Published via Ecency

(source:tmdb.org)

Thrillers can have plots that are simple and plots that are complicated. New Hollywood auteurs, known for attempting new and unconventional things, often preferred the latter. One of the best-known examples is Marathon Man, a 1976 film directed by John Schlesinger, arguably the most successful of all New Hollywood thrillers.

The plot is based on the novel by famous Hollywood script doctor William Goldman. It begins with a verbal altercation on the streets of New York that would result in an accident claiming the life of an elderly German man (played by Ben Dova) who held a key to a deposit box. The protagonist, played by Dustin Hoffman, is Thomas “Babe” Levy, a mild-mannered postgraduate history student and running enthusiast who is preparing for a marathon race. His brother, Henry “Doc” Levy (played by Roy Scheider), lives a much more exciting life thanks to his career as a secret government agent, which also involves all kinds of shady deals with various nefarious characters all over the world. One of them happens to be Dr. Christian Szell (played by Laurence Olivier), a former dentist at the Auschwitz concentration camp and the world’s most-wanted Nazi war criminal. He has apparently cooperated with the US government in exchange for freedom and access to ill-gotten wealth held in a New York safety deposit box by his brother, who was killed in the crash. The accident forces him to come out of hiding and into New York, where he meets Doc. Fearing that the US agent might rob him, he stabs him. Doc dies but not before arriving at Babe’s apartment, and now Babe becomes the target of Szell and his henchmen, who are determined to find out what he knows about the whole affair.

Marathon Man is nowadays best known for the legendary torture scene featuring the menacing words “Is it safe?” and for cleverly utilising the average viewer’s fear of dentists. The scene is also famous for displaying the talents of two great actors who belonged to different generations and different traditions of acting. Dustin Hoffman, known as an adherent of Method acting, spent a large amount of time and energy on physical preparation for the role, and it paid off. He is wonderful as the embodiment of an “ordinary man in an extraordinary situation”, the most effective kind of thriller protagonist, and the film gives him many opportunities to express fear, weakness, frustration, and helplessness when faced with incomprehensible evil. On the other hand, Hoffman very credibly displays his running ability – the only skill that gives him an advantage over the villains and ultimately saves his life. Laurence Olivier embodies the Old School of acting and delivers another great performance as a cold, intelligent, but also very menacing and sadistic villain, originally based on the real-life Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele (who would, ironically, become the antagonist of Olivier’s character in The Boys from Brazil two years later). Olivier’s on-screen achievement, later awarded with a Golden Globe, becomes even more impressive in light of the actor’s serious health problems, which forced him to shoot many of his scenes under painkillers.

That and many other scenes in the film also work because John Schlesinger proved to be a very capable director. These scenes, which almost always involve violence, are very well directed. That includes the incident at the beginning, the attempt on Doc’s life, Babe’s torture and escape, and the very ingenious way Babe finally deals with Szell. The film also puts some of the contemporary issues and trends to good use. Post-Watergate disdain for the US government as a corrupt and distrustful institution is reflected in the character of Doc’s boss, Janeway (played by William Devane), who apparently sees nothing wrong in aiding Nazis, even when they harm US citizens. The view of mid-1970s New York as a near-dystopian hellhole of urban decay and rampant crime finds its reflection in a gang of street thugs who verbally harass and threaten Babe only to, in an ironic twist, provide aid in his hour of need.

With all this, Marathon Man is a very good film, but it is far from perfect. The main reason is that the plot is simply too complicated, and the need to tie up all the loose ends makes the film overlong. Some of the scenes are simply unnecessary or too confusing, especially in the first part, which takes place in Paris and shows Doc escaping several spectacular attempts on his life. Some of the subplots seem out of place, like the one involving Babe’s father as a victim of 1950s McCarthyist persecution. If the intention was to link that sad period in US history with the more contemporary issues of Watergate and 1970s urban decay, it failed. The subplot involving Babe’s love interest also seems redundant, although Swiss model Marthe Keller handles that thankless role well. Yet, despite those flaws, Marathon Man is a film that would ultimately reward those viewers patient enough to endure a complicated plot.

RATING: 7/10 (++)