theaters
