What were your overall thoughts? What death hit you the hardest? What do you make of the ending?
I finally had a chance to see this in the theater.
Wow.I’ve read the book quite literally countless times, so I was fully aware of what to expect.
Some of the characters didn’t fit my mind view at all, Hank Olson for one, and the characters weren’t nearly as fleshed out as in the book, but that is to be expected.
With what they had to work with, I think it was all done very well.!It was the whole twist with McVries and an expansion of his background that really worked for me. Usually I don’t like it when a movie makes radical changes from the book, but I really liked this ending. The Major shooting Garraty coupled with McVries changing his wish due to the pain he felt in that moment was huge. Absolutely brilliant.!<
Yep I read the novel afterwards, McVries is very different and they made a few people more likeable. Having read the book I’m disappointed they didn’t include Scramm as his own person. With the book and novel, I found the premise wobbly… the walk is essentially suicide, so why so many sign ups? It’s King’s first ever novel that he wrote at 19 so I’m sure he’d sell that better now.
Do you think McVries is dead?
Scramm was folded into other characters, with Stebbins getting his bad cold and Olson getting his wife, which the core group promises to care for if any of them win.
Scramm getting pneumonia was drawn out for quite a while in the book, but Stebbins having the cold was barely a single sentence in the movie dialog.
There were other instances where character traits in the book were melded into different characters in the movie, but that was to be expected. There’s only so much you can do in a 90 minute movie.
Why do the walkers sign up for it? Some weird national pride. With the screwed up direction the country has taken in the story, entering the lottery for the possibility of representing your state in the walk is an honor of sorts.
!Is McVries dead? Yes, but not by the hands of the soldiers.
With him killing The Major, he might be viewed as a trigger that starts an uprising in the country, and if he is killed, he dies as a martyr to the cause.
I do think that he would soon likely commit suicide due to PTSD and extreme survivor’s guilt!<.Yep I wasn’t totally sold on that premise, maybe it was too subtle for me. It was 98% chance suicide so I needed it sold well. And yes he was merged I wanted to see him in his own right though I liked him as a character.
My reaction immediately was that he was dead, it was the sudden silence and nobody around. Plus the guards would have been scared he’d shoot THEM so self preservation would have kicked in.
If he survived I’m 100% sure Ray’s mom would take care of him. He’s her only connection to her son and she’d want to honour Ray’s feelings about him. I really believe that would keep him alive, he’d have a family and he’d want to stay alive to keep mom going.
I absolutely loved it! Each death was really powerful, my favourite was the Native American guy shooting the guard and killing himself. He took one down with him, and went out on his own terms… to me it was as positive a death as anyone could have.
I sobbed at several points, the kid dying was a gut punch and really set the tone. I loved the friendship throughout, and Bakers hope that he’d get friends coming true. The ending to me was really bleak… Mcvries betrayed himself and threw his life away. It was all for nothing. I absolutely did NOT see Ray dying, total shock.
Definitely in my top 10 films!
It’s definitely a flawed film but it produced emotion and did move me. The end is a real punch in the guts. It’s like a great ‘B’ movie maybe. They made some changes from the novel and I think they were a mistake:
spoiler
The major is elevated to a supreme leader, Garrety’s reason for going is much weaker, the end is changed (though I like the new ending)
We don’t really get a strong sense of the physical suffering. The first third of the film is weakest I think but it improves from there. I appreciate that they hold focus on the walk, in fact we almost never look away from it. It did create interesting moments where we know a walker will die in the background and the others must keep walking, some interesting tension and reactions.
Some of the gore seemed just for gore’s sake though. The deaths are senseless and shocking in their own right. I would watch it again if comes to streaming.
Excellent analysis! Do you think Mcvries died? My reading was he did but other people have a different view. I fucking hope he lived.
I’m ok with it being ambiguous I think! Reminds me of the end of High Noon. Mcvries has done what he had to and now he’s off to something new (death maybe!)
Yes absolutely agree… I swear I heard another gunshot though but my mate thought it was fireworks. That makes it even more ambiguous. David Jonsson stole thr film for me he deserves an oscar
Solid 4/5
Good symbolic allegory for the capitalist grind, punishing altruism and solidarity. I can see some might call it boring, as it’s 90% just boys walking and talking, but I enjoyed it. Will watch again sometime. Maybe an annual reminder watch. Like V for Vendetta.
