Latest / Citizen Frame / Halloween Month and a 1/2 episode 7: The Long Walk

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Halloween Month and a 1/2 episode 7: The Long Walk · Citizen Frame

0:00
What you doing, man? Holy shit. Come on, get up. Get up, Barkovich. Jesus Christ.
0:06
That dumb fuck's actually going to get his fucking ticket. Come on,
0:08
get up, man. Stop playing. Warning.
0:10
Number five. Third warning.
0:13
Get the fucks up, Barkovich. Come on, man.
0:17
All right, folks. We're coming to the tail end of Halloween,
0:20
month and a half. And guess what? It is going to actually be Halloween, month and a half.
0:25
Wow. I'm actually proud of that. because we're going to wrap up things with
0:29
Suspiria after this one, and that will take us into the 14th.
0:33
So there you go. Boom. Halloween month. Yes, we're doing Frankenstein, but that doesn't count.
0:38
That's like a new lease. So we don't really count that as horror.
0:44
So technically, we hit target. So Halloween month and a half, we're coming to a close.
0:50
Frankenstein's being released soon, isn't it? Friday. Friday in the UK, yes, yeah.
0:56
On Netflix. Okay. And then I think some theaters.
1:00
Right. If people want to experience that. I think they do that as well so that
1:04
it can be considered for Oscars.
1:06
Yeah, it has to be. Yeah.
1:08
Actually, any movie, even for a BAFTA. You can't, it has to be on a screen in some form. Yes.
1:16
All right, before we start, we lost a couple of veterans in their field today
1:20
in the movie industry. Not today, sorry, the last couple days.
1:23
Adam Greenberg. He is a cinematographer. He was around for a long time.
1:28
His creds, yes, include Snakes on the Plane, Coys, which is a wonderful film
1:33
and beautifully shot, Eraser, Spear, Ghost, and both one and two of the Terminators. Quite a CV.
1:41
Yeah, pretty impressive. Good age, but, you know, R.I.P.
1:45
Deserves a shout out. Shout out. Don't think he, a lot of people don't really
1:48
know who's behind the lens. a lot.
1:50
They only see who's in front of the lens, which is always nice to give a shout out.
1:54
And then the great Diane Ladd. Yeah. We might know her as Laura Dern's mom,
2:00
but before that even happened, she's got like 140 credits to her name,
2:04
including Ex-Masification,
2:06
classic, Wild at Heart, which was nominated for all bunch of awards,
2:10
Rambling Rose, and Wild at Heart, she was nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes. Yes.
2:14
Where she worked with David Lynch, and David Lynch obviously works with her
2:18
daughter quite a bit, Laura Dern.
2:19
Who was also in the film she got a
2:23
wonderful film she's in called something this wicked
2:26
this way come yeah it's one of my personal favorites and another personal favorite
2:29
shout it out that's just the name of a couple but she will certainly be best
2:34
and good age of 90 i believe so thoughts and prayers of all the families out
2:39
there with regards to the passing of adam greenberg and diane left. Yeah.
2:44
All right, we're here to talk the long walks. Wow, I'm really going to hit a
2:47
real depressing note on this podcast because this fucking movie is fucking depressing.
2:53
Powerful shit, though. I've got to admit, powerful. Yeah, long walks.
2:57
Stephen King, or a.k.a. Richard Bachman, it's based on his novel.
3:02
If I'm not mistaken, it's not a novella. This is a novel within a bunch of novels. It's a novel.
3:07
I have the four novels. It's a big book.
3:10
It's the four Richard Bachman novels. I read them as a kid, actually.
3:16
And this book contains the four novels, which are Rage, which Keane himself
3:21
withdrew, because it's about a school shooter.
3:24
Essentially, he didn't want to encourage school shooters, basically.
3:27
There's also this, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man.
3:33
Okay. Well, we know about The Running Man, that's for sure. Yes,
3:36
yes, yeah. And actually, the new version of that's coming out this weekend as well, I believe.
3:40
Yeah, we'll be tackling that one probably in the new year.
3:43
Both of them. My little mini retrospective. Get back to Ali.
3:47
Only in a rerun. Which will technically be a rerun. Well, this would be a rerun.
3:52
This would be a rerun because we've done it once.
3:56
You know what? It's weird because this was directed by a really good director, Francis Lawrence.
4:01
He did the Hunger Games series, I Am Legend, and my favorite, Constantine.
4:06
So he's done something a little more, sounds like grounded. Yeah.
4:09
It's obviously not a big budget on this one. It cost $20 million to make.
4:13
By today's standards, it's very minimal. Made 55 worldwide.
4:16
Still, that didn't work for me, like the monkey movie. Yeah.
4:19
But it's nice to see King with a big resurgence, especially with Welcome to
4:23
Dairy is out now, I think.
4:25
Yes, that's the IT TV series. I haven't watched it yet. Yeah.
4:29
Yes, it's out currently. Yeah.
4:30
And then you've got a Carrie coming back out. Mike Flanagan.
4:34
Mike Flanagan. Mike Flanagan. And I thought about it.
4:38
And we'll do a little retrospective when we hit the tail end of Christmas month
4:42
about the year in review about films we've seen and really liked.
4:45
And I just watched it again the other day. I have to put my cards on the table.
4:50
Weapons is up there, of course, but sinners.
4:53
But I think Life of Chuck is the best film of the year so far. Right.
4:56
Wonderful. Well, I wouldn't agree with.
5:00
Well I like Life of Chuck but I wouldn't put it up there however spoiler alert
5:05
I would put this up there but we'll get to the reasons why soon enough yeah definitely,
5:12
well let's dig a little deeper and figure out why I wouldn't just because it's
5:17
the same thing with Dead Man's Shoes you know wonderful film and I wouldn't
5:21
change a thing about it but god I can't watch this again but I'm not going to
5:25
deter that from the film and give it a good review I don't think that's fair.
5:29
Yeah, but with me, I like my misery porn.
5:32
You know what I mean? Dead Man's Shoes, all of that sort of thing.
5:35
Yep. Yep. You're a sick fuck. So there you go. I like good drama. That's what it is.
5:40
Yeah. Good kitchen sink drama from Britain. Powerful storytelling.
5:45
Yeah, definitely. Good drama.
5:48
It's kind of unfortunate. Frank Darabont on the rights to this for quite a while.
5:53
And he was going to film it. Things fell through. He's kind of faded a bit,
5:57
Frank Darabont, which is unfortunate.
5:58
And even, obviously, a perfect choice to direct this, but then the rights,
6:02
when you own the rights for something, you only have them for so long. Well, it's funny.
6:06
And then, hold on for a second, if the film doesn't get produced,
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it then goes back to open bidding.
6:11
And that's what happened with The Long One. Yeah, and it's funny to say about
6:15
Frank Darabont, because this very much feels like a Frank Darabont,
6:21
Stephen Keane adaptation.
6:23
It does. I mean, we talk about, we have that little retrospective, grounded kid. Yeah.
6:28
Now, a lot of people would look at, this is psychological horror,
6:32
guys. A lot of people don't think it's really horror. It is psychological horror.
6:35
It takes place in a dystopian future, yada, yada, yada.
6:38
But it does have that more like, well, Life of Chuck, or the Green Mile,
6:46
or Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me. It's got a lot of Stand By Me in this film.
6:51
But yeah, I mean, And Frank Dennef, this does have Frank Darabont written all
6:56
over it, but I'm not going to take away from Francis Lawrence,
6:59
who is the guy who actually directed it. Yes.
7:02
Why there are no supernatural elements here, you know, it is set in a post-apocalyptic future America.
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There are certainly the horrors of humanity, essentially, you know,
7:13
the real monsters type thing.
7:16
Well, let's jump into it. I'm not going to give you all the whole cast.
7:19
They're all youngins. We will recognize a couple of them.
7:22
It's kind of fun. I did, I'm researching it. I'm going to go by their last names, guys.
7:26
So we got Garrity, McRise, Stebbins, Baker, Barkovitz, Olsen,
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Harkness, Parker, and Curley.
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Those are your four. Those are your main guys.
7:34
Then you've got the Major played by Luke Skywalker.
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So, yeah, so out of character for what he usually plays. And that's Mark Hamill
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plays the Major. Just a vile pig.
7:43
Well, he seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, Mark Hamill.
7:46
In Stephen King films, you know?
7:48
Yeah, well, so does Harrison Ford have been. He was gone. He wasn't doing mine.
7:52
And then he had Jones, Star Wars, and, you know, I think Star Wars kind of a
7:57
little bit of a tweak for him.
7:58
And then he did that one with the dog, which I haven't seen recently.
8:02
And I still hold my cards that I think Mark Hamill should be nominated for The
8:09
Life of Chuck. Okay, fair enough. Okay.
8:12
So, well, this new guy, Cooper Hoffman, this is this is how old i am this kid
8:18
is very good in it he plays garrity he's the lead yes,
8:21
he's philip seymour hoffman's kid yeah i i was thinking there was some connection there he does,
8:27
physically look like him yeah in ways you know philip seymour hoffman was the
8:32
same build and you know that sort of thing robust kind of big guy and even the
8:37
hair yeah ginger yeah yeah and it's sort of but even the way it's sort of styled
8:41
you know brushed over to the side type thing,
8:43
although that could be intentional by the sort of make-up department essentially,
8:47
but you know he looks like his dad,
8:50
Yeah, well, get on him. You know, sad what happened to his father,
8:54
but hopefully, you know, he'll take over the reins. Yeah.
8:58
We got Scene Stealer, and he's a Scene Stealer on this one. This guy's two for
9:01
two already. David Johnson, we talked about him. He's the Scene Stealer in Romulus.
9:06
He played Andy, and he's got a huge career ahead of him, but he's definitely the Scene Stealer.
9:11
He is the heart and soul of this film, and he is McFry's just a wonderful character.
9:18
Absolutely wonderful. He's very good. anything from this film.
9:21
He's very good at playing sort of sympathetic... He's a peacemaker.
9:24
Sympathetic characters he's very good at. He did the same in Alien Romulus where
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he's a more sympathetic sort of synthetic sort of robot, essentially.
9:34
So he is very good at playing these types of sympathetic characters and he has
9:38
that face and sort of way about him where you sort of... Yeah,
9:42
the audience will sort of, you know, sort of fall for him type thing.
9:46
You have these cluster of main characters,
9:49
of characters and they kind of give them like you've got
9:52
garrity he's the nice guy you've
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got mcgrise who's the peacemaker you got
9:59
stebbins who's kind of the muscle but keeps to
10:01
himself a bit yes confident baker kind
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of a smart ass you got barkovich who's almost he
10:08
tries to fit in but there's something mentally not right there yeah
10:11
you got olsen who's kind of a smart ass i like him you
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got Harkness who's the nerd who was funny because he's the
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one who weird character he came in
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here he goes I'm gonna write a book about this they're like well you have to survive in
10:22
order to write the book um he's a likable character but
10:26
it kind of reminded me of Stephen King I don't
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know I haven't read the book but I wonder if that was intentional by putting
10:31
a writer a nerdy writer in I haven't read
10:34
it since I was a kid but a lot and I
10:37
mean a lot of Stephen King novels and
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stories and feature writers but yes he
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very much feels like a self-insert you
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know i again i would have to read it again so the
10:49
character may not even be in the original novel but yes so it could even be
10:55
just a reference to king but there's a good chance he is the character you know
11:00
because stephen king does feature writers a lot within his works overall but
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again it was i was a kid want to read it.
11:07
Yeah, yeah. Then you got Parker, who's the Native American. He's kind of quiet
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and reserved until the end.
11:14
I like the character. And then you got the poor kid, Curly. Yeah.
11:17
But yeah, that's pretty much your core group.
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And every few miles, obviously, he's a little bit,
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The group that gets the 50 men become less. You know, so the whole thing is
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Lee Geardbaum, Garrity volunteered for this. Nobody volunteers for this, but he did.
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So rather than go for the lottery, he volunteered for this.
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And if you win it, you get the riches beyond spoil. You become the hero.
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And the reason they do this, I'm not a big fan of it, is because it's the 19th
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anniversary of after the war destroyed pretty much the country's economy.
11:51
Yes. and they want to rebuild the economy, become great again,
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make America great again. You know where I'm going with that? Yeah.
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And so then you've got, they decide they're going to do these walks and whoever
12:03
survives it, it builds character into that individual.
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It brings thrive into the nation. So this ultimate challenge,
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it brings back, it elevates our growth of the national product.
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It's really what they want to do. It inspires the people.
12:18
They want to crush laziness.
12:22
Is what they want to do. Kind of an odd way of doing it, but that's what it
12:28
is. Yeah, I mean, it sort of makes sense.
12:29
I mean, this was written around 40-odd years ago, so it's absolutely got nothing
12:36
to do with any sort of current political stuff in its original form.
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But for me as well, certainly on this viewing of it, I also found it a commentary on reality TV.
12:48
There's a very Black Mirror feel to this. It seems like an almost commentary
12:52
on reality TV before reality TV was even a proper thing, which really came before
12:58
in the 90s. Well, I mean, look at, we talk, exactly, we talk about King all the time.
13:02
Look at, uh, look at the fucking Running Man. Yeah, exactly.
13:04
Yeah, it's, it's very similar. Yeah.
13:06
I mean, you wouldn't have Hunger Games or Squid Game without Running Man, probably.
13:11
You probably wouldn't have reality TV without Running Man. Yeah. Yeah.
13:15
So it's almost like Keane predicted the future of, you know,
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TV and the way it was going.
13:21
And basically it boils down to human nature as well.
13:24
How, you know, even with the reality TV thing, you know, when people love,
13:30
you know, looking in at the freak show, that's not a new thing in terms of human nature.
13:34
You know, because there were the Victorian freak shows. People back in the day
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used to go and watch public executions, public stonings and stuff. Carnivals.
13:42
You know? Carnivals. Sorry? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
13:47
But yeah, he does. And there's him and like I always mentioned,
13:51
Philip K. Dick was always ahead of his time.
13:54
Yeah. With, you know, I believe he did Blade Runner and Minority Report,
13:57
all these other films that were really above and beyond were creepy.
14:03
Were creepy based on how good they were at predicting what we'd be like in the future. Yeah.
14:08
The best writers, the best writers of science fiction, they're grappling with
14:12
big ideas, But also they're basically,
14:16
They're commentating on basically Where we're headed as a species as well So
14:21
all those classic science fiction writers You know,
14:23
nailed it You know, people like Harlan Ellison as well And you know,
14:27
there are many others Although King's predominantly a horror writer But you
14:32
know, there's a certain You know, we sort of cross in sort of genres here as well,
14:37
Yeah, no, exactly. There's four rules.
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You walk until there's no one left. Until you're the last one left.
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Maintain a speed of three miles.
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You get a warning after 10 seconds. You get an additional warning.
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And the third warning, you're dead.
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You step off the pavement. You're dead. There's no warnings.
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And there's only one winner. We would be good in this. That's pretty much it.
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I wouldn't last 30 seconds. I'd be dead.
15:01
I'd be fucking. I'm like, fuck it. I'm going home. First mind.
15:04
I'll shoot you the fucking face. First mind.
15:05
Bang. Yeah, I'll fuck that.
15:10
Yeah, that'd be absolutely useless. But of course, it makes sense that they're
15:13
all young, physically fit men.
15:16
You know, obviously, you know, because they're the ones who are going to last
15:19
the longest. It's not going to be near you.
15:22
Yeah, I just give up. Curly gets it first. Now, Curly, what I've noticed in
15:27
the film, when he gets the Charlie horse, God love him.
15:30
He's in pain. He can't take it. He tries his best.
15:33
All the kind of core characters you're introduced to
15:36
besides near the ending i'll get to what they've changed
15:39
in the end yes you see their deaths and
15:43
it's brutal yep especially curly's when they blow his face off
15:46
they don't cut away they don't they show
15:48
you and then there's the other ones you don't really know there's you
15:51
know extras they just get and you just hear the gun like at the distance or
15:55
whatever yeah it's yeah the ones you invest in you see their deaths and clearly
16:00
that's deliberate oh absolutely that's for the emotional impact because you've
16:05
spent a little time with this character you like this character,
16:07
they're just kids essentially,
16:10
alright they're about 18 or whatever, but they're just kids and next thing they're
16:14
getting shot in the face in the most sort of brutal and graphic of manner so yeah,
16:19
total emotional impact and totally intentional and it's not gratuitous because
16:25
it's done for emotional sake, you know, for the emotions of the audience so
16:29
yeah, this is not gratuitous.
16:32
Well, it is gratuitous. It's pretty brutal. No, gratuitous for me would be more
16:37
if it was done just for shock value, but I don't think it's… Well,
16:41
I think it is. To a certain extent, but if there's a point…,
16:44
Yeah, but it's gratuitous. I mean, it's brutal. No, gratuitous.
16:48
He's getting his face blown off. More for Gore's sake, if you know what I mean.
16:52
But here there's an emotional payoff with it, which is very important.
16:56
That makes a difference.
16:57
Yeah, I just, I don't think you're using the term. I mean, it's still,
17:00
I mean, yeah, it's still gratuitous, but done properly. It's violent. Yeah.
17:04
Yeah, it's, yeah, it's fun. Okay. But yeah, your four main characters can be
17:11
Garrity, McFries, Alston and Baker.
17:13
But then other characters will come into that into that group as they,
17:18
you know they start the Asian character is Baker isn't he no Olsen that's right
17:23
yeah I thought he was great,
17:25
he was a good character he was a comic relief yeah smart ass yeah and then you
17:31
got Barkovic who didn't know where he was going there was something mentally
17:34
wrong with this kid that's for sure because he kind of.
17:39
And he's already a time bomb but once he does pretty much kill rank.
17:45
He sets him off and winds him up.
17:49
And even the team says, congratulations, you're now a murderer. That's right.
17:52
And, and Barkovic from that line never bounces back. And he's a time bomb.
17:57
The one thing about this film, it doesn't, it's not that cliche of he's.
18:03
Oh, he's, he's a time bomb. He's going to, he's going to kill everyone or anything like that.
18:07
And you think that's where it would go, but they're not. Every single of these
18:12
characters, even Seven and with Parker, you think something's going to implode in them.
18:18
It does, but it's not against the other team. It's more of just giving up or fighting back.
18:24
In other words, they all have their arcs. It's about their humanity for good and bad.
18:30
Yes, exactly. This is a film about humanity for good and bad.
18:34
And they're all very well-written and rounded and believable characters.
18:40
And sympathetic. Of all the violence we're about to talk about,
18:44
the one thing I have to say is we didn't need to see people taking a shit on the, oh my god.
18:50
I know, we could have done without that. But yeah, but at the same time... You want to talk to this?
18:55
There you go. At the same time, it was... It sort of makes sense because,
19:01
remember the series which I was a big fan of at the time, 24.
19:05
With Kiefer Sutherland?
19:08
One of the big complaints. it was obviously told
19:10
in real time but one of the big complaints for people was that
19:14
for those 24 hours he never
19:16
goes to the toilet he never takes a piss or a shit which is
19:19
fair enough so here they do but yes we probably could have done without it those
19:24
scenes could have maybe done with being edited out but at the same time I'll
19:30
defend them because they do make sense in terms of the reality of the situation
19:34
obviously it's fictional yeah but Yeah. Oh, I know.
19:37
And it's not, it wasn't like, oh, this is not necessary. I was laughing. Yes.
19:41
The funny thing is the film has very tongue in cheek moments or wink and this is one of them.
19:47
The kid can't, the kid's taking a dump and he's got now all of a sudden diarrhea
19:51
and yada, yada, yada. And he's going to die because of it.
19:54
You're trying not to laugh with it because you feel sorry for him.
19:58
But again, I think it's the way of the director and King just winking at the
20:03
audience going, we're just, you know, there's going to be moments of.
20:07
They're going to it's how do
20:09
you not laugh at that you know getting shot while taking a dump they're so,
20:13
sort of I have to defend them because you know you're sort of cringing because
20:17
I don't want to see somebody taking a shit but at the same time you're sort
20:21
of hurry up and take your shit because they're going to shoot you in the head
20:23
and then whenever they do shoot them it's like oh no,
20:27
you know you'd be better off just shitting yourself and in fact I think the
20:30
characters actually say that just shit yourself you know.
20:34
Better than getting a bullet in the head Thank you.
20:38
Yeah well we find that out when baker shits himself and
20:41
they ask him can you please move away from us for a while exactly the spell
20:44
yeah again putting huber in a pretty dark situation because that's what life
20:49
is like so when they when they when you start meeting all these different characters
20:53
slowly they come up to a hill and that's where you pretty much take a 14 of
20:59
them out yeah um you don't see it you just see it they hear in the background
21:01
and now we're down to 18 left.
21:04
So they quickly, we got chopped down the herd here.
21:08
But Olsen's starting to look fragile. You've got Harkness per guy.
21:15
He gets it in the face because his ankle break. That's right. Yeah.
21:19
It's quite, yeah. There's nothing he can do. This is the Stephen King kid. Yeah.
21:24
And you just go, your heart goes out to him. He's crying. He's like,
21:28
you know, he just, there's nothing he can do.
21:33
There's nothing anyone can do. And they all just say, keep walking,
21:36
keep walking, don't look. Keep walking, don't look.
21:39
And he gets it. And he's a nice kid. Yeah.
21:42
They all are for their flaws, you know what I mean? They're just kids. That's all they are.
21:47
So you're rooting for them, all of them. And there's that whole sort of battle.
21:53
I know the original novel came first, but there's that whole battle royale thing
21:57
where only one can survive. and essentially at some point they are going to
22:02
be in some way forced to turn on each other.
22:05
That's good drama. I do like when we finally find out, we never really find
22:10
out why Garrity volunteers. No one understood this.
22:13
And he finally tells and agrees about how the major.
22:19
Killed his father. There's a scene where, you know, the scene where they take
22:22
him out of his household, the kitchen, and the, excuse me, the major shoots him. Yeah.
22:28
It's almost like a Fahrenheit 451 field of this. It's almost like- Oh, yes.
22:33
Censorship is the world now. This is the way it is. And he was teaching his
22:36
kid music. I believe that's what did it. Yes, exactly.
22:39
And that's, and there's actually a scene where they start playing music and
22:42
telling the major to go fuck yourself.
22:44
Yeah. So, because they know they can't, they can't touch him.
22:47
So they kind of, They had that minute of freedom where they couldn't have if
22:52
they weren't doing the walk. Yeah.
22:55
But that's why he's there. He's there because you get that one wish at the end
22:58
of the line, and he's going to ask for a gun, and he's going to kill the major.
23:05
And McFry gives him this big speech, like you get in a lot of films where killing
23:10
a man isn't as easy as talking about it. And it'll make you,
23:14
it's basically, it'll destroy you inside.
23:18
Essentially, the revenge, the whole revenge thing, you know, don't go down.
23:22
McFry basically says, you know, and he's had a tough life, as he explains later
23:27
on, but says, don't go down the dark road.
23:30
And then, you know, you sort of realize that McFry, as the characters even discussed,
23:35
he has the light in him, you know, the sort of, the good within him.
23:39
So that's why he's trying to convince him not to do it. but then the super bleak
23:44
ending takes a real twist and a dark turn with McFrey's actually.
23:50
So, yeah, so that's kind of where we're at here. It's pretty much a revenge tale as well. Yes.
23:56
Now, when we start losing core characters, we did it with Harkness.
24:02
Olsen's about to get it now.
24:04
What they decide to do, at first, we initially see their executions, and they're brutal.
24:09
We talked about that. And so when now these core characters are getting it.
24:15
The camera just focuses on the front five, or whoever's left,
24:19
and they say, don't look, just look away, guys. Don't look, don't look.
24:22
Just keep looking forward.
24:23
They blur out the character who's about to be assassinated in the background.
24:27
You hear him saying, you know, I went as far as I could, say goodbye to my mom,
24:32
whatever words he chose.
24:33
Then you hear the gunshot. You really don't see their depth as graphic anymore.
24:37
We don't need to see the graphic deaths anymore because basically we know how it's going to pan out,
24:42
but also we're almost, literally
24:46
and metaphorically walking with the core characters that
24:49
are surviving so we're sort of like we're sort of experiencing their journey
24:53
where it's you know don't look back we know what's going to happen we don't
24:56
need to see it so that's why I would argue this film overall is not gratuitous
25:01
yes we do see some brutal deaths but at times it does like sort of pan away
25:07
or it's done in the distance,
25:09
yeah they did that because Olsen gets shot in the stomach and they're going
25:12
to let him bleed out because he tried to make a move.
25:14
And they're going to teach him a lesson. They're going to let him bleed out.
25:17
And Baker's not going to happen with that.
25:18
Baker, another good character, runs to grab him.
25:21
And then, obviously, they go back to grab him and say, no, no,
25:25
no, no, no, you got to walk away. Walk away. Don't look at this. Walk away.
25:28
Don't touch him. Walk away. I would say that, as a sort of, I suppose it is
25:34
a criticism, I knew from the off that Stibbins was the major son.
25:40
Is that what you call the character, Stibbins?
25:42
Stibbins. Yeah. Yeah, I knew he was a major son as soon as basically Luke Skywalker
25:46
says, good luck, son, and he's the only one he says it to.
25:49
Now, that is in the original novel, but I couldn't remember because it's been
25:54
years and years, but it's pretty much obvious from the beginning.
25:58
I thought that would have worked better if they had a head off completely to
26:02
the end with that sort of reveal.
26:05
Yeah, I knew when he said it. I kind of forgot about it. Yeah, it was obvious.
26:09
But once it was revealed, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, I remember that now. Yeah.
26:13
But I don't think it's a major- No, it doesn't ruin it. Major thing.
26:17
Yeah. But I do like, but again, Stebbins and Barkovich and even Parker,
26:25
they were kind of the reserve ones and kind of douchebags.
26:28
Yes. So, and, but they all have their conversations when it comes down to the
26:33
last five or six, whatever.
26:35
And this is where you find out about Stebbins.
26:38
And he's proven something to his father. Yeah. And then you've got when they lose...
26:46
Baker? Yeah, they lose Baker. No, sorry.
26:50
When they lose Olsen, they find out Olsen had a wife. That's right.
26:53
He's the only one. And they said, let's all donate to his wife.
26:58
And then Barcovitz wants to know, why are you guys asking me not to do that?
27:01
He's kind of losing the plot now.
27:03
But you start really feeling sorry for this character. He's like,
27:05
I didn't mean to kill him. It's not my fault, is it?
27:09
And Gary's trying to talk him down. Listen, you're okay. You think he's going
27:12
to take his own life, which sadly he does. but he just wants to be friends. Yeah.
27:17
And this character who I wanted to fucking get shot so bad through three quarters
27:22
of this film, his last little speech he gives, he just wants to be part of the group.
27:27
He wants to donate to, you know, if he survives, he'll donate to,
27:31
I think it's I can't remember.
27:33
Olsen's, yeah, wife. Yeah. Yeah, Olsen's wife.
27:36
He wants to donate to Olsen's wife and he's just losing it and then he ends
27:40
up stabbing himself in the throat but it is heart-wrenching,
27:44
and I gotta say right now I don't know any of these actors besides you know
27:49
David the guy we saw from Romulus and they've all just nailed it out of the
27:52
park and their performance is spot on.
27:55
It's really well written and characterized and performed right across the board
27:59
by all of these young actors,
28:02
in terms of themes this while the
28:05
setting is a post-apocalyptic American stuff I'd
28:08
say that the main core themes here are more about friendship
28:12
and sort of that bond and the sort of
28:15
humanity of these guys and their growth
28:18
and all that i mean it's called the long walk but you know all the best titles
28:22
have more than one meaning so it's it's a long walk of you know friendship and
28:27
all this here you know the metaphorical walk but also you know it's obviously
28:31
the physical walk of doing this horrific competition that they're forced into.
28:36
Yeah i mean yeah there's a lot more hitting
28:39
me on the title that's for sure oh yeah i mean even they really
28:42
pronounce the title you're in like it's 20
28:45
i think 23 minutes into the film when you see the what
28:48
what this what they're about to go through with the almost the
28:51
first attempt uh the first and then it when they start their
28:54
walk and what is the the finally see the
28:57
long walk the title yeah yeah about 20 i
29:00
think it's like 21 minutes into it yeah and it's
29:03
just it's basically a character study you know character focused
29:07
about ultimately sort of the
29:10
humanity of these young lads and getting through their you made a point before
29:15
what did you make it on the podcast or before we started but yeah you said this
29:19
to me that this is basically stand by me but a much darker version and stand
29:24
by me can be quite dark so yeah it's about friendship it's a common of age tale,
29:29
basically, you know, where these men,
29:32
or sorry, these young men become men, these boys become men.
29:36
It's a coming of age tale, but a very sort of set to a very dark backdrop.
29:41
It's the same thing. It's even, um, talking about, it's pretty much talking
29:46
about the lottery that happened in Vietnam. They were all kids. Yeah.
29:51
So there's even a little nod to that and to.
29:56
Well, apparently Keane's original novel, which was written as the Vietnam War
30:02
was ending, apparently it was a commentary on that, just what you said,
30:06
about the lottery of the Vietnam War.
30:11
So, Debus makes a good point. He goes, listen, guys, we all became friends here,
30:17
yada, yada, yada. But it's every man for themselves now.
30:20
You got to realize that. And they all agree. Even Garrity says, yeah, you're right.
30:25
Parker pretty much sacrifices himself so he can kill the guard.
30:27
That was a great death. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're going to go out,
30:30
that's the way to go out. Kill the fuckers. Yeah, exactly. Like, Gortenstead.
30:33
And then he kills himself, doesn't let them do it. Yep. Baker,
30:36
poor guy, he's bleeding out the nose. He pretty much has an internal hemorrhage.
30:39
Yes. And he just said, fuck me, I'm going down.
30:42
And he goes, take this necklace and give it to my mom.
30:46
And there's a nice little twist here where the necklace is given to Garrity
30:50
and Garrity wraps it around his neck.
30:52
So you think he's the one who was going to survive. But guys,
30:55
spoiler alert, we know. I mean, obviously, you know, I have a podcast, so spoiler alert.
31:00
He's not the one. and he's the one who actually self-sacrifices him.
31:04
I really like, because I didn't see this coming, when you have the last two
31:07
left, Garrity McFry's, and McFry's is going to just let him have it. Yeah, self-sacrifice.
31:16
Self-sacrifice. Garrity rounds up to him, you're not doing this.
31:19
There's no fucking way you're doing this. We're both doing this together.
31:22
And as he pushes McFry's away, he just stops behind him, and McFry doesn't realize
31:27
he stopped until he gets shot in the head. He's the one that self-sacrifices.
31:31
Yeah in the original book it's
31:34
actually garrity does actually win it
31:37
so they have changed the ending but then the
31:40
after garrity gets it we take a
31:42
real dark and bleak turn with mcfries
31:46
essentially because you know while he was
31:49
always seen as the light character and stuff he actually
31:53
well fucking kills the major so he does
31:55
for garrity so there's there's such a
31:58
conflict of emotion there because while he's
32:02
doing it for his friend his new friend his brother as they say he's also switched
32:08
from the light side which he was a big advocate of to the dark side and went
32:13
against what he was advising garrity to do it's very bleak and complex ending i thought it was great,
32:19
For an ending. You're sick, man.
32:23
I thought it was a bleak, disturbing ending. I thought it was brilliant. I was so happy.
32:28
In terms of drama, and it's very clever, and leaving the audience with something
32:33
big to think about after it's over, I thought it was fantastic.
32:38
Absolutely. It's one of those things where, yeah, we talk about character arcs
32:43
a lot in this, and his is the peacemaker of the whole film.
32:46
The whole film. This guy's trying to keep the peace on everybody.
32:49
And at the end he answered vigilante justice
32:52
it's ironic darkly ironic yes it's it's ironic
32:56
but i don't know i i
32:59
probably would have done the same yeah well you know i think
33:03
it's also a commentary on yeah you know it's all a lot of this film's about
33:09
humanity and you know within our you know including our flaws and all of that
33:13
and it's certainly while it's very bleak it's certainly quite honest as well,
33:18
because a lot of people would go that route.
33:21
I would have escaped. Well, maybe he did.
33:25
I would have escaped, no. He wouldn't die for that.
33:29
He could do what he wants. He's allowed to do. Exactly, so it's left open to
33:33
the audience's interpretation of what actually happens after he's killed the
33:36
major. It's just because his wish, we were talking about what they're going
33:39
to do with the money and all that, or whatever they're going to do with their
33:41
winnings, whatever they choose to do. Yeah.
33:44
And he talks about how he wants to get back to communities who didn't have parents.
33:49
Like I didn't have a family. I'm going to help them.
33:51
And then instead of doing that,
33:55
I think his whole thing was guilt because once Garrity kills himself.
34:00
I think the character is felt morally obligated.
34:06
Survivor's guilt.
34:08
Yeah. He had to do what Garrity wanted
34:11
to do. Yeah, because Garrity had self-sacrificed for him, basically.
34:16
Yeah. So he self-sacrificed for him. Well, then you're going to get your wish.
34:20
I'm going to kill the major on your behalf.
34:21
But he struggles. He doesn't want to do it right away. he puts the
34:24
gun down and then the major says something fucking stupid and then
34:27
he goes oh fuck you I'm killing you yeah yeah because the major is so cocky
34:30
as well that he thinks he even says to the other soldiers he's not gonna do
34:34
it um grant him his wife there's no way he'll do it and stuff but he does do
34:38
it um by the way I like I love Dolson's wife uh he just wanted to basically
34:43
shag all around him you know even though he was married you know,
34:47
he says I think he was just trying to be cool and be able to die oh yeah he's
34:52
like what 18 or whatever yeah yeah I'd have 10 naked women.
34:55
10 naked women. Once you get out of the money, you can pay for the 10 naked women.
34:58
You know, but, yeah. But it also shows you how young this kid was.
35:04
So that's, I think that's where they're going with. It's their maturity.
35:07
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
35:10
So when they do get it, you do feel sorry for them.
35:12
Like Curly, they even mentioned, he goes, there's no way you're 18,
35:15
Curly. Yeah. And he's the first one to get it.
35:19
They're all brilliantly written. Even there's no pantomime villains or anything.
35:23
You know they're just rounded characters and
35:27
superbly written right across the board i i i this is what one of my films of
35:33
the year i i thought it was fantastic yeah it's it's a solid film it wouldn't
35:38
be my top but it's it's good again it's more of a grounded king like we kept
35:42
mentioning and i kind of like my grounded king but,
35:45
Yeah, guys, it's not for the faint of heart. It's a hard watch.
35:48
It did well in the cinema. It would definitely do well on video on demand.
35:52
But I do think it's something that I'm kind of glad I watched on demand rather
35:56
than go in the cinema and see it because I like to go to the cinema and then
35:59
come out and go get a pint and get some food or something. There you just want to go and just go, Jesus.
36:04
I want to go take a bath or maybe go to church or something.
36:09
No, I watched this on streaming, and I'm sorry I didn't see it in the cinema
36:14
because it would have been the proper full experience,
36:19
and again I'll admit it I do love my misery porn and my powerful drama so yeah
36:25
but no great stuff all round how do you,
36:30
sleep at night?
36:31
In a coffin I sleep at night in a coffin yeah yeah makes sense makes sense well
36:38
does it mean sleep during the day in your coffin well of course well you know
36:42
At night I'm just sort of pretending to sleep In the coffin waiting on my victims,
36:47
We'll drink it. We'll drink it, and blood. Wow. And people think,
36:53
I'm the asshole on this group.
36:55
I just could have heightened it.
36:59
We're going to end Halloween month and a half with Suspiry up next.
37:02
Yeah. Halloween month has been a success. We appreciate it.
37:06
Our Halloween and then Christmas month's coming up. We've got the titles picked for Christmas month.
37:10
Trevor sent me an email. He's all excited. He picked his Hallmark one.
37:13
I'd rather do the long walk than watch some of these films, trust me.
37:17
So, here we go. Halloween month's coming, and we have picked.
37:21
Christmas month, do you mean? You said Halloween month there. Oh, yes. Oh, okay.
37:25
You know what? We do got to get away from horror for a while.
37:29
So, we're going to move some stuff around. We're going to start doing like,
37:31
we'll do The Running Man. That's okay. It's not really horror.
37:34
And then we'll do- Fragots' Day.
37:38
Oh, yeah, but we're still kind of on horror mode, so shut up.
37:42
You're making me look bad.
37:44
So, we're going to pull some, We're going to do something like Michael Mann,
37:47
Scorsese, you know, Scarface, Colleen is working extremely well.
37:51
So we're going to go back.
37:52
We got to do Goodfellas, you know, and Mean Streets and the Godfather trilogy, stuff like that.
37:58
And Tarantino, we got to tackle Tarantino at some point.
38:01
Jackie Brown. So stuff like that. Yeah. So we'll definitely work around that.
38:06
And so anyways, yeah. So we got them picked.
38:10
I know you guys are all excited to hear what we've picked. It took a while. Give it on, Trevor.
38:16
He really watched a bunch of Hallmark movies to really find the one he wanted.
38:21
So I applaud you, Trevor, for taking your time and finding what you really wanted.
38:27
But here we are. The films are going to be...
38:30
Home Alone, which I can't believe you'd never seen, Trevor. No,
38:33
I've never seen it. Yeah. It's a children's film. I don't watch children's films.
38:37
Yeah, I know. You bleak son of a bitch. Even when I was a kid,
38:41
I didn't watch children's films, honestly.
38:43
Yeah, I know. I love how you say honestly. We know. You're fucking insane. Okay?
38:49
Fucker. Okay. We're doing The Hallmark.
38:53
Wow, this was a good one for you, bud. The Christmas Train. Oh,
38:56
dear. He said, and he goes, this is one of the greatest films. You said this ever.
39:01
Right. Because it has Danny Glover in it.
39:04
And Dermot Moroney. And you said, that's all I need in my movies.
39:09
Well, Dermot Moroney was, of course, in Young Guns with Lou Diamond Phillips. So, you know.
39:17
I bet you liked that caboose, you sick bastard. He played 30 Steve Stevens in Young Guns.
39:24
All right. So we got Home Alone, the Hallmark's The Christmas Train, the terrible.
39:29
We always pick one terrible one that came out And that's Deck the Halls That's
39:32
with Danny DeVito, I believe And Matthew Broderick And then we're going to do
39:36
One of those Christmas movies But it's not really a Christmas movie But we're
39:39
doing it The Twelve Monkeys Love it,
39:42
And we're going to end On a Christmas miracle Which is the remake Or a requel,
39:48
they say Of Silent Night, Deadly Night Yes So there's a couple of cute ones in there So.
39:55
Oh boy Alright, we're going to wrap this one up, guys.