The Long Walk (2025)

 The Long Walk

Details

A group of young men compete in a gruelling contest, continuously walk at a pace of 3mph, or get your ticket, last one standing wins.

Director: Francis Lawrence

Run time: 1hr 48m

My Review

The Long Walk might just be a group of people walking, but it is one of the most intense, gruelling and emotional watches of the year! Francis Lawrence comes out with a career best, creating a masterfully crafted film that hooks your attention from the start and never lets go. The script is truly a work of art, with dialogue that feels incredibly organic, yet it incorporated incredibly important lessons about life, brotherhood and friendship. But none of the above would be possible without the performances, which were executed perfectly by a  young, up and coming cast! David Jonsson continues his hot streak and it would come as no surprise if he becomes Mr Popular during awards season with this performance. But the truth is, everyone was brilliant and those performances had most of the theatre in tears, flooded with emotion.

We have seen storylines of this nature before, most notably within Francis Lawrence’s own filmography with The Hunger Games, but where that was more fantastical, The Long Walk is steeped in realism and that heightens the emotion even more and helped the audience form such a strong attachment to the characters on screen. This authenticity even extended to the cinematography, simple yet effective shots, beautiful but organic, nothing too technical that could pull you out of the immersion, all focused on making this tragic environment feel real and impactful. It’s a film I’ll return to time and time again, whether it’s to remind myself of the value of friendship, for clarity on what really matters in life, or simply to take myself on an emotional rollercoaster that will have me crying my eyes out for the entire second half of the film. This really did live up to the hype! 

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Thanks for reading.

Film Review Club