Tvtropes has a term, “Unbuilt Trope,”
which refers to situations in which earlier examples of a storyline
or plot device being used in fiction are darker and more realistic
than their later imitators, and Marathon Man embodies this
perfectly. Most movies that show a normal person being caught up in
a spy thriller make the situation out to be exciting wish
fulfillment, Marathon Man is a horror film. There’s a
reason why the film is best remembered for the main character being
tortured by a Nazi dentist.
The plot is complicated, but it follows
a historian and amateur marathon runner named Thomas “Babe” Levy
(Dustin Hoffman). Unknown to Babe, his brother Doc (Roy Scheider) is
secretly a government agent who works with less-than-reputable types.
Doc is fatally wounded by a diamond-smuggling Nazi dentist named
Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier), and runs to Babe’s apartment
before he dies. This naturally leads Szell to conclude that Doc gave
Babe some crucial information before he died. But, of course, he
didn’t.
The movie also plays with the question
of where our Government ends and “organized crime” begins. We’re
told at one point that our government protected Szell in exchange for
information on other Nazis. However, it’s never made clear how
many people are involved in the cover up, or just where the
authorization for it came from. But such distinctions are pedantic,
because the fear is generated by the realization that none of the
people in this kind of shadowy world, Government agents included,
really care about one completely innocent person being tortured by a
Nazi. Once again, this is an idea that’s been used many times as a
plot device, but very rarely played to its full horrifying,
bone-chilling potential
Dustin Hoffman gives an excellent
performance as well. He’s exactly as scared as any real graduate
student would be if he suddenly came into conflict with a Nazi war
criminal. He never comes across as weak. In the scene for which the
movie is named, he escapes and outruns Szell’s men. At the same
time, his idealism makes him someone we can really root for.
As for Olivier, he plays an excellent
villain. Aging actors often seem to have a choice between playing
the villain and playing the grandpa, and I think the former is always
preferable. It takes real experience to avoid ham when playing a bad
guy, and Olivier gives us a pragmatic man who is concerned
exclusively with what benefits him directly. In fact, I honestly get
the impression that if he could have made more money as an accountant
than a Nazi, then this whole incident would never have occurred.
I find it somewhat sad that the dental
drill torture scene is the best remembered part of the film, because
I consider a later scene to be far more deserving, even though the
“victim” is reversed. In the final confrontation Babe threatens
to throw all of Szell’s diamonds into a water treatment plant, but
tells Szell “you can have as many as you can swallow,” and then
forces Szell at gunpoint to actually swallow one. I’m a bit
unclear in this scene if Szell expects to poop it out later, or is
afraid he’ll be shot if he doesn’t comply, but it’s effective
either way.
When film buffs tell you that the 70’s
was the greatest decade for Hollywood, this is the kind of movie they
were talking about. The performances are subtle, the plot is as
complicated as it needs to be, (needless to say, I simplified it
quite a bit to make my review more palatable), without concern for
the audience being unable to understand it, and the direction is
excellent. I strongly recommend it.
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