#harkness

One "The Long Walk" character that I want to talk about the most is Richard Harkness. As I assume, the movie does him a big favour - in the book he barely even a character, doesn't have a name and dies somewhere off-screen. In the movie he is quite prominent, he gets an attention from the beginning with his easy-on-the-eyes appearance, thick-framed glasses, notebook and Converse.

Oh, these f*cking Converse. Seeing them I KNEW he was already f*cked - this is like one of the worst kinds of shoes you can wear during the long walk (surprised they didn't play a significant role in Olson's demise too). And let me theorize and say they are not random, they represent his naivety, his casual approach, his lack of true preparation for the grueling physical reality of the Walk.

He had a dream, slightly childish ambition to be a writer, and I felt for him instantly. He's not a prepared-for-everything athlete, he's just a kid with a pencil, like, dare I say, most of us. His goal isn't revenge or idealism, it's a creative desire to understand and document the event. His friendly attitude makes him even more sympathetic and his fate even more painful.

Oh, guys, I couldn't even look at the screen during his final moments! The fact that he kept walking on his BARE BROKEN ANKLE is the stuff of nightmares. It's no longer a competition, game or whatever it was, it's a slow, viscous torture, "crowned" with cold-blooded execution.

And one of the most gut-wrenching things is that his execution (I can't call it just "death", it's full-on execution) was reduced to a spectacle. In front of freaking young children on their bikes! Who didn't even react! Can you imagine - he already walked on a broken bone for hours (like The Hill part happened around 3:45 AM, if I remember correctly, and I don't think children would hang out on the street before at least 9-10 AM, even the most screwed up and apathetic ones!) in required pace, his adrenalin and stress level had to be beyond the sky, and then he got one warning, another and another. It's excruciating, soul-crushing, and felt real af, super-unfair and like something you shouldn't see at all, as a civil, "normal" human, but you can't unsee it.

Oh my god.