The Long Walk premise is simple: 50 young men walk, and whoever walks the farthest wins, and everyone else dies. The movie sticks pretty close to the book until the very end (which was changed in a detrimental way, but not too bad). It is not a dissident film and doesn’t say much about the world; rather, it is a psychological film about young men being forced to grapple with their imminent mortality too young. How do people react to it, who lives and who dies and how they respond to such intense stress, what it reveals underneath about their character - and does the winner/longer survivors deserve it, or is he lucky? In this way it mirrors life; some people live longer who don’t deserve it, some people die young who deserve more life - life itself feels random and arbitrary in many ways. It is a dark and pretty grim film which will decrease rewatchability, but it is directed and edited well, and the language in the script is tightly used (although too much swearing). Mark Hamill chews his scenes as the evil Major, and David Jonsson, the black British actor who stole the show in Alien: Romulus, also does a good job here. He’s going to elevate further in his career, I think.

I’d give this a…7.5/10. I think parts of the reason why it doesn't resonate more than this is because, while it emphasized a theme of brotherhood, there isn't enough moral agency; in other words, the main character stumbles along, creates some friends, helps out those he can, but basically just participates in the game, and is lucky enough to make it to the end. A deeper novel/movie would force the main character into an unresolvable paradox and make him pay for his choice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(2025_film)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5778169&forum_id=2Elisa#49287956)

They did completely change the end to make it not ambiguous and have a different winner. 8/10 though.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5778169&forum_id=2Elisa#49287971)

King’s early works were so preoccupied with sex, which makes sense since he was literally 18. I learned most of human sexuality from his work.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5778169&forum_id=2Elisa#49287989)