Review of Marathon Man (1976) by Kevin G — 24 Jun 2011

I honestly really liked Marathon Man. The plot is bonkers in so many ways, but it's just such a weird tonal switch from drama to thriller. Dustin Hoffman is totally likable as the protagonist, who is literally thrust into a crazy-ass situation against his own will.

In fact, a lot of the cast is good here. I especially love Laurence Olivier as a demented Nazi dentist with a totally nuts retractable blade hidden in his sleeve. Plus, it's got Roy Scheider as a secret agent, which is cool enough in itself.

Also, I thought the plot twists were pretty cool and made this much darker than it might've been. Overall, it's probably nothing absolutely astounding and lets face it there are a large number of thrillers that probably exceed it, but it's an entertaining piece of 70's era Nazi-phobia.

As this further proves, Nazis do make some decent villains.