Marathon Man (1976) User Reviews

A prime example of the way highly styled entertainment should be

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 1 September 2007]

Schlesinger made a great action-suspense film and married it to the artistry of unique talents… Hoffman was, by then, a dynamic, young and incredibly versatile film actor with three Academy Award nominations already under his belt for "The Graduate," "Midnight Cowboy," and "Lenny."

But the key to "Marathon Man" was the chemistry between its stars… Perhaps one of the most gut-wrenching and most memorable scenes in the film comes when Hoffman is captured and tortured by Olivier who plays the role of a mean and vicious and sadistic Nazi war criminal, Christian Szell… Olivier's performance resulted in a 1976 Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor…

In 1945, Szell ran the experimental camp at Auschwitz where they called him the White Angel… He was a dentist and could provide escape for any Jew who was willing to pay the price… He started out with gold, naturally, but very quickly worked his way up to diamonds…

As Szell saw the end early, he sneaked his brother into America with the diamonds… And they were right here, in New York, in a safe deposit-box until Szell's brother got killed in a head-on collision with an oil truck…

Uniquely built, and with a marvelous, rugged face, Roy Scheider, well known for his strong performances in "The French Connection," "Klute," and "Jaws," came on board as Hoffman's mysterious businessman brother, getting the rare chance to play a character that's both hero and villain… Doc is a fascinating guy because he chooses to work out his problems in a much different way than Dustin's character does… He was very touched and very moved by his father's death, but he abandoned all his hopes for whatever he intended to do and he became a spy, a killer, a very jaded personality…

In doing something truly suspenseful, Schlesinger accomplished a film that's largely about fear and it's about pain and the infliction of pain because of fear… The thrilling sensation of great expectations came on the 47th Street in the diamond district in New York, where Schlesinger gets the best of it

Exciting story about a young student and marathon runner, cruelly pursued by a brutal ex- Nazi

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 27 October 2008]

This pursuit-thriller concerns about previous aging Nazi Dr. Szell(Laurence Olivier), a Joseph Mengele-alike, an arch-nasty denominated the 'White Angel of Auschwitz', he has an insidious scheme to get a priceless diamonds and he will not stop at nothing . A graduate history student named Babe(a superb Dustin Hoffman) and expert runner in N.Y. is drawn into a criminal whirlpool. He becomes unwittingly involved to sadistic Nazi, along with his brother(Roy Scheider) an his European fiancée(Marthe Keller). Meanwhile, Babe is pursued by the Szell's hoodlums(Richard Bright, Mark Lawrence). He's helped by a secret agent(William Devane) from an organization called 'the Division' which also belongs his brother and whose members start to be killed one by one. Szell has a diamonds treasure hidden into a safety box and is aware which 'the runner' knows whether or no it is safe to go to pick it up.

This exciting movie packs noisy action, thrills, chills,love story, betrayal and is quite entertaining. This intense thriller that holds your interest throughout, certainly is worth watch seeing for Olivier's brilliant, credible performance as repellent and murderous villain, including one of the creepiest scenes of tortures ever made. Interesting movie but with some holes and gaps and ridiculous scenes , as the silly chase at the beginning when the brother of the infamous Nazi war criminal undergoes a race cars causing a collision course, as at the ending when the Doctor Szell is unbelievable recognized by people here and there. Suspenseful musical score by Michael Small and adequate cinematography by Conrad L. Hall. The motion picture is well directed by Englishman John Schelesinger. He's a dramas(Far from the madding crowd,Day of Locust, Yanks, Midnight cowboy) expert and suspense(Believers, eye for eye, The innocents, Falcon and snowman)movies.

Yeeks!

[deathinleamington · 8/10 · 28 July 2005]

Quite apart from the infamous torture scene, which I found extremely difficult to watch without howling in horror (actually that's a lie, I DID howl) this film is FULL of nervous tension that occasionally boils over - the way it's been done is masterful. The bouncing-ball scene in the darkened building should be utterly prosaic, but it really isn't - the way it's choreographed and shot brings such an air of menace and trepidation you'll be biting your nails off. There's much of a similar vein in 'Marathon Man', and although the storyline is sometimes almost buried through the relentless suffocating tension, it's extremely watchable (with a cushion to hide behind at certain points) and one of the greatest non-Hitchcock thrillers I've ever seen. Don't hesitate!

More than a thriller, a nightmarish existential masterpiece ...

[ElMaruecan82 · 9/10 · 11 September 2012]

In a nutshell, John Schlesinger's "Marathon Man" is one of the greatest thrillers of the 70's, an intricate and paranoid masterpiece, served by an impeccable casting: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, Marthe Keller and Richard Bright.

Thomas Babbington Levy aka 'Babe' studies history in Columbia University and prepares a thesis on Tyranny in America. He's also a marathon runner, training every day in Central Park, trying to emulate his idol, the Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila. A sepia footage of Bikila's victory in Tokyo Olympic Games punctuates the opening credits sequence; although the athlete is more notorious for having won the previous marathon in Rome … barefoot. Bikila explained; "I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism"

These two words hit a sensitive chord in Babe. His father killed himself during the McCarthyism, leaving unanswered the question of his innocence. Babe's thesis can't avoid this dark parenthesis as reminds his teacher (who admired his father) and Babe acknowledges that. The wound is even harder to conceal because he's torn between his filial love and his personal admiration of virtues like bravery. His father could have faced the hearings and be a model if not a hero, he chose to be a victim, not even a martyr since he inflicted his own punishment by pulling the trigger. Babe keeps the gun in a drawer like the infamous weight of guilt in his heart, the detestable idea of having either a traitor or a weak man as a father.

Why are you keeping the gun? Asks his brother 'Doc' (Roy Scheider), Babe doesn't know or maybe he does and keeps it as a warning, he might end like his father, with whom he's got a lot in common, while Doc, more of a respectable businessman type would have been disowned. In a way, Babe lives his life like a marathon; it's a matter of determination, as said Bikila: being the fastest on the long run. The secret is endurance and the capability of canalizing the pain and keeping on running. He carries the infamy of his father's lack of 'heroism' and punishes himself as to exorcise his inner demons. And the secret is to find balance by sticking to the weight of past through his history studies and escaping from it through running.

The character study is almost imperceptible behind the Hitchcockian and sometimes James Bond-like feeling of some scenes, but there's no doubt that Babe as a tormented man, haunted by his past, is the center of the psychological drama. And as counterpart, the film provides an unforgettable villain through Dr. Christian Szell, a Nazi-dentist played by Laurence Olivier in a virtuoso performance. Olivier is not only scary as the White Angel, but like many iconic villains, he's not genuinely frightening but keeps a gentlemanly attitude that makes him even scarier. The softness and even carefulness he displays when checking Babe's teeth is more horror-inducing than the piercing scream when he probes a cavity. I'm referring of course to one of the scariest scenes of cinema's history.

"Is it safe?' repeatedly asks Dr. Szell to an exhausted Babe, he has just been kidnapped, saw his brother dying in his arms, and has been near-drowned in his bathtub: Babe is naturally baffled by the question. The efficiency of the scene is conveyed by our total empathy toward Babe because we know he doesn't know. What safe? What the "it" refers to? I've seen this scene enough to remember the extraordinary close-up right after Babe replies sarcastically, Olivier is so scary that we immediately figure Babe's next reaction, "no, it's not safe, it's dangerous, be careful". The directing and the focus on Olivier put us on the same emotional wavelength than Babe and we endure the scene just as if we were in his place. If only because going to the dentist is a painful experience, but relatively banal so anyone can relate to it.

Yet again, there's more than a simple scene terrorizing viewers for the sake of it. Szell immediately applies some oil of cloves and the pain disappears. He gives Babe a cruel choice between telling what he knows and being relieved from the pain, or keeping silent and suffering, and when you know nothing, when truth is as painful as silence, you're stuck in an existential nightmare. To a certain degree, Babe is pushed to the same dead-end as his father during the hearings. Except that he manages to escape from the bad guys and inevitably runs for his life. The chase sequence is another brilliant piece of filmmaking. Babe is out of breath because he's a distance runner, not a sprinter but he runs for his survival, he decides to live, he embodies the same determination than his idol Bikila, fittingly running barefoot during the whole chase.

But if he's clearly determined, he's not heroic yet. As Szell said, he belongs to the past, while Babe studies the past. In a way, Szell is the one that confronts Babe to his inner demons, and it's only when Babe gets back to Szell and risks his life to avenge the death of his brother, to make Szell swallow the same diamonds that were bought with the blood of Jewish people in Concentration Camp. It's only when he finally confronts his own bravery and caused Szell to impale himself with the same retractable blade that killed his brother, killing him without pulling the trigger, that Babe finally cleared his conscience, and it's not surprising that the last thing he does is throwing his father's gun in the water.

I know I could have explored other themes, other performances, but I just feel that, like a good wine, the film gets better after more viewings revealing more hidden gems beneath the thriller surface, like the fact that it's a fascinating character study and one of Dustin Hoffman's greatest roles.

Schlesinger's first thriller shows the versatile director's talent for turning his hand to different genres

[dr_clarke_2 · 8/10 · 13 June 2021]

Adapted by William Goldman from his own novel (although the ending was reportedly changed to his considerable dissatisfaction), John Schlesinger's 1976 film Marathon Man is famous for a certain dental torture film. However, there's far more to it than that: Schlesinger's first thriller, it shows the versatile director's talent for turning his hand to different genres and remains and suspenseful and well-made film.

Marathon Man has a gripping, complex plot concerning Nazi war criminals, stolen diamonds, double agents, and a slightly odd protagonist in the form of graduate student Babe Levy. The first half of the film deals with the fallout of the death of Nazi war criminal Christian Szell's brother, who was responsible for managing Szell's safety deposit box full of Jewish diamonds, leading to the evil old Nazi emerging from hiding in South America. The plot follows Babe's older brother - and secret agent - Doc as he survives several assassination attempts, whilst in parallel the character of Babe is introduced. Once Doc comes face to face with Szell - with fatal consequences for the former - the second half of the film begins, as Szell wrongly assumes that Babe knows more than he actually does, with unfortunate consequences for both of them.

The characterisation is a testament to Goldman's writing, with both Szell and Babe proving well written, as well as supporting characters such as Doc and the treacherous Janeway. There are lots of nice touches in the screenplay, including Doc and Janeway's subtly played homosexual relationship, and Babe's obsession with his disgraced father's suicide. The ending, changed against Goldman's will, doesn't entirely make sense, given that Babe has already shot three men dead by this point and yet is unable to kill a man who has tortured him, but Szell's fate - stabbed to death accidentally by his own wrist-knife whilst scrabbling for diamonds - has a certain poetic justice to it.

With a strong screenplay to work with, the cast is exceptional. Dustin Hoffman gives a typically naturalistic performance as Babe Levy, an awkward and obsessive marathon runner, whilst Laurence Olivier, despite being very ill at the time, gives an astonishingly chilling performance as Szell and pretty much steals the show. He's particularly impressive during the last half hour, as Szell realises that he is surrounded by Holocaust survivors and brutally slashes the throat of a man who recognises him. Roy Scheider meanwhile convinces as a tough but not indestructible secret agent and looks genuinely in pain when Doc is attacked by a garrotte-wielding assassin, whilst William Devane is both slimy and charismatic at the same time as Janeway.

Schlesinger proves more than capable of rising to the challenge of directing a thriller, despite having allegedly only accepted the project because he was worried that his Hollywood career was over. The opening lengthy scene of Klaus Szell getting into a feud with another driver, resulting in the death of both, is a brilliantly shot action sequence. Schlesinger does a very impressive job throughout, with lots of arresting visual touches such as the close-up of the bomb doll's eyes creaking open before it detonates. Then there is the football, the grainy and stark flashbacks to Babe's father's suicide, the mugging scene juxtaposed with non-diagetic classical music, and the scene of Babe being interrogated after Doc's murder during which we don't see the faces of the men questioning him. The finale is shot in a water treatment works, which makes for a highly effective setting.

Cinematographer Conrad Hall makes great use of the then-new Steadicam during the running scenes, and there's a great, dramatic score from Michael Small. Heavily cut before the film's release, the dental torture scenes are actually better for it, due to a combination of Szell's quiet, methodical menace, and Babe's screams of agony, leaving most of the unpleasantness to the audience's imagination. This is perhaps why most people remember those scenes more than anything else in Marathon Man; nevertheless, they are far from being the only moments of merit in this very solid movie.

Among the Best Action/Suspense Movies Ever

[eeq · 11 July 1999]

My alternate title for this one is "Nebbish vs. the Nazis". I've seen it 4 times and it's as scary each time. You can put aside all his 40's and 50's Shakespeare stuff--Laurence Olivier has never been better than in this movie. His portrayal of the monstrously cold-blooded Dr. Szell is truly blood curdling--in every scene he's in he's absolutely mesmerizing. (A welcome treat after his pitiful performance in "Bunny Lake is Missing.") Dustin Hoffman is the perfect foil as the naive and 'nebbishy' graduate student who inadvertantly gets embroiled in it all. He's as good in this as he's ever been. These two together in this film is acting at its very best. Solid supports from Roy Scheider and William Devane fill this out nicely. Notice that virtually no special effects were needed--They just don't make action thrilers like they used to.

Ghosts of the Holocaust on the streets of New York City...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 1 March 2008]

The tagline for director John Schlesinger's "Marathon Man" read simply "A Thriller"--and so it is, despite a heavy sag of masochistic weight in its midsection. Dustin Hoffman looks in great shape playing a Columbia grad student, still haunted by his father's suicide (and perhaps in training for the New York marathon), who gets mixed up by proxy in his nefarious older brother's activities; seems his sibling has been working secretly as a courier in stolen gems, and has run afoul of Szell, a.k.a. The White Angel, the most notorious Nazi war-criminal still alive. Schlesinger shows off a nasty side of himself, staging some dental torture scenes that are just about impossible to watch; even worse, not all of the pieces in William Goldman's adaptation of his bestseller fit accordingly. Both men eagerly press ahead so that the story gaps won't be so noticeable, and there's much zig-zagging across the continents leaving red herrings, street bombs, and character intricacies in the picture's wake. We learn so little about Hoffman's brother (played by an equally fit Roy Scheider) that, by the film's climax, we still don't know whose side he was he on--or why his cohorts lost trust in him. Marthe Keller's mysterious German beauty is another character muddle, a pretense of writer Goldman who was really out to stack this deck against Hoffman's runner. Laurence Olivier's knife-wielding Nazi beast is perplexing as well, alternating a steely coldness with an aged confusion (why, for instance, is he staking out jewelry stores just for today's market values--isn't the diamond trade this man's forte?). "Marathon Man" needed less torture scenes (which aren't really suspenseful as much as they are excruciating) and more clear-headed chess moves. It leaves a bushel of questions behind, though it is a handsome piece of work, well-cast and with an intrinsically satisfying finale. **1/2 from ****

One of the best thrillers ever made

[The_Void · 9/10 · 30 August 2004]

Marathon Man starts off rather slowly, and for the first hour at least, it feels as if you're watching a human drama rather than a thriller. However, unlike a lot of thrillers; Marathon Man uses this time to create characters and establish the situation, which ultimately pays off later on in the film when the movie really gets going. When the film does step on the gas, it is as thrilling as any thriller you will ever see; Dustin Hoffman is subjected to all sorts of things, most notably an excruciating torture sequence. This scene is powerful and painful on it's own, but it is made more so by the fact that we have already gotten to know the character and therefore we feel sympathy for him, as well as cringing at the images we see on screen. That scene alone is enough to propel the movie in the realms of greatness, as it is simply one of the most powerful that cinema has ever given us; but this movie is a hell of a lot more than just a torture sequence.

The plot revolves around a car crash that takes place in downtown New York. One of the men in this crash is the brother of the infamous Nazi war criminal, Szell, who has some diamonds hidden in a safety deposit box. From then on, many members of a US defence organisation, known as "The Division", begin turning up dead and soon after, Thomas Levy, a college student, obsessive runner and the brother of one of The Division's members, becomes embroiled in the plot. It is easy to see the parallels between the plot movie and World War 2, from the withered ex-Nazi (indicative of the state of the actual regime), to his enemies being American; the movie has world war 2 written all over it. The film is excellently directed throughout by John Schlesinger. Schlesinger, probably best known for "Midnight Cowboy" does a fantastic job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seat for the duration of the movie. A constant foreboding feel is created, and you're never truly sure of what will happen. This is exactly what you want in a thriller, as nobody likes it when they can predict what will happen next.

Dustin Hoffman takes the lead role of Thomas Levy. Dustin Hoffman is a fantastic actor, and he certainly gets to flex his acting muscles here, in a film which sees him go through all manner of unpleasant scenes and also hold up lots of relationships with various characters, as well as drawing sympathy from the audience to accent his situation. Roy Scheider (of Jaws fame) stars opposite Dustin Hoffman in the movie. Scheider doesn't get a great deal of screentime in the film, but he still manages to do good things with the time he does have. The third lead role, that of the Nazi war criminal, is taken by Lawrence Olivier, who is also a fantastic actor and gives a great performance in this film. He gives his character just the right atmosphere, and we can tell just by looking at the man that he is cold and uncaring, and also past it; which is the crux of his character.

The film ends with a spectacular sequence, which sees the movie and the two centrals characters come to a satisfying conclusion. The characters are the central theme in this movie, and had the movie have ended differently it could have unravelled everything that it had created, but the movie's end is absolutely perfect and does the entire movie justice. A brilliant piece of cinema.

An enjoyable if not amazing spy thriller...

[secondtake · 7/10 · 18 October 2010]

The Marathon Man (1976)

A high stakes international cloak and dagger film along the lines of "Three Days of the Condor" released the year before. Here the ordinary citizen dragged into an unbelievable intrigue all around him is played by Dustin Hoffman, who also is training for a marathon. Hence the title.

The plot has some twists we have come to almost expect in movies of this kind, to the point that we would miss them if they weren't here--the good guy who is actually a bad guy, the girl with loyalties unknown and suspicious (though the lead male doesn't suspect a thing at first), and like the "Condor" movie as well as the more recent "Bourne" movies, our hero is alone against all these odds. The problem, which is part of the joy of the film, is simply: who do you trust?

No one.

The bad guy you might not realize at first is played by Laurence Olivier, in another of his rabbit out of a hat great performances. When Olivier and Hoffman finally cross paths, and wits, it's like the meeting of two eras of Hollywood. The setting for the final showdown is pretty amazing in its own right. The music is really atmospheric and a little different, and

All this said, the movie actually doesn't quite carry its velocity beyond the likely. It's fun and engaging without being gripping or dazzling or moving. Why? I think it's partly the writing, which is routine (both the plot and the dialog), and the direction, which is, well, routine. John Schlesinger is a very good director, and he has one gem in his crown, for sure, "Midnight Cowboy." But the effect here is closer to his later "The Falcon and the Snowman," where some great performances seem to get lost a little, just through lack of focus and pacing. And writing. A better movie with more aura is "Klute," shot in the same kinds of New York neighborhoods five years earlier.

A Triumph of Atmosphere and Suspense

[dtb · 9/10 · 6 September 2003]

I first saw MARATHON MAN in its initial theatrical release when I was 13 years old, and the years haven't diminished its power for me. Sure, the plot gets a little more convoluted than it absolutely has to be, but in a way it's because William Goldman's screen adaptation of his brilliant novel takes into account the all-too-human character flaws of his heroes and villains, and the mistakes people make when they're fearful and paranoid. While the performances are uniformly fine (with Roy Scheider deserving a place in The Suave Hall of Fame for his portrayal of Doc Levy, a.k.a. government agent "Scylla." If he hadn't been so charismatic and engaging, his murder in mid-film wouldn't have such impact, and the movie would suffer for it), I think the special secret ingredient that gives MARATHON MAN its punch is the atmosphere. The naturalistic, sometimes washed-out color palette almost lends the film a black-and-white film noir look. Almost every person in the film is angry, cynical, emotionally wounded, and/or generally negative in some way. And what really struck me was that on screen, it seems like chaos and disaster are exploding all over the world. Look at the riots and bombings taking place in France in early scenes with Doc and Janeway (nicely subtle homosexual subtext there, by the way). Also, if you listen carefully to newscasts in the background, you'll notice there's nothing but bad news: murders, suicides, all kinds of violence all over (including the "chicken" game between the old Jew and Szell's brother as the film begins). MARATHON MAN isn't a happy film -- even when our hero wins, he's already lost so much his victory seems hollow indeed -- but it never fails to grab and haunt me each time I watch it. If you love the film, you'll want to own the DVD not only for the superb letterboxed print, but also for the terrific extras, including both new and vintage making-of documentaries with Hoffman, Scheider, Keller, Goldman, producer Robert Evans and other major MM players, as well as rare rehearsal footage and the original theatrical trailer.

Diamonds are a Nazi's best friend

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 28 September 2014]

Two generations of acting styles come together in Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman plays a most reluctant hero a young pacifist graduate student at Columbia University who is a distance runner. He gets way over his head with an arch Nazi war criminal Laurence Olivier who did not drag out his patented Mittel-Europa accent. Instead he spoke a most precise English for the role, just like a foreigner having to learn the tongue.

His brother Roy Scheider is supposed to be in the oil business. Their father was a victim of the McCarthy Era blacklist who killed himself. Scheider actually works for a branch of the CIA, no doubt as Hoffman says the father would disapprove. I'm wondering how he got clearance.

A whole bunch of people from that section are dying and when Scheider dies Hoffman goes into action not knowing who to trust. But he's lucky, very lucky.

Olivier who has been living in South America in seclusion is forced to come to America to get his fortune in diamonds in a safety deposit vault. He's forced to do this after his brother is killed in a traffic accident right at the beginning of the film. Olivier's Dr. Szell is as terrifying a villain as his Richard III. It's what got him an Oscar nomination his only one in the Supporting Actor category.

Marathon Man has a lot of holes in the story, but the acting between Hoffman and Olivier is not to be missed.

Fascinating and chilling in equal measure, the film is an exercise of pure threat told from the perspective of someone caught up in the firing line.

[johnnyboyz · 8/10 · 9 February 2010]

Amidst the the early morning glare of the rising sun and whatever few others are up at this time, a young man jogs along the beaten track in an attempt to keep in shape. This, as he spots a fellow jogger and begins a fairly innocent 'chase', although the individual manages to outrun our young man to some pretty ominous music. The entire exchange is eventually inter-cut in a bizarre manner with some found footage of a marathon runner completely disconnected to the events we're witnessing. Marathon Man begins with this rather simplistic sequence of a young man jogging and very slowly turns what is an everyday activity, or an unspectacular image, into something that is quite sinister. It pitches the tone of the film perfectly, establishing an everyday guy and placing him in a sinister chase situation which it is discovered is so easily to get involved in, while systematically foreshadowing the eerie turns the narrative will take to do with having to run for one's life.

Marathon Man is like that; there's something very effective behind its ability to inject terror into a relatively routine situation. That very primal sense of 'running for one's life', whatever the situation, is tapped into perfectly by director John Schlesinger, who paints a bleak and uncomplimentary picture of New York City and of the scummy, lying and double-dealing lowlifes whom inhabit it. Amongst all of this is the character of Thomas Levy (Hoffman), nicknamed 'Babe', a student of history who is attempting to follow in his now deceased father's footsteps by engaging academically in the same field. Babe will later end up following in the same footsteps as his another family member; his brother Henry (Scheider), but for all the wrong reasons. Even Henry is referred to by his nickname for a lot of the film, that being 'Doc', thus repeating the process of use of an alias and tapping into that highly consistent theme of suspicion and what one's true identity is. In a film in which a lot of people act as if they're one thing in order to garner an advantage, this use of improper name and alias to act as an alter-ego is interesting.

But Marathon Man provides us with a ray of light in the form of Babe, a down to Earth and accessible lead with whom we are able to relate in his innocence and copious levels of naivety to his situation when espionage and betrayal catches up with him. In what might appear to be a complex and rather deep story revolving around said narrative characteristics of espionage, smuggling and spies; it is ironic that mere fate brings certain people to New York for certain reasons. This, when a stark disagreement between two elderly men about something that relates to times and events far deeper than mere road rage.

If Babe is a figure cut from a stone that shy but eager in his personality and traits, then Laurence Oliver's Christian Szell, a doctor well informed in the art of dentistry, represents the polar-opposite as this elderly and frail man, but someone who has made a life out of other people's sheer misery; a man that has seemingly existed to inflict pain and suffering wherever he's gone. When we first encounter him, he is a lonesome figure in a heavily fortified and secluded place of dwelling in the middle of a South American jungle. Several newspapers are scattered around, some in English; some in Spanish and some in German which establishes a sense of expertise in language, although the items that stand out are the uncanny skulls which line the shelves, most of which contain odd shaped teeth which catch our eye. The sequence informs us of a man whom requires security and isolation as well as someone whom is most probably trilingual. In one swooping camera shot, we are left to read into as much as we can about this one individual, while a lesser film of the thriller ilk would have seen a bunch of people gather in a room; brought Szell's face up on a screen and laid out everything for the uninformed characters and audience alike.

Babe's involvement in what it is he ends up neck deep in is ultimately instigated by the unsightly sequence in which the death of somebody we do not see coming occurs in his arms. The battered and bloodied body of a blade attack victim acting as the first truly pieces of shocking imagery Babe has seen, the blood from the body staining his plain, bright white vest that he wears thus staining him, and therefore linking him to the world the departing life was connected to. The film is a tight, gripping piece; a film that clashes a world of smuggling, deceit and murder with the quieter, more routine world of a young man who's nervous around girls and just attempting to make-good out of some pretty harsh living conditions.

It progresses to encompass a series of quite extraordinary sequences, the one of which everyone remembers more fondly than others being the torture sequence involving a dentist's drill, a sadomasochistic game of fear; terror; power play; ambiguous questions; honest but disbelieved answers and sheer pain. One other passage of play sees the lead running down a street in the early hours of the morning, whatever light there is being provided by way of the street lamps, as what we perceive to be a wailing, screeching musical score encompassing this, only for it to turn out to be an approaching ambulance which hurtles past, catching us all off guard. Marathon Man is a taut thriller, drawing its audience in and gripping them with a number of basic conventions, raging from the use of a mere MacGuffin to instilling a very visceral, very effective sense of fear by way of ambiguous character intentions and pure threat. If ever there was an essential thriller to see, it may well be Marathon Man.

A very confusing and disjointed movie.

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 24 September 2003]

The movie "Marathon Man" starts out with a car accident where Christian Szell's, Laurence Olivier, brother Klaus, Ben Dova, is killed. The word comes back to Szell in Paraguay, or is it Brazil, that Szell's fortune in diamonds is in danger, why? For some reason Szell and his henchmen take off for NYC after being for some 30 years in hiding from the international courts for war crimes. Why does Szell blow his cover and expose himself to jail or worse? We really don't seem to know. All I could gather from the plot is that Szell wanted to know, as he kept saying over and over in the movie, "Is it safe"? Safe from what? There are diamonds in a safe-deposit box in a curtain midtown bank and Szell had the key to it so what was he so worried about since his brother Klaus had no trouble at all going in and out of the bank with the diamonds, as we've seen in the beginning of the movie which Klaus must have been doing for years. Szell walking all over the streets of NYC without a care in the world why would't he be safe when he goes in and out in just this one bank with his henchmen, one who has a limp, there protecting him? Klaus when he was alive also could have sent them, the diamonds, registered mail back to Szell in South America if he was so worried about them being lost or stolen. Why now was Szell who seemed to have no fear or trouble at all in murdering a number of people, one on a crowed midtown street in broad daylight, so paranoid about? It turns out that Szell is somehow connected with this super-secretive US government agency who's protecting him from the law for services rendered. So why can't they take care of Szell's problems, whatever they are! They've been doing it since the end of WWII and it seems that the diamonds is what that agency is paying Szell for his services. Later in the movie Szell goes to, of all places, the midtown diamond district on West 47th St to see what diamonds are selling on the open market! Why on earth does Szell have to go to the diamond district in midtown Manhattan to get an evaluation of how much diamonds are worth? Wasn't Szell informed enough, being involved with diamonds for years, to know this for himself? and why does he go to the diamond district in midtown Manhattan to get an evaluation where it seems that everybody there is a survivor from the concentration camp that Szell brutally ran during WWII and where he'd be immediately recognized! On top of all that crazy Szell acts toward those people there as if he was still running a concentration camp and that they were still his prisoners? The movie is so confusing with a convoluted love story between Babe, Dustin Hoffman, and the mysterious Columbia Collage student Helga, Marthe Keller, added in that almost half way through the film. I think that the director, John Schlesinger, had to put in a scene in where William Devane who plays Jeneway, also a member of this super-secretive government agency, who like Simon Okland in the movie "Psycho" after he "saved" Babe from Szell's henchmen starts talking into the camera. Jeneway looks as if he were addressing the movie audience as he tells Babe everything about Szell and his brother Doc,Roy Scheider, who also works for the agency, who also works with Szell. There's also the diamonds that Szell has hidden in a bank safe deposit box in a mid-town Manhattan bank and the Nazis and the super-secretive agency and and blab blab blab in order so that those of us, still awake and watching, can get just some idea of what the heck is going on in the movie! Just who the hell is this guy Jenaway anyway and who's he working for in the first place? Szell? the CIA? the KBG? the Brooklyn Dodgers? Well anyway getting back to more important things in "Marathon Man". One of my favorite and most exciting moments in the film is when Babe escapes from Szell clutches and tooth drilling equipment and is being chased all over NYC by Szell's boys. Beaten bloodied dirty after being brutally tortured and without having slept for what seemed like days and only dressed in pajama bottoms Babe flags down a cab by the Brooklyn Bridge getting away from Szell's gang. Babe then goes all the way uptown to his apartment in Washington Heights a good ten miles or so. You would think that the cabbie would know enough not to pick up someone looking like an escapee from a mental institution, for that's just what Babe looked like. Not only can he be dangerous but just looking at his style of dress it's obvious that he doesn't have any money to pay for the long and expensive taxi ride. Not only does the cabbie pick Babe up but instead of driving Babe to the nearest hospital or police station to get help, due to the condition that he's in, he drives all the way up-town with Babe half-naked and out cold in the back seat. The cab driver is then surprised when he reaches his destination that Babe doesn't have any cash to pay for the fare? It must have been the cab drivers first day on the job. Yet for some strange reason it turned out that the Szell gang who had Babe in their grip and were torturing him forgot to take an expensive watch that Babe was wearing! Babe pays the car fare by giving the cabbie the watch instead of cash, it turned out to be the cabbies lucky day.

The Emperor has no clothes.

[quinnmass · 1/10 · 4 October 2002]

Ok, I like Dustin Hoffman. I like Roy Scheider, and Lawrence Olivier was a great actor. Fine. The dentist scene is visceral and creepy and quite memorable. Fine. People I respect have said many positive things about William Goldman. OK.

Having said that, this movie rates HIGH on the Unintentional Comedy Scale. The plot is unthinkably, profoundly inane and laughable and nonsensical. I.N.A.N.E. Let me get this right, and I am quoting other commenters here, `a Columbia graduate student (Hoffman) unwittingly thrust into a game of deadly international intrigue when his brother (Scheider) is killed by a Nazi fugitive (Olivier) looking to smuggle a stash of diamonds he had left over from World War II after escaping justice' (virek213) and `Dustin Hoffman plays a marathon runner whose CIA brother is killed by an evil former nazi played by Laurence Olivier.' (Adam Morrison). You're kidding, right? Take out the words `Olivier' and `Hoffman' and we have the makings of a plot that doesn't even pass the laugh test.

Ask yourself, why is Hoffman's character involved? Because, ala Dr. Evil, Olivier stabs Scheider BUT DOESN'T KILL HIM. He just leaves. I mean, just slit the guy's throat. Come on. Even Scott Evil knows this. Just get a gun and shoot the dude. Oh, wait, I forgot, we have to leave him there, NOT QUITE DEAD, so that we can spend an enormous amount of complicated energy panicking about whether the guy we easily could have killed happened to say anything to anyone before he died. Brilliant. I mean, did any of you people think of this when you wrote your reviews? I am not making this up - there are POSITIVE reviews for this farce here.

Think this one through. I am an evil Nazi dentist. I decide to send a woman, a spy, to America, to seduce the brother of an American spy that I work with, so that I can. oh Jesus, I don't know. maybe if later and we're in a fantastical scenario where I need to kill the brother/find the brother, then she can - surprise - turn on him, since she will be the person he relies on, HE WILL BE COMPLETELY FOILED, and I will have succeeded! As part of this clever strategy, I send my goons (one of whom comically limps - where was the `BWAHAHAHAHA!'?, one of whom is Al Neri, on loan from Michael Corleone) to beat them up! Why? Who knows? Best not to ask!

I keep my diamonds in a bank in New York City. As the William Devane character says, `and now he's [Olivier] going to expose himself to incredible risk!' to come get the diamonds. Smart. Good plan. NYC. Good place to keep all my valuables, so if I ever need 'em, it will be INCREDIBLY RISKY to get 'em. But only risky because my brother, who had the key all along and could have just walked in there and gotten the diamonds at any time, ever, has just died because he could not overcome his evil irresistible impulse and ran into (I am not making this up) a gas truck, which exploded.

As for the scene at the house. I am just at a loss. I don't even know where to start. There are 5 people at the house, and 0 out of 5 of them behave with any logic. If you think from each of their standpoints what they are doing, and really try to puzzle it out, it's just nonsensical. I think the writers just decided, OK, everybody needs to be dead at the end of this scene, except for Hoffman. Then they tried to work backward and figure out how this whole shootout would actually play out, logically. Then they said, screw it, and went to lunch.

It's important, when you want to keep a low profile in an area where you could be recognized, and also you're an evil Nazi with a past, to bark at Jewish people in a screamy sort of ordering tone, so that you keep yourself disguised and don't jog any memories. And how many seconds before the woman who recognizes the Nazi gets run over by the car was it obvious that this clichéd movie convention was about to happen? For me, it was only about 8 seconds.

The closing scene is just laugh out loud funny. I mean, could it have been more awkward? Did that all take place so that our hero is not gunning someone down and is therefore morally able to claim the high ground? Nazi has to die, but hero can't just kill him. Isn't self-defense a little more standard of a movie convention that they could have gone with? He just trips on the steps and falls? Please. How lame is that? As lame as this whole moronic movie.

Should be a 9+

[yawn-2 · 28 April 2003]

I think this is the best thriller I've ever seen. If you look at it today, it also proves that audiences were more intelligent in 1976 than they are now. MM was a fairly sizeable hit movie - despite making absolutely NO concessions to the lazy filmgoer who refuses to think. Nowadays you can read actual film critics who call something like "The Matrix" confusing and hard to follow, when in fact Laurence Fishburne just stands there and TELLS YOU what is happening. 25 years of lifeless, same old same old movies and TV have made most people into dimbulbs. If you're not one of them you'll love MM.

Best thriller ever?

[szellthedentist · 10/10 · 16 January 2003]

Suspense filled, is the only adequate description I can think of. The direction is bleak and taut, the movie's music theme is like a growing menace and the acting of the leads is peerless. The film's most famous scene, the dentist chair interrogation has become part of pop culture, and deservedly so. This, along with many other scenes, including the enemies breaking into the bathroom, are a masterful example of how to create almost unbearable tension on film.

Teeth-clenching, white-knuckle thriller!

[robfollower · 10/10 · 26 August 2019]

A graduate history student is unwittingly caught in the middle of an international conspiracy involving stolen diamonds, an exiled Nazi war criminal, and a rogue government agent. Political paranoia thrillers from the mid-70s are one of my favorite niche genres, so of course I dig this film. The convoluted plot, unexplained connections, lack of clarity: It all works in combo to create an affect of conspiracy, where nothing can be trusted and the viewer is just as lost as the protagonist the titular Marathon Man played brilliantly by Dustin Hoffman. The rest of the cast is also solid .Laurence Olivier is sensational as the film's villain.

Schlesinger delivers in life after 'Cowboy'

[paul_johnr · 7/10 · 2 January 2007]

Thirty years after its original release, 'Marathon Man' is still a full-fledged icon of the political thriller genre, helped largely by its strong human element and the clear artistic vision of John Schlesinger. The film would probably have drawn more Academy Award nominations had it not premiered in 1976, when the cinema world was overstocked with titles like 'Rocky,' 'Network,' 'All The President's Men,' and 'Taxi Driver.' As it turned out, just Laurence Olivier was nominated for his supporting role as the dreaded Christian Szell; but 'Marathon Man' distinguished itself from most espionage films of the late 1970s and boasts a major following today.

John Schlesinger, best known for his Oscar-winning direction of 'Midnight Cowboy,' showed great versatility during the 70s by piecing together Nathaniel West's novel 'The Day of the Locust,' 'Marathon Man,' and 'Yanks.' Political intrigue is another topic in which Schlesinger looks right at home, as 'Marathon Man' boasts strong characters, intense situations, and high craftsmanship. While not a perfect film, 'Marathon Man' is forceful enough to stay in one's mind and has earned its place on the world movie timeline.

Dustin Hoffman leads Marathon Man's superb cast as Thomas Levy, a Columbia graduate student whose father committed suicide while on thin political ice during the McCarthy era. Still haunted by his father's death, Thomas (known as 'Babe' amongst friends) devotes himself to researching this past and looks to overcome boundaries as a Central Park marathon runner. He is eventually pulled into a web of deceit when his older brother Henry (Roy Scheider) is murdered by Christian Szell (Olivier), a former Nazi dentist who escaped from the Second World War to Uruguay. Henry was employed by 'The Division,' an ultra-secret U.S. bureau operating farther underground than the CIA. 'The Division' had previous dealings with Szell in which information on Nazi fugitives was traded for his amnesty. It is when Szell visits New York to reclaim family diamonds and a European woman named Elsa Opel (Marthe Keller) enters Babe's life that he must overcome a hatred of violence to defend his race.

'Marathon Man' is a film steeped in torture and outraged audiences with its 'dental' scene thirty years ago. William Goldman's screenplay (from his own novel) puts an interesting bend on espionage, stressing character development rather than plot. Combined with John Schlesinger's direction, 'Marathon Man' gives us loads more than the average, wafer-thin characters we normally expect from a political thriller. Hoffman is once again excellent in his lead role, perhaps empathizing strongly with the Jewish character he plays. Laurence Olivier is flawless as the tight-lipped, homicidal Szell who will stop at nothing to inherit his diamonds and cash. Roy Scheider and William Devane (as Commander Peter Janeway) are suitably rugged, while Marthe Keller gives an impressive performance despite knowing little to no English before the film's production.

Unfortunately, a character-driven story is bound to have clichés and plot gaps, which hurts this film to a significant degree. The scenario of Jewish characters fighting Nazis has been used numerous times before, as well as the femme fatale being in love with the man she's targeting. Marathon Man's storyline is also kicked along by conveniences such as a woman who just happens to realize that Szell is walking through the New York City jewelry district and a water plant engineer who apparently never calls the police after finding Thomas with Szell at gunpoint (!). Indeed, the plot of 'Marathon Man' leaves something to be desired, but the film is redeemed by its excellent acting.

The technical work of 'Marathon Man' is also flawless, with vivid cinematography by Conrad Hall ('In Cold Blood,' 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid') and editing by Schlesinger favorite Jim Clark. The score by Michael Small contains electronics, which gives this film an icy edge. 'Marathon Man' uses striking locations in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles, all filmed in Schlesinger's engaging but unobtrusive style. The high degree of professionalism by cast and crew is more than worth the price of admission.

'Marathon Man' is available on DVD from Paramount Pictures. It is offered in widescreen with a choice of English 5.1 surround audio or the restored mono track; French 'dubbing' and English subtitles are also provided. The recent Paramount disc has superb visuals with few artifacts and no grain. Mono, however, seems a better audio choice, as the enhanced 5.1 surround places too much emphasis on backdrop and muffles dialogue. Paramount has supplied interesting extras with a 'making of' segment from the time of its release, a short cast and crew interview program, the theatrical trailer, and rehearsal footage. While somewhat flawed, 'Marathon Man' is nevertheless a guidepost of 1970s film history and a must-watch for espionage fans.

*** out of 4

One of the best movies I have ever seen

[Stay_away_from_the_Metropol · 10/10 · 11 June 2022]

Literally one of the best movies I have ever seen.

This was the last of the classic "paranoid thrillers of the 70's" I had left to see. I assumed it would be good, but I didn't expect it to be the absolute best of the genre movement, and one of the best movies ever made.

Everyone in the movie puts in absolutely ferocious performances but the movie itself is the true monster. The writing, pacing, editing, sound editing, locations - literally every single thing about it. It is an abrasive rollercoaster that never stops for a second, constantly taking you on sharp turns you could never possibly see coming.

This is a jarring reminder of what cinema was at it's true potential and what seems to be it's peak, especially looking back on this nearly half a century later and noting how superior it is to 99% of movies coming out now in so many ways, so blatantly. We could still be making films this riveting, powerful, and enticing but somehow we've been steered so far off the course that no one is funding them anymore! Such a shame!

One of my favorite movie scores

[reid-hawk · 6/10 · 13 May 2016]

There isn't much I can say about this movie as a whole that hasn't been said. It has some great moments (the "is it safe" scene comes to mind) and some pretty terrible scenes (the car explosion scene with the obvious dummys in the car, or the scene where the old Jewish lady obviously doesn't get hit by the car but falls over in pain anyways) but overall it's a pretty exceptional thriller. But what I love most about this movie is the score. It starts off very 80s and generic with synthetic rifts, but it slowly evolves into an orchestral choir with string instruments and piano. Eventually the two styles mix, giving the sound something in between both synthetic and orchestral, which adds lots of tension throughout scenes due to the jarring sound. The score also knows when to go away and let the scenes speak for themselves. Overall the score itself helps elevate this movie to near-greatness.

A gritty '70s thriller

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 4 March 2020]

As this '70s thriller opens two elderly drivers get into an argument on a New York street; one is Jewish the other is a German who clearly has Nazi views. This leads to what would now be called 'road rage' and a crash that kills both men. It turns out the German is the brother of a presumed dead war criminal Christian Szell. This event will ultimately have a serious effect on Thomas Babington "Babe" Levy; a PhD student with no obvious connection to either man.

Babe is a post graduate student in New York where he meets, and gets involved with, Elsa Opel, who claims to be from Switzerland. One day as they walk through central park they are attacked by two unlikely muggers... middle aged men in suits. Meanwhile Babe's brother 'Doc', who Babe thinks is an oil executive, is in Paris working for a shadowy government agency that has been working with Szell. After his brother's death Szell is worried that his ill-gotten fortune in diamonds might not be safe... anybody he suspects could threaten that fortune is certainly in danger and that includes Babe.

This is a superior thriller which never treats its audience as idiots. For much of the film connections are far from obvious; things happen and we aren't told why. Then as the connections are exposed everything starts to make sense. Dustin Hoffman is impressive as Babe, the innocent caught up in events he doesn't understand; Roy Scheider is equally solid as "Doc" and Laurence Olivier is genuinely menacing as Dr Christian Szell... the dentist-torture scene is one that viewers will never forget. While the film isn't excessively violent there are a few shocking moments. These moments are justified to establish the dangers and nature of certain characters. The action is shot in a fairly matter-of-fact way which makes it feel more real than exciting. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of gritty '70s thrillers.

A classic thriller...but in 2006, it drags.

[CapRising · 6/10 · 21 December 2006]

Basically, I love this movie and was delighted to rent it from Netflix recently.

But my, how the cinema has changed in 30 years. William Goldman's screenplay is fine, the cinematography is excellent, the direction great, the acting wonderful. Still -- it could have easily been trimmed by at least 20 minutes. Everything up to the point where Babe is kidnapped and brought to meet Szell is atmosphere and suggestion. The awkward library scene with Marthe Keller is one in which I found myself making the "speed it up already" hand gesture at the screen. That and similar scenes dragged to the point of annoyance. Had I not been watching with someone who had never seen the picture before, I would have been using the fast-forward button. I now believe that the backstory of Babe's father as a victim of Senator McCarthy and House Un-American Activities Committee was superfluous and largely irrelevant to the audience, either now or then. And lastly, the entire convoluted story (especially as set in Paris) of Szell, the diamonds, and the questionable loyalties of the covert-ops crew is so muddled as to be little more than what Alfred Hitchcock called "The Maguffin" - the supposed "secret" that serves only to keep the audience on the edge of its seats.

Enough for the criticism. What I did like were : the scenes where Babe is in training for the marathon...how he keeps the image of Jesse Owens in his head for inspiration. This serves him well when he has to literally run for his life. Like 1997's THE EDGE, you have an unlikely hero. A peace-loving individualist who finally gets to the point of having to fight, and proves his own strength. I love the portrait of a scrappy New York City that is steadily fading away, especially after 9/11. I enjoyed the plot device wherein Babe enlists the aid of his punkish Puerto Rican neighbors and finally earns their respect.

Two other sequences stand out and stand the test of time: In the Diamond District where Szell is recognized by two former camp survivors, and of course, the final confrontation inside the pumping station, where Szell tries to call upon the evil within himself and is ultimately defeated by it. (I don't think that's a spoiler!...) Yes, it's a great movie...needs a bit of trimming, but worth a viewing, for sure.

Please Pass The Novocaine

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 28 October 2005]

I have always found this to be a very entertaining, involving, taut suspense movie with some very dramatic scenes. I've seen in three times and liked it better each time, particularly since it's been available on DVD which enhanced the sound from mono to stereo, and the 1.85:1 widescreen enhancing the cinematography.

I didn't find the infamous (this was quite a buzz when the film came out) dentist scene to be as terrifying as it was made up to be and the references to the McCarthy hearings are a bit annoying and typical of Hollywood director John Scheslinger. It's also a typical modern-day film in which the U.S government's police agencies are corrupt (oh, puhleeze, filmmakers - think of something new).

However, despite those negatives, the film is fascinating with no dry spots despite its two-hour length. There is a nice variety of action scenes and very interesting characters. Marthe Keller never looked better. Too bad she didn't make more movies in the U.S. Dustin Hoffman, as he did so well in the '70s, keeps your attention and Laurence Olivier is absolutely riveting. This is a terrific thriller, start to finish.

Yes, it's safe

[b-a-h TNT-6 · 7/10 · 1 April 2002]

Marathon Man is a thriller/spy story where tension builds up like in very few other films, and it is guaranteed to leave you emotionally exhausted at the end. The pacing of the film is intentionally slow, yet surprises are at every turn and the plot is complicated enough to leave you scratching your head in more than one occasion. Like quite a few movies from the Seventies, Marathon Man is bleak and unglamorous yet strangely fascinating in its portrayal of underground mysteries of an apparently normal world.

It is, however, the performances that really make this movie. Dustin Hoffman had already made a big name for himself by giving intense performances in completely different films like Midnight Cowboy and especially The Graduate, and he is perfectly convincing as 'Babe' , the student whose life is turned upside down as he unwillingly crashes into a dark world of undercover affairs and greed. It is particularly striking that at this time Hoffman was already 38 years old, yet he looks so youthful he is completely convincing as a man in his middle twenties.

The picture, however, belongs to Laurence Olivier. Olivier, one of the most acclaimed stage actors of all time, might have starred in a few mediocre pictures late in his career, but watching him in Marathon Man will blast away any doubt about his real acting capabilities; Olivier's portrayal of former Nazi Christian Szell is absolutely extraordinary as he plays with subtlety one of the most abhorrent characters ever seen onscreen. Probably some of you heard about the infamous scene where Szell uses dental instruments with dispassionate ease as means of torture, but make no mistake: Oliver's portrayal never comes off as over-the-top or exaggerated, and it's the smaller nuances that really show Szell as a chillingly repulsive character.

The movie starts with a car accident in New York City resulting in the death of two old men. One of these men, we will find out, is the brother of the infamous Christian Szell, a sadistic Nazi criminal who disappeared after WWII. Szell was able to escape to South America and live there hidden from international justice, but with the death of his brother he is now the only person with the key to a fortune in stolen diamonds deposited in a safe box in the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, Babe's brother 'Doc' (Roy Scheider), who works for a mysterious government agency yet to Babe's knowledge is simply a successful businessman, barely escapes an assassination attempt in Paris. Soon Doc finds out from another agent that Szell's brother was killed in an accident; when he receives a letter in which Babe narrates that two men had mugged him near Central Park, he flies to New York to pay a visit to his brother.

I'll stop here with the plot because I believe that you need to know as little as possible in advance to really enjoy the film. It is sufficient to say that Babe will discover things he never suspected, and he will be caught up in a dangerous game where his life will be threatened in a series of heart-pounding moments.

The supporting actors are uniformly good, from Roy Scheider as Babe's brother Doc, to Marthe Keller as Babe's love interest, to William Devane as Doc's co-worker. What puts this film down a little bit is the fact that the plot gets a bit muddled at times; in particular, there is a couple of scenes where the motivations behind some of the characters' actions and decisions are pretty much imperscrutable. It is possible that this was a deliberate choice of the filmmakers: after all, we are dealing with some of the most untrustworthy people on Earth. However, those scenes can be distracting, as while the movie is moving on the viewer is left elaborating on the reasons of what just happened.

Visually, the film is every bit as Seventies-looking as Taxi Driver , and the fact that New York City had such a particular feel to it during that time will only make things more enjoyable. This is certainly not the polished, fake look of modern blockbusters, but rather a dirty urban maze where dark secrets could be at every corner. To complete the movie's old-but-fascinating feel, there are also multiple references at the McCarthy era.

Overall, Marathon Man certainly gets my recommendation. Only one thing: just don't watch it the same day you have to go to the dentist.

7.5/10

Schlock Flick Masquerading as a Prestige Picture

[rake-7 · 4/10 · 1 March 2008]

The high ratings for Marathon Man are no doubt focused on the substantial talent assembled to pull it off, and they succeed as long as one dispenses with every expectation of logic or common sense. Schlesinger builds substantial suspense, and there are plenty of satisfying scenes, but the plotting and story points are ridiculous beyond measure. This might not be a problem if it were any other type of picture, but the progressive unfolding of an initial puzzle to a somewhat sensible (or at least rational) set of revelations is one of the hallmarks of the government intelligence thriller. The story here, however, is so thin that virtually nothing happens for the entire first half of the picture, and the second half is really nothing more than one long chase sequence. The biggest problem is that the central objective of the action is precipitated by a murder that, if contemplated for more than about twenty seconds, reveals itself to make absolutely no sense whatsoever. And the illogical story points are not just structural. There are numerous details throughout that are obviously (and, to my mind, condescendingly) designed as mere conveniences for the the action, regardless of how inane or inexplicable they may be. The veneer of star power and sophisticated production values did not--for this viewer, at any rate--successfully obfuscate the movie's considerable flaws.