Quick Synopsis: Fifty boys are chosen to participate in The Long Walk, an annual event where people have to walk at a certain pace or die, last man standing.

I’m going to sound like a song you’re listening to on a portable cd player as you walk at a normal pace and repeat myself; I’ve not read this book. So there is a chance that some of my criticisms of this movie may actually be criticisms of the book.

90% of The Long Walk is good. The performances are believable, the characters are likeable and feel real. The simple brutality of “Walk or die” is shown rather than explicitly told to us. The cinematography helps sell the heat/cold at various parts. From a technical standpoint, this is great. If I was a robot, I’d love it.

That 10% that doesn’t work? It’s the concept itself. “These characters volunteer to walk until only one survives, so that they can get money and a wish” is a simple concept, almost too simple for a full-length feature. First off, every character volunteers knowing that they will likely die. There is a small scene where they mention “but who do you know who doesn’t volunteer?”, saying that everybody volunteers because it’s expected of them. We’re not really shown why. Do they fear the government will kill them if they don’t put their name forward? Do people risk being ostracised if they don’t? If any of that is the case, show it. Have a character say their family were pretty well off, so they didn’t need the money, which meant they hadn’t volunteered before. But this led to the town turning against them, making him feel he has to enter (either to earn the towns forgiveness, or because his family is now bankrupt).

Outside of a flashback, we’re not given much indication as to HOW bleak the world is that it would drive someone to feel they need to this. I’m not asking for a full History Of The World, but without it, it just seems like a rather extreme Euromillions. I didn’t really buy that every single one of these peoples families were desperate and they needed this.

Maybe it would have worked better if it was punishment. It would certainly help clear up the “well that’s clearly bullshit” reasons for some of the deaths. There’s one character who dies because he stops walking to take a shit. For this to work, we have to believe that the entire population watches this happen and accepts it as fair, every year.

It is possible I’m thinking too much. And if recent events (and that’s as specific as I’ll go) have taught us anything, it’s that some people will gleefully cheer potential genocides and state-sanctioned murder if it’s against an “other”. And governments do do shitty things which their populace don’t support. But show us. Show us people being disenfranchised with this barbaric behaviour, but putting up with it for safety’s sake. Show a passerby try to help someone, and being executed for interference.

I’ve criticised multiple films this year for showing too much, where it would have been better if they simplified it. This is possibly the first time I’ve felt the opposite. I needed to see more of this world, I needed more context for to buy into the central premise. As it is? It felt like I was watching a spin-off to a film I’ve never seen. Or playing the DLC side-quest before the main game.

That’s not to say this isn’t a good film. It is very good, parts of it will break your heart. There’s a good chance you won’t walk out of this the same person you walked in. But it could have been so much better. Most of the deaths are impactful and have meaning (with the exception of the nighttime hill walk, where I’d estimate almost half of them get killed in quick succession with no focus). It’s definitely worth a watch, but maybe not an essential one.