It is not without irony that after some back and forth, Francis Lawrence has directed the “The Long Walk – Death March”. After all, the American, born in Vienna, has already been responsible for four “The Hunger Games” Blockbuster-and at its core, the dystopian fantasy novels by Suzanne Collins are nothing more than an opened version of the Stephen-King-Romans published in 1979: where two tribute per district play against each other in “Panem”, “The Long Walk” is in “The Long Walk” A voluntary participant is drawn per US state, who can then take part in the title-giving endurance march.
The reason for the state -prescribed survival fights is also similar: in “Panem” the hunger games are advertised by the Capitol as an opportunity to struggle for fame, honor and better living conditions for themselves and their own districts. The violent march held by the major (Mark Hamill) is not only the only way to get out of poverty – it also increases the productivity of the entire society after the young men have shown what true willingness to sacrifice means. You can tell: When it comes to cynicism, the scenarios, each of which are located in an autocratic regime after a US civil war.
The major (Mark Hamill) is the master of the violent march. But in contrast to the participants, he treats himself to a healthy hat every night.
The biggest difference, on the other hand, is to the extent of the (media) spectacle: Where the staging as a TV sensation is deliberately in the first place at the hunger games, the participants in “The Long Walk” themselves go to the starting line somewhere in the middle-and then hike hundreds of miles along mostly lonely country roads, accompanies only by two tanks and a dozen soldiers. There is no goal, instead it continues until only one candidate is left. Anyone who falls below the prescribed pace of three miles per hour will be warned at the moment – and in the third warning, execution is already followed by a head shot.
The same applies to everyone who leaves the street. The TV cameras or people who look at the transmission, on the other hand, can never be seen-instead you always stay very close to the young men, whose relationships with each other develop very differently than one would expect from a “duel” to life and death. When “The Walking Dead” creator Frank Darabont secured the cinema rights to the material in 2007, he therefore deliberately hovered a low-budget adaptation-and Francis Lawrence is also doing well to concentrate fully on the essentials instead of inflating the material against his nature on blockbuster dimensions.
The film stands and falls with its line -up
If the name Stephen King is already printed fat on the poster, it is of course logical that a large part of the cinema audience will consist of genre-savvy visitors. Therefore, it also makes sense that Francis Lawrence literally celebrates the numerous executions with a lot of gore – not to mention other types of death: at one point, both legs are flattened by a tank chain – and yet the soldiers warn him for 30 seconds, he should get up again before giving him the redeeming head shot. Such an absurd adherence to the rules makes the competition appear all the more cynic, because it underlines the deceptive impression that everything is always right here – a popular trick of autocratic regimes.
Despite their shaken level of violence, the gore moments are only half as violent as the scenes in which participants suffering from diarrhea try to facilitate themselves during walking-in our imagination, hardly anyone could really look without holding their hands in front of their face. But apart from these violent inserts, “The Long Walk” – as the title already promises – is 95 percent of a few dozen young men who hike along lonely streets and talk about God and the world. In this way, the horror fans are undermined a core dialogue drama …
The #47 Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and the #23 Peter McVries (David Jonsson) are only two out of 50 young men who march for wealth, fame and their lives.
… and with such a thing traditionally plays a very decisive role in the casting. But in this regard, Francis Lawrence and his team have landed a whole series of full hits: While the well-known faces such as Charlie Plummer (“All Money”) or Ben Wang (the new “Karate Kid”) can be found among the marching, the two leading actors are particularly shining with performance, which will only play no matter in the upcoming Awards season because Horror films are traditionally not taken too seriously at such prices:
Philip Seymour Hoffman's son Cooper Hoffman confirms his strong impression, which he left as the leading actor in Paul Thomas Anderson's “Licorice Pizza”. His Raymond Garraty (#47) is the identification figure for the audience – and also keeps the tension high because it is clear from the start that money is not its central motivation for participation. However, David Jonsson (“Alien: Romulus”) turns out to be a real discovery: When Peter Mcvries (#23), he puts such a measure of humanity on the screen that “The Long Walk” develops in a completely different, more tragic and more touching direction than one would expect from such merciless struggle for life and death.
Conclusion: If you want the big spectacle, you unfortunately have to be patient-until November 6, 2025, when “The Running Man” comes into the cinemas with “The Running”, which takes up very similar topics, but will fire a much larger fireworks. Francis Lawrence, on the other hand, films Stephen King's disturbing quasi-model of “Die Tribute von Panem” with a budget that is rather modest for Hollywood conditions-without any blockbuster brimborium, but with full concentration on what really matters.