Newsletter #2 The Long walk
Heyyyy,
Welcome back friends!
To everybody who saw me irl, sorry I changed the subject. Buttt this is still a movie I highly recommend. So let me know what you think!
I don’t have a lot of illustration news this time I got wrapped up in the holiday season. Mostly I want to take the time to sit down and plan out a few things for the new year. And reflect on the things I accomplished and am proud of! :0
To everyone - HAPPY NEW YEAR - I wish you love, luck and excitement.
Is a film that, without me being able to predict it, captured a lot of my fears about war and conscription. I couldn't help but look at the boys and think, are these my friends? My little brother? Or maybe even myself? And who would I be in this story?
The boys in this movie are volunteers of a nationwide game called the Long Walk. An annually televised competitive walking marathon. One boy out of each state shows up to the starting line with a few simple rules.
They must maintain a pace of three miles per hour (4.8 km/h) of nonstop walking for days, and failure to do so after three warnings results in death. The boy who lasts the longest wins a large cash prize and the fulfillment of one wish of his choice.
The movie frames them as fresh recruits who have volunteered for combat. And are tasked with keeping up the morale of the country.
Or at least that's the goal of the game.
The book the movie is based on was written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. And was conceptualized around the time of the Vietnam war. And with the book (and movie) being a strong metaphor for war. The boys in the walk all embody a different reason for joining.
One boy believes the game is worth something. Another wants to use the money at the end for a bette future. Some kind of end up there by accident. And, most interesting to me, the boy who thinks himself a journalist going of to write a book.
The boy, number 49 or Richard Harkness follows everyone around with a notebook and announces that he will later publish a book about the experience. That no one has told the story from this perspective yet. He takes notes on everyone's appearance and motivations, everything catching his attention is carefully written down.
The film has an opinion about his actions. He is dismissed by the main characters as a meddler, who initially deals with the situation too naively. He sensationalizes the competition and hopes to make a career out of it.
It makes him come across as an opportunistic person who doesn't quite realize that he is in the same situation as the other boys.
Of all the guys in the film, I knew right away, oh, that's me. The thing is, I understand exactly why he does it and I would seriously consider doing something similar when put in the same situation.
Something about his hunger to witness a unique event and transforming it into something hit close to home.
I said this film captures my fear around war but it also pinpoints a more personal fear around the creation of art. That good inspiration only comes from the something I have witnessed and not something intrinsic inside me.
Art to me may be my long walk and that feels like a really shitty metaphor.
my list
the main character is played by Cooper Hoffman who is the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman
i will never forget the ankle scene
David Jonsson i will watch every movie with you in it
so many movies have a deus ex machina I really hoped this one would to. but it was better without it
