Francis Lawrence’s Stephen King adaptation

Dystopian cinema is not much darker than Stephen King’s last story to hit the screen, directed by this genre aficionado, Francis Lawrence. THE Hunger games The filmmaker here does a superb job with equipment that could easily have been severe with less hands. While The long walk does not fully escape its narrative limits, it presents generous quantities of the kind of emotion and heart which marked the best adaptations of the king. Of course, this makes it no less exhausting.

The novel, written when King was only 19 years old, was the author’s first, although it was not published until 1979 under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The premise is that after a horrible war which took place for decades earlier, the country is in the midst of a serious economic depression. In a bizarre attempt to cheer up and counter what he describes as an “laziness epidemic”, a sadistic military figure known only as “Major” (Mark Hamill) created the titular competition, and the rules are simple. Fifty young men, one of each state and chosen by the lottery, walk until they fall. No exhaustion, but after being killed in their heads if they fail to maintain a pace of at least three miles per hour. The last position is rewarded with a financial windfall and the granting of a single wish, any wish. It’s like They shoot horses, aren’t they? On steroids.

With the exception of a few brief flashbacks illuminating the background of a character, the film focuses only on walking, which lasts days and hundreds of kilometers. Young men naturally start strongly, but exhaustion, physical infirmities and psychological stress end up wreaking havoc one by one. If they do not follow the pace, the threatening military characters escort them on jeeps give them a series of warnings. And then they brutally send them, which is called euphemistically called “obtaining a ticket”.

Among the courageous and reckless participants are Ray (Cooper Hoffman, Licorice pizza), whose motivation for participation goes far beyond financial needs, and the affable Peter (David Jonsson, Alien: Romulus), with whom he forms an immediate link. The others meet as a transverse cut typical of characters in a war film, which is not surprising because The long walk In fact essentially as one. They include Wisecracking Hank (Ben Wang); Optimistic art (Tut Nyuot); Stebbins Solitaire (Garrett Wareing); Barkovitch filled with rage (Charlie Plummer, Press Pete)); and Curly minors (Roman Griffin Davis, Jojo).

As the walk passes through what looks like flat midwest, the graphics on the screen keep us informed of the number of kilometers recorded and the number of days passing. Along the way, young men increasingly exhausted are periodically observed by various passers -by who seem to get out of a photograph of the era of Walker Evans depression, as well as by the major in carriers of sunglasses, which delivers a series of perverse and profit -based talks. At one point, the walkers briefly cheer their morale with a fiery singing of “Fuck the Long Walk”.

What saves the tedium film is the characterizations, which are well drawn even in the brightest circumstances. One of the candidates becomes shocking the first victim just 20 minutes from the film, and it is only then that the title flashes on the screen. The increasingly warm friendship between Ray, who never fails to support others when they start to vacillate, and Peter, who remains positive, no matter how disastrous the situation becomes deeply affecting.

Like romantic relationships between Ray and his mother (Judy Greer, emotionally tearing every moment she is on the screen) and, seen in a flashback, Ray and his father (Josh Hamilton), who inspired Ray, resonating with challenge the military regime.

The director Lawrence (who hopes to direct a romantic comedy very soon, if only for his mental health) maintains a firm grip on the procedure, succeeding in making them visually interesting even if most of the action consists of the characters who cross the sterile campaigns.

He also aroused excellent performance by Hoffman and Jonsson, who both display a strong potential of the leading man, and the whole of the young set. Not to mention Hamill, who never survives the wickedness of his character and makes his second strong impression this year in a Stephen King vehicle after Chuck’s life.