Marathon Man (1976)

"Oh, please don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp... unless of course you can tell me that it's safe."

Graduate student and aspiring marathon runner Thomas "Babe" Levy (an excellent and engaging performance by Dustin Hoffman) discovers that his wayward brother Henry (the always terrific Roy Scheider) works as some kind of government agent which in turn causes Thomas to get embroiled in a complex and sinister plot concerning a missing cache of diamonds that vicious Nazi war criminal Christian Szell (superbly played with chilling conviction by Laurence Olivier) wants to gain possession of.Director John Schlesinger, working from gripping and intricate script by William Goldman, keeps the riveting story hurtling along at a constant pace, makes nice use of gritty'n'grungy New York City locations, takes time to develop the characters, grounds the arresting premise in a plausibly harsh urban reality, and ably builds plenty of nerve-jangling suspense, with the legendary "Is it safe?" dental torture set piece rating as a genuinely harrowing set piece. The sound acting from the top-drawer cast keeps this film humming: William Devane as the shifty and untrustworthy Janeway, Marthe Keller as foxy foreign exchange student Elsa, Richard Bright and Marc Lawrence as a pair of brutish thugs, Tito Goya as brash street punk Melendez, and Fritz Weaver as exacting history professor Biesenthal. Conrad L. Hall's glossy cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. Michael Small's shuddery score hits the spine-tingling spot. An expertly crafted nail-biter.

Possibly the best of the Nazi hunter movies, well the best thriller in the genre anyway. It's not as solid or authentic as The Odessa File before it - a nicely genuine and believable Nazi hunter movie, but it adds real thriller excitement in a few quite hard hitting scenes for its era. Schlesinger uses his trademark visual impact to good effect and the Oscar winning Goldman script is just as flashy, making Marathon Man an overtly confident and ambitious thriller.It has intrigue and plot twists to keep your mind alert but this can get you dizzy as you're heavily engaged in the visual action, so I always found trying to work it out without missing any of the narrative very demanding. But the acting is even more starry in this flash movie. It's Olivier versus Hoffman and I do mean versus, in a celebrated classical meets method acting showdown. Having said that Roy Scheider is the best thing in the movie for me with a terrific no nonsense performance that cuts through all the intrigue and suits the thriller element the best.A classic movie thriller that maybe suffers from its ambition and showiness and possibly its age judging by the surprisingly low ratings here. When it came out it was much hyped and talked about. Maybe there've been too many thrillers since with licence to be more graphic and clever still which have overshadowed this one. But for its charisma and ambition it is still a belter for me, way up there in the thriller ranks, being easily more involving than most that came after.

"Marathon Man" is a film that divides folks into two groups--those who think it's a neat film about a vicious Nazi living in the modern world and those who think it's so graphic and so violent that they'd rather never watch it in the first place. I learned this when I tried watching it with my wife...as after a while she just left the room because she couldn't stand the dental scene near the end. I know many folks who felt the same way as my lovely wife...and many who liked the film. My advice is NOT to watch it if you have a phobia about dentists or don't want to see some blood! It's certainly NOT an easy film to watch.The story is about a vicious Dr. Mengele-like Nazi who leaves his secure hiding place in South America to come to America in search of stolen diamonds. Along the way, there's some weird plot involving the US government and Dustin Hoffman. It's all a bit confusing but never dull--especially when an old Jewish survivor spots Szell on the streets!The film is complex and fascinating. The end you'll either love or hate...but it never is dull.