It was a marathon

John Schlesinger's Marathon Man (1976) is one of those quintessential 70's paranoia thrillers that has been spoken about and referenced so much that I had felt like I had already seen it. It had the unstoppable 70's combination of a popular novel, Schlesinger as the director, Robert Evans as its producer and Dustin Hoffman as its star. Also add into that mix an individual who many consider the best actor of all time in veteran Sir. Laurence Olivier and you have at least an interesting film no matter what the result.

I can't profess to completely understand the marathon connection to the film. Hoffman is running toward his future or away from his past, maybe something like that. Nonetheless as the film starts we see Hoffman running and that is inter cut with an old man going to a bank and grabbing something from a safe deposit box. The questions start there and we really don't get any answers for at least 45 minutes and I don't think we ever get everything answered. Nonetheless you don't really acknowledge your questions because most scenes are so well put together in and of themselves that you are enjoying the ride.

Watching Marathon Man now the film does feel a bit dated. It has everything a thriller needs, but some things seem implausible or too expected. Every other person is not who they seem, and nothing is what you think it is, which in a way makes it hard to care about anything. In fact some of the paranoia gets lost because how can you be paranoid when you don't know what the threat is and its hard to see where your main character fits into everything. The climatic scene of the film seemed very contrived and out of place, and it is too bad because the film really needs that ending to hit. Despite its flaws Marathon Man is quintessential 70's filmmaking and it understands the genre it is working in, and maybe tries to hard to exceed the expectations of the genre that it things get a bit messy.

Hoffman is very good as an annexed ridden 40 year old grad student (although he is playing mid twenties). Why he is so annexed ridden I am not entirely sure, something to do with his father, the film touches on it several times but never gets into it. It is very interesting to watch Dustin Hoffman's method acting going up against Olivier's classical trained acting. The difference is palpable, but they are both very good. There is the famous embellished story where Hoffman stayed up nights because he wanted to look tired for his character, and Olivier just looked at him and said "why don't you try acting my boy, it's easier". Olivier was the one to deservingly get the Academy Award nomination for this film. I am sad to say that this is my first exposure to Sir Laurence and he truly is brilliant. I hope to catch up on his hole cannon eventually. My favorite performance of the film is the always brilliant Roy Scheider as Hoffman's older brother. Scheider is high on my list of top underrated actors, he really commands the screen here and you feel safe in his presence.

If you like to read I am sure the book is better and fills in the gasps of the plot. But just for a classic 70's thriller Marathon Man is a good watch. Just don't expect the famous torture scene to make as much of an impression as it did to audiences when it was released.

***1/2