The Long Walk

This is how book adaptations should be. I just finished reading the book and while I enjoyed it I honestly think I prefer the movie to the book. The casting was perfect, I think that everyone did an amazing job, I really liked Cooper Hoffman and David  Jennson they were awesome. They changed a lot but they still stayed true to the book, every change was only an improvement upon the story and characters. They cut the numbers down from 100 walkers to just 50 and while this is clearly because it’s much easier to film with 50 people than 100 this change also forced them to combine certain aspects of characters together. Scramm was an important character in the book, he was buff and seen to be one of the most likely to win, he also had a wife with a baby on the way, but he got sick and bought his ticket. Scramm became Olson and Stebbins. I think giving Olson the wife that Scramm was supposed to have really made his death more impactful and making Stebbins get sick helped to get rid of him so they could change the ending. The only thing I actually prefer about the book is Stebbins as a character and his relationship with Garraty. They talk much more in the book and he explains certain things to Garraty, messes with him because he’s sort of supposed to be an antagonist in a way, but in the movie we see much less of him which is mostly to help make Garraty and McVries the main friendship but still. Although Stebbins death is much more compelling in the movie than the book, especially with his Rabbit speech, which is given in both, but I just love his speech. They also combined Collie Parker and the two native brothers in the book and it just adds to him as character so much, especially with him singing his native song it’s just beautiful. Stebbins and Collie Parker were two characters that I had a lot more appreciation for the second watch around as I was mostly just focused on the Musketeers.  They also changed a lot about Garraty as a character which I think only made him better. In the book he didn’t break up with his girlfriend and instead she’s kind of what keeps him going. In the movie they get rid of her to help focus on his relationship with his mother and McVries and I prefer that a lot. It helps to transform this story into one of brotherhood and friendship along side the story of war. In the book they weren’t the musketeers and he wasn’t all that close with McVries and changing that just makes the story all the more compelling. Changing Garraty’s reasoning to wanting to avenge his dad just makes him a much more interesting character so I appreciate that. They also made McVries more likable in the movie, they made him able to see the light and that makes so much more tragic when we that he loses that at the end, when that was why Garraty wanted him to continue on. Their relationship is my favorite part of the movie hands down and I was very glad to see that they were still very yaoi in the book. Garraty saying that he loves McVries at the end is just everything. Somebody said that they thought that the shadowy figure that book Garraty saw beckoning him to keep walking at the end of the book was movie McVries and I think that’s beautiful.