Marathon Man (1976)

Nice effects though.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A bit too slow to be considered a "thriller," in my opinion. The first hour or so drags on for some time until the movie finally begins to pick up steam. The torture scene, however, truly lives up to its reputation. Yikes!

"Marathon Man" is one of the classic thrillers of the '70s, of which there were quite a few. The nation, still in shock from Watergate, had a whetted appetite for conspiracy movies - see also "The Parallax View" and, of course, "All The President's Men"."Marathon Man" is filled with classic scenes. Look out for the scene parodied in "Seinfeld" where the elderly Jewish woman recognizes the movie's Mengele-analogue, played by Lawrence Olivier in a great performance. The torture scene is still, after all this time, almost impossible to watch.It is true that the plot is fairly complicated, but I am one who thinks that the job of a thriller is to be thrilling. Any fan of the film noir flicks of the '40s knows that a labyrinthine plot can actually work in a film's favour: it allows you to feel how the main character is feeling, out of sea in a conspiracy he doesn't understand. Neither do you - that's the point.The movie makes more than enough sense anyway. You know who everyone is, what they're trying to do, and why they're trying to do it. So just strap in and enjoy this movie's copious pleasures.It is also notable for having both one of the greatest method actors (Hoffman) on screen with the greatest old-school actor (Olivier). And with a superlative filmmaker like John Schlesinger at the helm, and a screenplay by the legendary William Goldman, there was really no way for this film to miss. It didn't.

Graduate student and aspiring marathon runner Thomas "Babe" Levy (an excellent and engaging performance by Dustin Hoffman) discovers that his wayward brother Henry (the always terrific Roy Scheider) works as some kind of government agent which in turn causes Thomas to get embroiled in a complex and sinister plot concerning a missing cache of diamonds that vicious Nazi war criminal Christian Szell (superbly played with chilling conviction by Laurence Olivier) wants to gain possession of.Director John Schlesinger, working from gripping and intricate script by William Goldman, keeps the riveting story hurtling along at a constant pace, makes nice use of gritty'n'grungy New York City locations, takes time to develop the characters, grounds the arresting premise in a plausibly harsh urban reality, and ably builds plenty of nerve-jangling suspense, with the legendary "Is it safe?" dental torture set piece rating as a genuinely harrowing set piece. The sound acting from the top-drawer cast keeps this film humming: William Devane as the shifty and untrustworthy Janeway, Marthe Keller as foxy foreign exchange student Elsa, Richard Bright and Marc Lawrence as a pair of brutish thugs, Tito Goya as brash street punk Melendez, and Fritz Weaver as exacting history professor Biesenthal. Conrad L. Hall's glossy cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. Michael Small's shuddery score hits the spine-tingling spot. An expertly crafted nail-biter.

My problem with the film focuses on the plot, which is not remotely believable (as examined at great length in other negative reviews) and on Dustin Hoffman's performance, which is the most mannered and phony of his career. I like Hoffman in several films. I like him when he's being directed by someone who can slap down his ego and help him get at something true (Sidney Pollack comes to mind). Here, however, Hoffman is allowed to run amuck and reveal all the gas-bag I-AM-a-leading-man-because-I-work-so-hard fault lines in his work that would become so obvious in his later years. (I don't know what happened to John Schlesinger in 1976 in terms of standing-up-to-Hoffman but it was pretty bad, whatever it was. In 1969, in "Midnight Cowboy," Schlesinger was up to the large task of clamping down on Hoffman's worst instincts. Where did his strength go?) The only good reason to watch "Marathon Man" is to see Olivier try to make something of a nothing character - he does OK and of course since he's Olivier he's always worth watching. He took a lot of hammy film roles late in his career to make money (cf "The Betsy").