‘The Long Walk’ and masculinity in the time of dystopia

L-R Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk Photo by Murray Close Credit Murray Close Long before his first published novel Carrie hit shelves in Stephen King began work on a very different kind of book When he was in college in the late s King started writing The Long Walk a dystopian story about a post-war United States under totalitarian rule In this world each year young men are forced to walk until just one of them is left the rest shot and killed by soldiers if they slow down or break a rule The novel is widely considered a metaphor for the Vietnam War Almost years later a new film adaptation of The Long Walk from director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner proves that the themes King was dealing with then are as relevant currently as ever But while timely indeed the film s overtly political bent is the least gripping thing about it The obvious authoritarian allegory in The Long Walk borne out in a Trumpian figure called The Major Mark Hamill is an overly broad one almost cartoonish in its execution But the walkers themselves in the movie instead of the book s are far more richly considered The Long Walk is bulk intriguing as a parable about how toxic masculinity and authoritarianism go hand in hand at its best when it explores how the political setting informs the young men at the center of the story rather than considering the political signifiers on their own terms The first walker we meet is Ray Garraty Cooper Hoffman in the car with his mother Judy Greer as they head to the walk s starting line During that drive we learn a couple of things Ray s father is gone the walk is not mandatory Ray signed up of his own volition and the winner gets a whole lot of money As the walk begins in earnest Ray strikes up friendships with a couple of the other boys greater part notably Peter McVries David Jonsson The Long Walk novel was eventually published in but the boys themselves feel far more old-fashioned Largest part of them are posturing at a very particular very gendered idea of adulthood It s in the way they talk the way they interact with each other and even in particular cases the way they dress Stebbins Garrett Wareing the strongest boy of the bunch and the one deemed the majority likely to win dresses like a newsie from the s complete with a pageboy cap and suspenders This is not the first time this year we ve seen a horror movie contemplate the idea of regression in the aftermath of a dystopian event In Danny Boyle s Years Later the village where the main characters live has returned to an almost medieval idea of neighborhood In The Long Walk there is a similar sense of traditionalism An epidemic of laziness has taken them over The Major says and the walk will teach them how to be men Everyone whether they want to be or not is on a path toward the societal ideal of traditional masculinity Even someone like Ray the majority political of the group and who joined the walk for reasons having nothing to do with winning or glory comes full of preconceived notions of what it means to be a man and it sure doesn t mean staying at home and taking care of his mother ensuring she doesn t lose anybody else The sort of masculinity that The Major pushes one where every other word out of his mouth is balls or sac is built on notions of competition and brute force leaving no room for empathy or softness While particular of the boys buy into that sort of thing particularly a character named Barkovitch Charlie Plummer and even he has more nuance than The Major their intrinsic beliefs about manhood are also present in their quieter sweeter moments When particular of the boys start talking suggestively about Ray s mom he valiantly warns them off because of program talking crassly about a boy s mother is the worst viable offense When McVries jokes or is it a joke about being so horny that he d even consider having sex with one of them the boys react with the societally-accepted amount of humor and disgust chortling the notion off The Major lingers as a mostly unseen force throughout all of this That s likely a good thing because when the movie shifts its focus to anything outside of the walkers and their dynamic it loses its punch Hamill plays The Major as a gruff Aviators-wearing cartoon of a military man and that broader surface-level commentary on authoritarianism the kind where America the Beautiful plays over a dead teenager s face is far less subtle or affecting than the rest of the film Moments like the above example leave no room for analysis and the best moments in The Long Walk are ones where the audience can unpack and unravel questions about masculinity about trauma about area The walkers hold all of this in spades Hoffman like a great number of of the other actors that make up the group starts out a little shaky as Ray tries to find his place in this new group The only outlier in that regard is Jonsson who as McVries gives a character that could have felt hollowly perfect and uncomplicated a sense of soul and backstory solidifying his status as one of the best young actors working in current times The other performances stilted at first start to gel around him and Hoffman as the movie progresses the boys becoming easier with each other as they spend more time together As that sense of camaraderie grows each death hits harder than the last It s not empty brutality but rather feels like a real personal blow each time That s perhaps the magic trick of The Long Walk as bleak as it is in its entirety the boys manage to find particular sort of hope and catharsis within their doomed society Throughout the walk itself the boys weave in and out of instances of togetherness and isolation A few band together but others Barkovitch in particular choose the path of majority of resistance At first Barkovitch a wonderfully nasty pitiful Plummer fashions himself a leader the coolest the funniest the smartest But a sharp remark from another boy early on causes him to forthwith begin separating himself from the group in avenues both purposeful and horrifyingly accidental He expeditiously finds himself at the point of no return McVries and Ray are the tightest unit but even they are not immune to this pattern In one scene McVries implies to Ray that he is gay an insinuation that Ray reacts to with barely disguised confusion and anger After McVries continues to help him through the worst moments of the walk Ray apologizes the moment laced with shame and solidifying a connection that neither one of them can quite name borne of damage and mutual understanding In moments of conflict the type of manhood that this world propagates does not help these boys Hardness and rage no matter how earned will not win the day But outside of these small tender moments it might be too late for anything else The post The Long Walk and masculinity in the time of dystopia appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta