The Long Walk is one of several high-profile film adaptations of Stephen King’s lesser-known works to be released this year, coming out just after The Life of Chuck.
Director Francis Lawrence’s film is adapted from the novella written while the author was at university in the late 1960s – a story wasn’t published until 1979. It was, however, released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which King reserved for some of his most unflinching and hard-edged writing.
The setting for this violent thriller is an alternative America in the 1970s, which has suffered economic decline in the aftermath of an unspecified war. A group of 50 young men have been called up to compete in a televised contest, which is intended to inspire patriotism and work ethic among the destitute populace. The rules they must walk continuously at a speed above 3mph, with the threat of execution if any fall behind.
