The Race From Hell

            I love when movies combine two of my favorite things, that makes them infinitely more watchable. So when I heard that they were making a Long Walk movie, I was beyond excited. This combines a few of my favorite things. To start with, this is a Stephen King book, which I loved, and it was a short book, so it was easy to fly through, unlike It or The Stand. On top of that, it is a book about an endurance event. They are not exactly running per say, but it is essentially an elimination ultra-marathon. Also this technically falls into the horror category. So basically this was right up my ally.

            The Long Walk is about a “moral boosting” event, where a boy from each state comes to participate in a walk. Once the walk starts, the participants have to maintain 3 mph or they receive a warning. After three warnings, they receive their “ticket” and are shot. The story mainly revolves around two key figures Garraty and Peter. They did not know each other before, but they became quick friends. The walk takes several days to complete, and there are many bonds that are formed, but at the end of the day, it is all about survival.

            The winner ends up walking over 300 miles, and the whole point in participating is that if you win, you receive a massive cash prize, and you get one wish for whatever you want with some restrictions, of course. The race started after the U.S lost in a war, and now they needed an event for everyone to rally behind to create some patriotism and to encourage people to work hard and preserve.

            There are some stereotypical wishes, because these are young men participating, like one said he would wish for ten naked women, but others had their eyes on more personal goals. When walking for hundreds of miles, there is plenty of time to talk about the past, and their motivation for winning the walk.

I was worried that the movie was going to be rife with flash backs for this reason, but really Garraty was the only one who got the flash back treatment. So instead, the movie was just constant shots of people walking and talking. This led to some cool shots, especially as the movie went proceeded. They would make it look like Garrity and Peter were the only two left, which was cool because they were basically living in their own world together, and that is how they were able to make it to the end.

The whole endurance reminds me of a backyard ultra. A backyard ultra is where there is a set 4.167 mile loop that the participants must complete every hour, and if you do not complete the loop, then you are eliminated. This race is a similar concept, but instead of being eliminated from the race, you die.

This book was written in 1979, so this is before there were major advancements in athletic wear, so basically all the participants are wearing jeans and regular clothes and shoes. Also many of them have backpacks on as well. It was like when I watched a documentary on Western States recently, and many of the people were wearing cotton T-shirts, except for Killian Jornet, who was wearing spandex, and now that is the norm, or at least more breathable athletic wear. So it would be interesting to see the evolution of this race as time went on, because there is no way wearing a massive backpack and jeans is the right way to do this endurance walk. I can just imagine Nike salivating at the chance to outfit the winner of the long walk in their newest lightweight technology.

Now that ultras are more commonplace, it would be interesting to see how far they could push the limits of this race. Obviously, it is different when putting your life on the line, but I think it would be pretty cool if there was a race like this without the death. I would love to see people like Killian Jornet, Courtney Dewalter, and other big name ultra runners give this a go.

Also these runners typically do not make that much money, so something with a big purse that would draw all the names in every year would be awesome. They would need some advanced health tech to track them though, because I feel like many people would literally walk themselves to death. Like they said that their organs started to fail, one of them started to bleed from their nose and it would not stop, so I guess there would have to be some health guidelines so people would not have to die.

As far as Stephen King adaptations go, I think this is one of the better ones. It is not top tier, but it is not a stinker either. There is like no middle ground when it comes to King movies. They are either really good or terrible. Some are the best movies period like The Shining or Shawshank Redemption, but there is also a big list of garbage adaptations. I do think that it helped that it had been years since I had read this book, so I could not make too many one-to-one comparisons, but I did remember the ending being different, and I was right.

In the book, the winner is so delirious at the end that he just keeps walking. He does not realize that the one other person left had died, and all he knew was walking so he kept going. In the movie, the winner asked for a gun, and he shot the major as a political action to stand up against the event and the death of his friends that he made along the way. I am not sure I love this ending.

So the majority of the movie is a message of love, creating bonds, and living in the moment. Mant of the competitors help each other along the way despite knowing that only one can win. Either way they still would help each other out. Peter and Garraty were constantly helping each other despite having different views. Garraty had a more cynical view because his dad was killed by the government, but Peter had a more optimist view of the world and would always find the silver lining, even though he had a hard life.  

The chemistry between Cooper Hoffman and David Johnson was incredible. They were both amazing actors and have bright futures. I fell in love with Johnson in Rye Lane, and I fell in love with Hoffman in Licorice Pizza, both movies I would highly recommend watching. Their emotional performance in this movie was so good that it brought tears to my eyes multiple times. I look forward to seeing them in more films.

The Long Walk is like a more violent adult version of the Hunger Games. Some of the violence in this was brutal, but I think that was needed. To be the winner, you have to watch 49 other people be murdered, and that is scarring. So the end of the book makes sense that he was so scarred that he just kept walking and could no longer function. Like it was not even worth winning. It was also a reminder that there are faces, names, and stories to the victims of senseless violence. None of these people needed to die, and that can be said over and over and over if you watch the news. Despite this book being written decades ago, it still stays relevant now. I give it 4 stars and recommend watching it.