r/movies • u/Damp_Knickers • 14h ago
Discussion Just Watched "The Long Walk" - Wow
I feel completely surprised by the fact I never heard more about this. I somehow also understand why I didn't as well. It is brutal, and real, and everyone in this feels like someone that should have a chance in the world.
This is a devastatingly beautiful and scary film. Every single actor in this movie was perfect. The people you hate initially you almost can't hate at the end because of what this world has done to them.
What a terrifying world that we don't get to actually know about and it makes everything that you wonder about it so much more scary.
Man I am devastated but this was a beautiful movie to cry to!
The character 'Peter' in this movie I thought seemed so familiar and he actually plays the android in "Alien: Romulus" which is such an entirely differently placed character it just shows his unreal range. After that, I learned from a friend that same actor is actually going to be the next Black Panther and my god what a fantastic choice for Marvel. He has unreal range and I cannot wait to see what he does!
Gotta also mention the incredible job by actor Joshua Odjick as "Collie" and him being able to represent some native pride.
edit: i gotta also apologize for not responding to everyone that has responded, I super appreciate reading it at this hour and I look forward to reading more with breakfast. I really am so happy to see it resonated with so many. That ending was just beautiful. The freedom he always wanted. GD I am goingto cry again but it is a good cry hahha!
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u/GamingVision 13h ago edited 7h ago
As brutally dark and sad as the story is, the sense of camaraderie and shared concern for one another was so beautifully done. I expected “survivor” like behavior with people trying to antagonistically hurt one another but it goes in such a refreshing way. To me, it was such a symbolism of life…ultimately our path is one long pointless journey, and it ends for us all at different steps, but it can be a bit sweeter if we’re good to the people around us.
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u/TrueLegateDamar 13h ago
I liked how there was at least one or two characters who tried to be a 'survivor' but ended up deeply regretting not having friends.
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u/Rum_and_Pepsi 8h ago
I was extremely impressed with how it managed to capture that tone from the novel. It's such a faithful adaptation to the spirit of the story, without being a pure one-to-one.
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u/swargin 12h ago
I felt the same exact way. I was wondering why more kids didn't attack each other, but I went along with it anyways. I felt awful for the very first kid when he goes down and kept screaming "It's not fair!" But that's how life is
The story was inspired by the Vietnam War, which made me rethink the movie. I think it works as a perfect metaphor for it, even on wars today.
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u/TheCatsActually 11h ago
I felt the same exact way. I was wondering why more kids didn't attack each other, but I went along with it anyways.
I thought the same and for the first half hour it was hard for me to buy into the behavior of the walkers, because since only one person can win it seems intuitive and optimal to actively sabotage and be antagonistic to each other like in Squid Game and battle royales, but them being kind and normal to each other is actually a fantastic piece of world-building.
They're cordial and collaborative because them benefiting from each others' deaths is not personal, and it's not personal because one, the Long Walk is such a cultural fixture and has been so propagandized that it's not seen as a death game but rather a tragic and glorious inevitability, and two and most importantly, they're so accustomed to strife and poverty that the walk isn't even that "special", it's kind of just an accelerated microcosm of their lives. It really sells that the whole country is like District 12 in The Hunger Games. Everyone of age volunteers for the walk because life is so hard that they might as well get it over with ASAP, because there's not much to live for anyway if they're not going to be the one "have" as opposed to one of the 49 "have-nots". And given that almost the entire country (minus people like the Garrities) is resigned to this lived reality, they share an unspoken mutual understanding, and are kind to each other because what else can you do.
Thus the Long Walk is not only not personal, it's not even really a contest. The way they see it, everyone's already on this same bleak path anyway, the Long Walk just speeds it up. Might as well enjoy each other's company.
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u/sluke1090 3h ago
Completely agree. It's the movie version of Journey before Destination. We are all heading to the same place and it's permanent and inescapable. So all that matters is how you get there, how you meet it, who you love, and how you treat others.
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u/Leather_rebelion 12h ago edited 4h ago
Everyone going in expects a bunch of betrayal and sabotage, but the boys support each other until the end. That makes the film weirdly more uplifting and hopeful than most movies that try to be. It kinda calls out our lurking cyncism in a way
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u/gh0u1 14h ago
One of my top 3 favorite books and I always wondered why they never adapted it to a movie. I was blown away by how well they did in translating the pages to the screen. Some changes here and there, including the ending, but none of it weakened the story. It was as entertaining and distressing as it needed to be.
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u/grayhaze2000 11h ago
I'd argue that the changed ending definitely weakened the story. The book's ending is much bleaker, and reframes the whole story.
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u/Jaszuni 10h ago
The movie ending was pretty bleak. There was no redemption there
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u/grayhaze2000 10h ago
Have you read the book though? The movie's ending is pretty hopeful compared to the original.
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u/brainlightning 2h ago
I read the book after seeing the movie and was shocked by how much I hated the book’s ending. Much much preferred the movie ending, and I didn’t really care for the alternate ending either
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u/ginganinja2507 2h ago
I actually find it much bleaker! In the movie, the walk has turned the more anti-violence character into something he would have abhorred plus imo the ending doesn’t mean to imply that things will at all improve w his actions
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u/Thalinde 6h ago
Yes, but as a piece of cinematography, the book ending wouldn't transfer well. It's one of the big issue with adapting King, 50% of the story happens in people's head. And the ending of the Long Walk is such a "it happens in the protagonist head more than anything" that it wouldn't/couldn't work on screen.
I like the change that has been done. There is a mix of bleak and hope. A message that how terrible our world may seem, we can fight against it. And god knows the youngster these days need that. They are going to fight tooth and nail for anything in the years to come.
I hope they get a love for revolution.
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u/gh0u1 10h ago
I dunno, the ending felt like yet another Stephen King "I'm not sure how I wanna end this so I'll leave it up to your imagination."
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u/grayhaze2000 10h ago
I disagree. It's actually one of his good endings, as Garraty descends into madness and delirium, making winning the contest and the prize ultimately meaningless. He becomes a soulless, shambling shell of a person, unfeeling of pain, like the boys discuss earlier in the story. It's also heavily hinted that he's walking toward the grim reaper, suggesting that he's dying and the walk has become his hell.
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u/AlarmedViolinist7215 9h ago
I thought that it was implied what happened to the winner in the book happened to the winner in the film too? Wasn’t the last shot of the film him continuing to walk after everything he did?
I thought they kept the spirit and dread of the ending
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u/grayhaze2000 9h ago
He does walk away at the end, but the walk is over, the Major declares Garraty the winner, who asks for a rifle and shoots the Major, then turns and walks away. None of this happens in the book, instead Garraty just keeps walking, not understanding that the walk is over. He's also in much worse shape physically, compared to the movie version who just looks a bit tired.
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u/AlarmedViolinist7215 8h ago
I know how the novels ends. I apologize I should have said that in my previous comment. I didn’t explain myself well enough.
Even though they added all that extra stuff with the general (admittedly wasn’t the biggest fan of that, the novel ending was a banger), I still felt like they tried to keep with the ending of the novel by making him continue to walk after all of that goes down. Even after he’s declared the winner and gets his “reward”, he goes back to walking almost like he can’t stop and is in a trance
So I feel like they did kind of keep the ending of the novel but just added some extra fluff to it. I do wish they just kept the ending the same as the novel.
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u/fisch09 7h ago
Both endings hammer home the impact of war in different ways.
In the book, Vietnam err I mean the walk is over everyone is telling him he can stop but he's still carrying his ruck. Unable to stop because it's never gonna be over in his mind. He's a shell who only knows how to walk.
In the movie the walk is over, he got revenge, revenge for the world the general created, revenge for his chosen family he walked with, society says he should be happy because he got his wish, but still all he can do is walk. Because if he stops walking it means their mission is over.
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u/Acetyl-CoA 58m ago
Just a slight correction, but in the movie McVries is declared the winner, while Garraty is executed by the Major. The winner in the book is different than the movie.
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u/WhiteLama 14h ago
I had never heard of the book until I heard of the movie and thought “Well, how the hell are they going to make a full length movie with that premise?”.
Turns out they weren’t just able to, it was good.
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u/WhiskyWillFixIt 4h ago
My company tried for about ten years and oddly enough, studios didn’t want to make a movie about shooting kids.
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u/Moikee 13h ago
I’ve only seen the movie, would you recommend reading the book still?
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u/notevenapro 11h ago
read all four. I liked them.
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u/Fragrant-Hamster-325 9h ago
Nice. Richard Bachman. Stephen King was so coked up he created an alter ego to release more books because his editor was too slow.
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u/Defiant-Bed2501 4h ago
Not true at all. King actually created the Bachman pseudonym to prove to both himself and his publisher that it was the quality of what he wrote that sold well rather than just because it had Stephen King’s name attached.
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u/JSoi 13h ago
The book is much better, in my opinion the movie was pretty mid and had a bunch of unnecessary changes to the story.
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u/SubBanked 10h ago
The lack of crowds was a major change I thought, and a disappointing one. I love the interactions with the public in the book
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u/Alive_Ice7937 12h ago
As a big fan of the book, I think they did a great job on a relatively small budget. The big losses from the adaptation were down to budget. A major part of the books is the crowds that show up to cheer them on/watch them die. There's great moments where they are overwhelmed by the noise when they enter towns and cities. The physical degradation of the boys was also limited by the budget. A lot of the book is also about Garrity's internal musings. Something that isn't all that easy to translate onto screen. (Freaky Diaslo with the baseball stiches imprinted on his forehead)
But it's about as good an effort as I'd have hoped even though I'd never thought it would get made. The reason it got made might also explain why it went under the radar. Squid Game showed there was a market for this kind of film. But The Long Walk would be a lot more bare bones in comparison to SG.
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u/Overkill1977 13h ago
What's that line from Twitter "Why did he turn up fat and in jeans?"
I liked it though
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u/wendigo72 8h ago
It’s a really dumb letterbox review that misses the entire point of the film lol
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u/BrahneRazaAlexandros 5h ago
The film's "point" and the film's presented reality are not congruent. And we pretty much all get the point... It's not exactly a subtle metaphor that has a meaning that is hard to parse or can be interpreted a million ways by viewers. It is a very heavy-handed central metaphor.
It wants us to take it entirely from the view of the central analogy/metaphor, but ignores the logical consistency of the universe the story is in and does not show us enough of any aspect of the society for us to buy in to the supposed dystopia that is making the walk a reality that can arise. We are just told "it's dystopian. look how they get the dad!", we never actually see the broader society, the tv/radio broadcast, or the televised audiences (we get like 3 rural local onlookers at some stages I think?), the overall setting feels hollow and detached.
That's without the logistical story addressed by the quote in the review. Having nohing to ground the world of the movie just makes it even more jarring for any viewers familiar with human endurance or physiology, or even a basic functioning brain. Like, you can joke about the bad review, but the boys all showing up for a literal life or death sports contest (that they want to win) without any thought put into wearing proper clothing is bizarre. You can say it's just how it is in that world, but we have nothing to show us that. We can only take it at face value since that is what it shows, and at face value it's just these kids all being borderline mentally handicapped, or some other learning difficulties that prevent basic forward thinking. They also seemed to have been allowed a certain amount of their own supplies, but they weren't optimised either. They kind of show "pooping is an issue" but even still, they do that in a very unrealistic way (pooping while doing endurance sports is actually something of a solved problem... You just shit yourself and keep going, as we even see in some cases pro athletes.) They don't elaborate on how they seemingly are all able to walk while sleeping, they just... can do it??
It is explicitly a metaphor, so realism takes a backseat, but the film ultimately fails to flesh out its dystopian universe enough to ground its extreme premise. For me, that means it never really earns the right to ask the audience to suspend its disbelief at simple things. Because the film hides everything about the broader societal elements producing the story off-camera we are never given the world-building necessary to naturally understand the warped logic driving the lottery... And without that societal context, the film's structural cracks around everything hinging around that central theme become impossible to gloss over or wave away, forcing the viewer (me, at least) to fixate on the preposterous physical feats, the glaring logistical inconsistencies, the bizarre lack of preparation by the walkers, and the thinly explained reasoning behind the march itself rather than being fully immersed in the story's intended deeper political and psychological themes.
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u/AlarmedViolinist7215 8h ago
😤😤😤
It makes sense for his character to show up like that for the long walk. that comment makes me so mad even though it’s funny
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u/howl_______ 8h ago
why does it make sense for him to show up like that
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u/nubileiguana 7h ago
It's a lottery meant to be analogous to the draft during the Vietnam era. He wasn't training for it, he's just a kid who got a bad ticket.
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u/Clipgang1629 5h ago
He was planning to be a part of it though. The whole point was for him to win to kill the Sargent guy who killed his dad
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u/brainlightning 2h ago
That’s not really how it worked. They don’t get into it in the movie but in the book it’s explained that they actually are given an opportunity to back out and he chose to still do it.
WHY they all chose to do it is a pretty decent part of the book and most of them can’t really articulate why.
But it wasn’t against their will. They chose to do it.
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u/markdavo 56m ago
I assumed the reason they did it was because society had such high expectations that everyone who gets a ticket would do it, it’s basically impossible to back out without shaming yourself and your family.
Much like a campaign during The Great War where men who didn’t volunteer in the U.K. would be given a white feather because they were “chicken”.
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u/brainlightning 9m ago
Weirdly it’s almost the opposite. Some of them did it despite their family begging them not to
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u/AlarmedViolinist7215 7h ago
I haven’t seen the movie in a while but I thought it was hinted at that he was depressed, wasn’t really expecting to get far, and, while not actively wanting to die, he didn’t care about living either
I may be misremembering
But it’s also the fact that the long walk is open to anyone so he was just some random person who signed up for it and got picked. He wasn’t trained for it and probably didn’t have the necessary outfit/footwear for it
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u/AlternativeResort477 7h ago
That’s the same reason I joined the military. I was fat and I wanted to die
Didn’t work but I’m not fat anymore
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u/howl_______ 7h ago
i'm pretty sure the main kid wanted to actively win in order to get the gun to kill the major because he killed his dad
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u/No_Figure7868 13h ago
I like that’s it’s a self contained little story.
No fate of the universe nonsense just a bunch of children coming to terms with the horrible situation they’ve found themselves in.
I appreciate they cut out a lot of Stephen King gooner moments.
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u/mark364i 13h ago
That one kid who broke his ankle going down the hill was the stuff of nightmares.
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u/Bobozett 13h ago
Went in blind, loved the premise, the world building, the general tension and atmosphere. It felt like you were actually walking with them.
My only criticism is that the movie requires you to suspend disbelief by accepting that one could continuously walk for so long. That's just biologically impossible.
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u/whitebandit 13h ago
i think people could continuously walk but, you cant just walk while sleeping... there shoulda been like a 1-3 hour break every 24 hours or whatever but that kinda defeats the purpose of the walk
but yeah, good movie over all
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u/SirErgalot 12h ago
I think the book did a better job at portraying the psychosis that came from spending that long without sleep.
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u/LABS_Games 2h ago
That's related to my biggest complaint about the film. Its direction is surprisingly dull, filmed at arm's length with lots of shots that follow the action rather than put you inside it. I understand that the objective, almost bystander-like quality of the filming was probably an intentional choice, but the book is a feverish nightmare, so the filmmaking feels like a real miss here. I would have loved to see a more body-horror, delirious depiction of the ordeal.
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u/JaesopPop 2h ago
Only issue with the book is the speed being 4mph, which I’m glad they dropped to 3 for the movie
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u/TheConqueror74 10h ago
The walking speed thing is way more egregious than the lack of sleep. More so in the book, but I guarantee you that even at the movie’s pace there would’ve been way more casualties by the end of the first night.
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u/bsmithi 8h ago
You actually can walk while sleeping. When I was in bootcamp, sometimes I would fall asleep while marching back to the 'ship' (barracks) from lunch or other stuff. I would wake up occasionally, see a fence going by. Never fell out of step (I'd ask the guy in front of me if I stepped on his heels or anything, ask the person behind me if I looked like I was asleep or if my head dropped or anything).
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u/radiant_olive86 9h ago
You can 100% walk while sleeping. Ask any soldier. It's not true sleep sleep, but microsleeps or a deep barely conscious meditative state. It happens.
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u/kain459 5h ago
You can walk while sleeping. I've done it.
3rd week of basic, I fell asleep while marching, had a dream and woke up still standing and I didnt make a scene.
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u/Paulie2510 3h ago
Is that an actual thing?
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u/Halloween_Babe90 2h ago
You probably wouldn’t be fully asleep—not enough for the body to go slack–but at a certain point you’d definitely start having micronaps, where the brain just checks out and starts sort of hallucinating in that grey zone between sleeping and waking.
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u/OzymandiasKoK 11h ago
Unfortunately, Steven King didn't know much about walking speeds when he wrote the book, and they didn't fix that, either.
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u/DBCOOPER888 2h ago
I think in the book they are required to walk at a faster pace. King has admitted he had no idea how walking distances worked when he wrote it.
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u/Courage4theBattle 7h ago
People can walk while sleeping. I remember hearing stories from the Cambodian autogenocide of displaced people walking for days and days, and sleeping while doing so.
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u/cementedpistachio 12h ago
the dialogue in this movie was terrible
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u/huzzaahh 11h ago
That's because they basically frankensteined together dialogue directly from the book. It kind of works in writing, but it's classic Stephen King style which translates awkwardly onto the screen.
Additionally, they changed so much about the plot that a lot of the emotion in the movie kind of falls flat and doesn't feel earned, also making the dialogue feel out of place.
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u/TotallyNotAnExecutiv 11h ago
I thought it added to the charm. Went in blind and while some of it's awkward, I imagine a big group of basically kids stumbling and trying to make the best of their last words...
The commander doesn't really have that excuse though
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u/Krimmothy 8h ago
Can you elaborate on what was so bad? I never noticed anything bad about the dialogue.
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u/WerkinAndDerpin 7h ago
It felt really hokey to me. Every time they spoke to each other they used each other's name and it just felt unnatural
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u/Krimmothy 6h ago
Hmm. To me it felt like they were going for a 60s/70s army vibe, which makes sense considering what the story is an allegory for.
I can understand if certain folks disliked it, but it worked for me. The whole movie felt very stylized, and I suppose it was either a hit or a miss for person to person.
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u/Rosenrot1791 10h ago
I swear this is the first time I’ve seen someone else criticize the dialogue. It was horrendous! I was rolling my eyes by the mid way mark.
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u/LonelyintheFuture 5h ago
I was really taken out of it by how supportive every teen was of one another. Realistically I think you’d have a few antagonistic ones, maybe some who form bonds, but mostly focused on the task and uninterested in the welfare of other contestants. It’s not like they’re unwittingly thrust into the competition, they are fully aware that every single person but one is going to die. It would be shocking to see someone your age killed but them being emotionally devastated made little sense to me and came across very corny.
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u/Shoddy_Pie6514 11h ago
The dialogue in that film was embarrassingly bad
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u/terran1212 8h ago
I actually thought it was pretty realistic to what you’d expect from a bunch of teenagers doing something like that
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u/terran1212 5h ago
You ever worked a blue collar job with a bunch of bros? They shit talk like anything but they also tend to have camaraderie
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u/wasabi324 10h ago
Feel like i'm taking crazy pills seeing the positive reception to it. The dialgoue was cringe at points and in turn I didn't care about the characters. Finishing the movie was a slog. I was elated when certain annoying characters died.
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u/BeanieMcChimp 6h ago
Yeah it was sub-par in all the ways. Mark Hamill was ridiculous and I didn’t believe about fifty percent of the dialogue. The whole thing was amateur hour.
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u/ahorrribledrummer 11h ago
A couple of the characters were cringe AF. Really interesting story and premise but I felt like it could have used some re-writing to be truly great.
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u/Shoddy_Pie6514 10h ago
When I was watching it. I was picturing it as a stage play for some reason with all the actors marching on the spot facing the audience. Talking about how corrupt the world is and doing their stupid little monologues and that and that made me laugh a bit whilst watching it. But I got no other enjoyment out of the film apart from that.
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u/Ausso_1 7h ago
That’s a King hallmark
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u/Shoddy_Pie6514 7h ago
Big disagree from me there. Enjoyed the book but was 12 when I read it. Probably my favourite author
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u/Ausso_1 7h ago
I love him too! But dialogue by his characters is weird. Always has been. Every book.
It’s unnatural is the best way I can describe it
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u/bobhopeisgod 3h ago
Mind you, he was a teenager when he wrote it (barely. He was 19), so I look at the dialogue from the perspective of a fairly naive person. I love the story, but yeah even as a young teen when I first read it, there were a few conversations where I was like "well that was silly"
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u/PierreDucot 4h ago
I read it at 20, living in Old Town, going to University of Maine, a mile from I-95. Blew me away and immediately became my favorite King story. I always felt like Hunger Games and others owed him a credit (that he probably owes to Golding).
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u/juroden 10h ago
Yeah this movie was genuinely terrible. Don’t understand the hype AT ALL! The characters (especially main character) were so obnoxious
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u/MootchieFox 7h ago
I agree, and it really took me out of it. Wouldn't stop reminding me I was watching Acting.
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u/HAMforPastry 13h ago
Long Walk is my fave SK outside of Dark Tower. Was really excited to watch the movie but it just fell flat for me with nothing much going for it
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u/Alive_Ice7937 13h ago
Me too.
Which is your favourite DT book?
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u/HAMforPastry 11h ago
Drawing of the Three is my top.
I love the bit with the lobster at the start and the introductions to the other characters
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u/Alive_Ice7937 10h ago
Drawing of the Three is my top.
I'd be torn between this and Wizard and Glass. DOTT is a focused thriller with some great variation throughout. WAG is just such a great tragic romance with fantastic rural cruelty. Wonderfully evocative. (I think it's probably King's strongest piece of writing)
I love the bit with the lobster at the start and the introductions to the other characters
Never had he been so fundamentally hurt
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u/Fit-Reason9984 14h ago
This will sit with you now, I had flashbacks for weeks after
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u/Damp_Knickers 13h ago
I am a lover of morose media and books similar to "The Road" and this just hit correctly. I am as "happy" that I saw this as I am devastated. Such a full fledged emotional movie.
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u/GeneralFrancisHummel 12h ago
The movie was fine, but that ending was so bad. I get what they were going for, but it was just really poorly Implemented.
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u/Swimsuit-Area 11h ago
The whole movie felt forced. As if Stephen King wrote some sappy dialogue one day and that was the best premise he could imagine to deliver it.
Mark Hamill also takes me out of stories now because his voice is so recognizable.
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u/Tayschrenn 11h ago
Yeah, this thread kind of surprises me, thought it was a below average film at best.
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u/carolevampirex 12h ago
mark hamill as the major was casting i did not see coming and he was genuinely terrifying, that flat bored voice doing roll call wrecked me. also i left the theatre and could not stop noticing how much my feet hurt walking to the car
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u/Shandybasshead 10h ago
Not all books should be movies. This is one of them.
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u/7pixeldick 7h ago
Holy shit what are you talking about
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u/Eradomsk 6h ago
He’s talking about the book not translating to film well. The movie feels incredibly “off” and incoherent.
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u/apoliticalinactivist 5h ago
Thanks for making the post, made me want to give it a shot, as the marketing and concept was not appealing to me.
Given the criticism in this thread is so low quality, is also reassuring.
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u/Bellinghamster 13h ago
One of the most brutally depressing, but somehow beautiful films I've seen in so long
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u/CausticAvenger 12h ago
This movie was such a disappointment. Every death scene was pushing so so hard to be moving that it became laughable after a while.
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u/philipstyrer 13h ago
Genuinely might be the worst and dumbest movie I've ever watched.
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u/Ok-Communication663 13h ago
I agree, it wasn’t good. No depth to characters. A good made for tv movie and that’s it. Better if 30 min
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u/AceMystical 11h ago
One of my favorite movies of last year, read the book right after which made me appreciate it even more. Sure the ending is kinda lame but i honestly think the rest of the movie makes up for it
It was also an unforgettable theater experience, I remember everytime a kill happened the entire theater would gasp because I don't think anybody was expecting just how brutal and realistic the violence was
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u/450nmwaffle 12h ago
My favourite movie from last year, David Jonsson is electric in it. Obviously movies are subjective but as evidenced by some of the comments on this thread, I truly believe anyone who thought it was “bad” doesn’t understand the basics of storytelling or narrative
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u/positive_toes 12h ago
It was an awful move. Terrible pacing. It looked awful and the ending was just dire
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u/Fragrant_Plantain_81 12h ago
The long boring walk. I went in excited to watch. Just wasn’t a good movie
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u/extraordinaryevents 9h ago
One of the most cringe movies I’ve ever seen. Almost walked out
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u/TheRealMrTrueX 12h ago
That same actor crushed it in the HBO show "Industry" as Gus Sackey. David Jonsson, incredible range and a great cast.
Kit Harrington, Ken Leung etc
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u/yetagainitry 7h ago
Sorry hard disagree. The lead actor playing a teen looked 37. The dialogue (especially from the character played by the Asian actor) was horrendous.
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u/Socrates-Johnson 6h ago
Cooper Hoffman is 23 (so presumably ~20 during filming?) what a weird take.
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u/Weather_No_Blues 6h ago
Yeah the best interaction is when that one walker runs over to get it on with the spectator groupie and Garrity is all like 'Cmon dude you just drew three warnings you're not gonna get your wish' and he says 'Yeah, this was actually my wish'. The oldest question in literature: Would you risk it..for the biscuit?
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u/farfromjordan 11h ago
Blown away by how good this film is. No other movie comes close to showing how dumb wars like Vietnam are. The pointlessness and the endeavor and unfairness of the draft are highlighted throughout. Incredible story telling.
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u/IamNICE124 2h ago
The ending of this movie sucked.
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u/Kidney05 13m ago
This movie really feels like a cool idea but not going anywhere interesting or unpredictable with it
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u/ahktarniamut 12h ago
It’s a very good movie and sadly it got lost with all the releases we had last year . The topic might be too much for the audience but I felt it was well made
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u/WE_SELL_DUST 3h ago
Couldn’t disagree more. Thought this was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a while for how well it’s otherwise produced and acted. This is on me, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that a group of teenagers could just get out of bed and walk 300 miles straight without sleep for a week. If it were 100 miles over 3 days I might’ve enjoyed it.
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u/AnotherLime 22m ago
This. I'm convinced that the people who like this movie never actually walked any further from their couch to the fridge. Walking is easier than running, but try walking for even a few hours straight and let me know how you feel.
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u/Redeyebandit87 11h ago
I remember picking up a book with a torn cover off in class and just started reading it. It was Richard Bachmans The Long Walk and was really entertaining. I had no idea It was King at that age so I thought it was going to be a way different story.
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u/IMayBeIronMan 9h ago
I didn't like the ending all that much tbh but the rest of the film was fantastic. The acting between the kids and how their relationships evolved over time was fantastic. It was smart ot focus on that over the spectacle of the walk itself.
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u/Last-Laugh 9h ago
The casting and acting were superbly done, I agree. I hate when Hollywood changes the endings to Steven King book to movie adaptations though. They did the same with The Running Man. Don't do a Steven King adaptation if you can't stick to the original story. Also, I'm disappointed they didn't keep in my favorite line from the book. "My prize is going to be your public castration!"
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u/quasi-psuedo 8h ago
The book was so much better. There’s only one scene the movie had that the book didn’t that I thought was actually good.
Early Stephen King has a hard time transitioning to the big screen. Overall this just felt heavy and depressing to watch rather than the anxiety coaster the book put you on.
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u/elegant_infiltration 14h ago
They really nailed the casting across the board, Peter's actor going from that role to Black Panther is gonna be a wild shift but the guy clearly has the chops for it