Review of Marathon Man (1976) by Kaan K — 11 Jun 2009

Director John Schlesinger took the opportunity to deviate from the genres in which he'd been working to hone his first thriller, augmenting themes in William Goldman's story of social awareness, life objectives, how we perceive others and situations out of control. Honestly though, I don't quite believe Goldman, for whom writing seems to be more of a circumstance than a line of work, was particularly married to those themes, though they do peak our interest here and there; essentially, he wanted to write a thriller. Schlesinger wants to add to what he's been given.

What Schlesinger has frankly and discreetly determined is to forget about the open questions and focus on a succession of scenes that hold us so fixedly while we're watching them, that undecided issues don't enter our thoughts. There's the thrilling car crash in the opening sequence, which mounts cardinally from an quid pro quo of taunts. Roy Scheider fights an assassin in a hotel room with perplexed across-the-street neighbors looking on. There's the legendary scene in which Sir Laurence Olivier, a former Nazi death camp dentist, tortures Dustin Hoffman by drilling holes in his teeth. There's my favorite: a walk through the New York diamond district in which Olivier is recognized by his ex-prey. There's a pursuit along a seemingly abandoned highway interchange. Together, Schlesinger and Goldman have induced these scenes with the ability to make the whole movie. Everything else feels like time biding till its next big bang to flaunt.

Then there are the performances, mainly that by Olivier, who cleanses the dedicated Hoffman's eagerness-charged presence of anything but the necessary reactions of a comparative rookie in awe of a veteran of pragmatic drama. Roy Scheider, though his convention with Olivier's stoic yet mercurial villain is earlier and more certain than those with Hoffman later on, does not enter into comparison. He is, as always, his own beast, one whose physicality, somber countenance and subdued volatility comply with any and everything the dramatic action throws at him. Nonetheless, the cast seems more influenced by the opinions of their dutifully poised senior than those of their wisely foolish director.

All of the elements of Marathon Man work well on their own enthusiastically visionary terms. They do not automatically add up to a plot that can bear scrutiny. Goldman's story does not follow an imperative logic, and Schlesinger understands. As angst-driven escapist entertainment, as a frantic action-thriller, the movie works with unrelenting ability.