Review of Marathon Man (1976) by Hugo S — 11 Mar 2008

MARATHON MAN (1976).

Directed by John Schlesinger.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider«Is it safe ?»In the 70's when you had William Goldman attached as the writer with Dustin Hoffman as the main character and Robert Evans producing you could tell you had one hell of a good film before it was even shot. Well, turns out this film have all those «qualities» and it didnt deceive.Marathon Man follows two leads, one is Dustin Hoffman as a student, even if he was already near his 40's he manages to pull off that young adult, with some easy tricks, but very effective ones and he sure was in good shape. It also follows Rob Scheider's character, a spy, or some sort, with some uncleared business.The film begins with an old man coming out of a bank and getting into an arguement with a cab driver. Turns out one is a jew and the other is an old Nazi. They fight, a car chase follows and they die which brings us to Laurence Olivier, the most wanted Nazi war criminal, coming out or retirement to come to America to put his hands on diamonds hidden in a safe box, cause his brother died in that car accident. I know it sound sconfusing.It takes a while to see what the connection between all those characters is but once its clear the film changes pace and becomes highly effective in what its trying to do.From the beginning of the film we know Hoffman's character like to run and the film was called just for fun and its not useless cause when he finally escapes the «bad guys» all his training becomes useful.Marathon Man is an effective pseudo-espionnage thriller with good dialogues and great performances. Laurence Olivier is out of this world as the Nazi was criminal. The ending works just fine and the subject matter is quite interesting.