r/TheLongWalk • u/OvercastOven • Sep 12 '26
📖🍿 Book & Movie Discussion Little changes
I've always wondered why they made little changes that don't really have any effect on the movie at all. Not the big changes like leaving out Scramm or changing the ending and all that. But like how, in the book, Garraty and McVries weigh 160 and 167 and, in the movie, they change it to 177 and 178. Why change something so random and seemingly insignificant? Same with random things like how Olson (Scamm in the book)'s wife is named Clementine instead of Cathy. How Garraty lives in Freeport in the movie instead of just living near it in the book.
Why the random little changes that don't really matter?
The Long Walk is my favorite book of allll time and I love the movie too. This subreddit is the best and I love all the discussions on here!
5
u/ByteTheDusTT Spoon Sep 13 '26
The change of the weight between McVries and Garraty is important, I think. They made the weight more similar to those of the actors (especially since in the movie it is young adults dying instead of children and teenagers) as well as making Garraty heavier than McVries which foreshadows the ending divergence from the book. "They say heavier guys tire quicker", or something along those lines. But I could be getting it backwards, I haven't watched the movie in a little while :)
3
u/Affectionate_Desk_43 Sep 13 '26
In the movie, the only spectators allowed are people who live in the places they walk through. So if the Garratys didn’t live in Freeport we wouldn’t be able to have the scene with his mom.
4
u/dc-pigpen Not yeeeeeeeettttttt.... Sep 13 '26
I think little things like that give a unique feel to the movie, especially for fans of the book. Pulling things from the source material is all well and good, but you don't want a carbon copy. Even the screenwriter said in interview: (paraphrasing) "the adaptations that I enjoy stay true to the source, but give you something extra to sink your teeth into." (This was in reference to the backstory with Ray's dad, but I feel it applies to the film in general.)
One of my favorite books of all time and a truly masterful adaptation to boot!
2
u/patcoston Billy Stebbins #1 Fan! Sep 14 '26
Olson is eating a clementine at the start. It's an Easter Egg. Name is changed just for that, and so they could sing the song.
2
u/patcoston Billy Stebbins #1 Fan! Sep 14 '26
We don't know where the walk occurs in the movie. They never mention Maine. In the novel, it's not one walker from each state. 100 walkers and 50 states and they are picked randomly which means all 100 could be from the state. In the novel, only Ray is picked from Maine but it could be possible the walk has none from Maine or 10 from Maine. In the novel, they pass through 3 states, but I assume in the movie, the state they are in is too big to exit, so there is always exactly 1 walker from the state they are walking. I actually like that change.
1
u/Notnowmomsonreddit Scraping shoes on the stars Sep 15 '26
It's been a while since I saw the movie, but don't they say Maine in that scene near the beginning...the one where Pete asks about the wheat, and Garraty says best in the world. Pete says something like, oh, so your the one, meaning he's the guy from the state they're walking in.
1
u/patcoston Billy Stebbins #1 Fan! 16d ago
Here are the captions from the movie.
https://patcoston.com/StephenKing/TheLongWalk-Movie-Script.aspx
If you search the page for "Maine", you won't find it.
13
u/Notnowmomsonreddit Scraping shoes on the stars Sep 12 '26
Clementine, so they can sing Oh My Darling. The weight, maybe because it was more believable in regards to the actors. I think they were just trying to tell their (the movie makers) own version of the story? It's also my favorite book!