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#193 - Marathon Man
John Schlesinger, 1976
A young college student is thrown into a world of paranoia and danger when he becomes the target of a sadistic Nazi war criminal.
Marathon Man is a great little time capsule of a movie that does summarise reasonably well how a typical American thriller played out in the 1970s. It roots itself in that most timeless of suspense narratives - that of the ordinary person unsuspectingly getting dragged into a dangerous situation - and grounds it in a very well-realised setting. Dustin Hoffman plays the titular protagonist, a college student and marathon runner who is haunted by his past, which catches back up to him when his secret agent brother (Roy Scheider) comes back to New York with the intention of tracking down a Nazi war criminal (Laurence Olivier), who has come back intending to retrieve a large stash of diamonds belonging to his late brother. After a fairly protracted first act that sets all the wheels in motion, it's all downhill from there as Hoffman gets dragged in to finish off what his brother started.
First act aside, Marathon Man is a pretty good thriller. William Goldman really knows how to write a film, and though the dialogue doesn't have quite as much flair as I've come to expect from other films he's scripted, the way that the second and third acts unfold make for gripping paranoid fiction. The acting is also solid - Hoffman gives it his all as a friendly young man who is slowly broken by the events of the film, but Olivier steals the show as the film's softly-spoken but incredibly cruel and obsessive villain. John Schlesinger definitely knows how to best capture the seedier side of New York and play out the suspense and thrills with gusto. I do appreciate any film that can successfully generate a strong sense of conspiracy where the hapless protagonist is never quite sure which of the other characters he can trust or if he can even trust the world around him anymore. A solid thriller and definitely recommended.
John Schlesinger, 1976
A young college student is thrown into a world of paranoia and danger when he becomes the target of a sadistic Nazi war criminal.
Marathon Man is a great little time capsule of a movie that does summarise reasonably well how a typical American thriller played out in the 1970s. It roots itself in that most timeless of suspense narratives - that of the ordinary person unsuspectingly getting dragged into a dangerous situation - and grounds it in a very well-realised setting. Dustin Hoffman plays the titular protagonist, a college student and marathon runner who is haunted by his past, which catches back up to him when his secret agent brother (Roy Scheider) comes back to New York with the intention of tracking down a Nazi war criminal (Laurence Olivier), who has come back intending to retrieve a large stash of diamonds belonging to his late brother. After a fairly protracted first act that sets all the wheels in motion, it's all downhill from there as Hoffman gets dragged in to finish off what his brother started.
First act aside, Marathon Man is a pretty good thriller. William Goldman really knows how to write a film, and though the dialogue doesn't have quite as much flair as I've come to expect from other films he's scripted, the way that the second and third acts unfold make for gripping paranoid fiction. The acting is also solid - Hoffman gives it his all as a friendly young man who is slowly broken by the events of the film, but Olivier steals the show as the film's softly-spoken but incredibly cruel and obsessive villain. John Schlesinger definitely knows how to best capture the seedier side of New York and play out the suspense and thrills with gusto. I do appreciate any film that can successfully generate a strong sense of conspiracy where the hapless protagonist is never quite sure which of the other characters he can trust or if he can even trust the world around him anymore. A solid thriller and definitely recommended.