Back in 1979 King released a book called The Long Walk. I was only 9 then and hadn’t started reading King yet. Chances are I wouldn’t have read it before 1984 though even if I had read King at that early age since he published it under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. I did read it eventually in 1987 and it instantly became a favorite and the book I often mention when someone asks me what my favorite Stephen King book is. It’s also the King book I have read the most times. The last time I read it was in early August in preparation for its September 12 premiere at the cinemas. Little did I know then that I’d be seeing it just one and a half weeks later at a special early screening. This screening is one of the few that I have attended that I was nervous about. I wanted to like the movie so much that I became scared I wouldn’t.

After seeing it I am happy to say that I did like it. I liked it a lot. There are changes from the book, sure, I wasn’t expecting anything else but the changes are well done and work well. Some were necessary to give the movie a good flow. There are a few things that I feel could have been done better but they aren’t that many and I feel I can live with them.

The book tells the story about Ray Garraty who in a dystopian future enters a walking contest with 99 other boys. The only rule is that if they walk slower than 4 miles per hour they get a warning. If they go below 4 miles per hour after three warnings they are shot. The group walks until there’s only one of them left and he is the winner and gets a prize that can be whatever he wants. A very simple and easy to understand plot.


In the movie the basic plot is the same no surprises there but they have changed the speed from 4 to 3 miles per hour to make it more realistic. King himself commented on that and said he felt it was more realistic to have them walk 3 miles per hour. They have also cut the number of boys by half. In the movie there are only 50 boys and after seeing the movie I can only agree. 50 boys are enough to kill in 108 minutes. Twice as many would just have been a lot of extra boys that they would have had to kill off.

As a result of fewer characters some of the characters in the book have been merged into one, some are missing and some of their characteristics have been moved from one character to another. Mostly it works well. The only one I feel has been somewhat compromised is Stebbins who is now more open and not the quiet mysterious kid he is in the book.

These are all minor changes but then we come to the ending. I won’t spoil it for you but I will say that I prefer the books ending. You can decide for yourself when you watch the movie but I have some problems buying the ending of the movie even if I understand why they changed it.


One thing that surprised me is that it’s so much more graphic than I was expecting. When someone is shot you really get to see him go. When someone needs to take a crap in the middle of the road you get to see that. I was not expecting that but I’m glad they didn’t shy away from showing how horrible the situation is for the kids. It’s obvious that they all thought about it as more of a joke at the start but when the first killing happens they are quickly brought back to reality and it dawns on them that only one of them will survive this. The graphic parts might not be for everyone, but for me it gave the movie a realistic feel and I really felt the pain of the characters. They are in Hell and it’s not getting any better. This was also one of King’s conditions to let them do the movie, that they didn’t shy away from showing the violence and horror.

I really like the movie and I’m going to go so far as to say that it’s one of the best movies based on a King movie ever done. I know there are movies like The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption but I stand by my word. Given the chance to watch only one of those two or The Long Walk I would pick The Long Walk.