La larga marcha

Wow, let me start by saying I didn't have a clue what I was walking into other than Stephen King being attached to this project. This movie is brutal, which is a shocking way to describe a movie that I thought is one of the best I have seen in a long time. My stomach was twisting and my leg developed a nervous twitch the deeper into the film I got. By the last quarter of the film, I had tears in my eyes and could hardly keep it together. So you are probably wondering, why? Well this movie cuts right to the heart of why any of us choose to get up each morning and walk around all day, even when life is throwing everything bad at us. It's because it's what you do when you are alive, you walk, and you walk because you have purpose. And we walk in spite of the fact we all know that one day we won't be able to walk anymore because our time will be up. Some decide when to quit their walk, some have their bodies or minds decide for them, and many continue their walk because of those they love picking them up and helping them move forward. And some just walk because that's all they know to do, survive. I won't say anymore, other than watch this film and prepare yourself for a hard but necessary watch. Bravo to all those involved with this film and story.

If you film a much loved book, say Lord of the Rings for this example, and, at the council of Elrond, Gandalf says "Oh, you want to take the ring to Gondor Boromir? OK then", fans of the book are going to be disappointed. And that's how I feel right now. Unlike LOTR, The Long Walk does not have a great deal of action in the traditional sense, so why remove what important moments there are: an adolescent who's never had sex risking everything for a kiss? The barbaric nature of huge crowds gathered to cheer on boys about to die? Or to gamble what small funds they have on who will survive? Why remove all the things that made a novel so special and decide your scriptwriter knows best?

The ending is changed and not convincing and while I can imagine Hollywood require more resolution than the original text, I don't think this was the way to go personally.

Apart from the changes, I thought most of the cast did well but were a bit too well fed and healthy for the supposed economic misery this US faced.

The idea itself works - no surprise, it's Stephen King, he knows how to build a premise. At first the movie even feels like it might pull it off: the suspense starts to grow, you feel the tension creeping in. But then it just... stalls. Instead of escalating, everything flattens, and by the halfway mark you can already predict how it's going to end. And it ends exactly that way. No surprise, no punch.

The characters don't help either. They're too sketchy, like placeholders rather than people. The movie tries to layer in some social commentary, but it's done through such obvious, stereotypical figures that it feels more forced than insightful. On top of that, the drama is laid on way too thick. Every "emotional" moment is broadcasted with neon signs: "Look! Here comes the sad part. Time to cry." It's manipulative rather than moving.

In the end, it's a good story wasted by a weak execution. The tension fizzles, the characters are cardboard, and the emotional beats feel staged. 5/10.

The Long Walk is one of my favorite books and I have been dreaming of a movie adaptation. I felt it was promising for the first 30 minutes, mostly due to wonderfully brutal cinematography. However, as soon as the drama ramped up, actors started to overact and the whole script all of a sudden derailed into Hollywood cliche land. I felt like the movie pretty much cut out all the parts of the book I loved the most and butchered the final scenes into something completely different than the subtle but powerful book ending intended to convey.

I recently watched this movie, and to be honest, I'm struggling to understand the purpose behind it. From start to finish, it felt like the entire experience was built almost entirely around dialogue, yet those conversations rarely carried any real weight or depth. A film can absolutely thrive on dialogue alone when it's sharp, meaningful, or layered with subtext, but here it felt shallow, repetitive, and ultimately unconvincing.

The characters spend so much time talking, but what they're saying doesn't seem to move the story forward or reveal anything profound about who they are. Instead, it feels like words for the sake of words-long exchanges that might have been aiming for philosophical or emotional depth but fell flat. Without strong dialogue, the movie doesn't have much else to lean on, because there isn't really a compelling plot, standout visuals, or a strong atmosphere to carry the gaps.

Movies built around minimal action and heavy dialogue can be powerful when done well, but this one left me unmoved. It's not that I expect explosions or constant action, but I do expect substance. Unfortunately, this movie just didn't deliver, and I walked away more frustrated than entertained.