In an alternate dystopian America, a group of boys enter a contest to win millions of dollars by walking; whoever walks the longest wins, but if you’re out… You’re dead.
Right off the bat I have to say this is a very bleak movie, very dark and heavy in parts… but there’s also a lot of hope and fun between the characters, and I think that’s the strongest aspect of the film, the performances of the actors and their characters in general… I mean, when the whole movie is people walking, you would hope you like the characters, lol, but even so, I think the writing and performances in this film are very top-notch.
Cooper Hoffman played a very interesting and complex character. Given the situation he’s in, I liked how his performance was both nuanced and grounded.
Everyone is saying it, and I have to agree: David Jonsson is the heart of this film and gives a really strong performance. His and Hoffman’s characters’ dynamic is very reminiscent of Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman’s characters in The Shawshank Redemption, so for all you Stephen King or Dad Film fans out there, this will definitely be up your alley.
Mark Hamill, Roman Griffith, Davis, and Judy Greer all have small runtimes in the film but leave very strong marks with their acting.
Nice to see Charlie Plummer pop up in this; I liked the twisting turns and emotional ride you went on with his character.
I have never heard of Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Ben Wang, or Jordan Gonzalez for this movie, but I was really surprised and taken in by their performances, and I hope to see them in future films because they’re really talented and deserve success.
Stephen King has said that The Long Walk is a metaphor for the Vietnam War, and you can definitely tell because the filmmakers use a lot of similar shots and needle drops to remind you of famous Vietnam films to connect the dots in your head, which was a nice touch.
There were certain shots of the road and farmers that were very reminiscent of images you’d see from the Depression in the early 30s and the Dust Bowl, and I thought those shots were really creative and well done and helped create a feel for this world.
Stunning cinematography, especially at night; those can be really hard to get, but I thought this movie had some really well-done night shots and lighting.
There were definitely some good twists in the story, and it went in some directions that were a nice surprise.
Warning though: this is a brutal flick, like Saving Private Ryan levels… You see head shots, you see broken bones, you see bloody feet—I am not joking, you literally see a man walking and shitting at the same time. Like, this is literally the “shittiest” CGI I’ve ever seen lol. I guess you can say this movie is cutting edge because I’ve never seen CGI be used for realistic shitting before… I guess we can put this up there with Toy Story, Avatar, and Michael Douglas at the beginning of Ant-Man as pioneers of movie technology lol.
They do so much walking in this movie that I was sitting on a nice leather recliner seat, had a nice sweatshirt on, was comfy… Even I was getting sore watching him walk so much lol.
So this movie kept me guessing: who’s going to die next, who you like and who you don’t, character motivation, and what kind of ending the film is going to have. I’m going through twists and turns like a go-kart track, and then we get to the very end… Now I’m not going to spoil anything, but let me just say for me personally… It was good up until that point, and then it felt like they weren’t sure how to end it and then went for a very artsy or on-guard metaphor-type ending that felt different from the rest of the film. Like, it’s not bad, but it’s like when you’re watching the gymnastics at the Olympics and they don’t quite stick the landing; it was like that.
So while I was not the biggest fan of the ending, there’s still plenty to enjoy about this film. The performances, the dialogue, the landscapes, the filmmaking—you can really tell the filmmakers were cooking with gas on this one. I give the walk four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I wonder how many people will want a foot massage after this movie lol.
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