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Marathon Man is a 1976 American thriller film directed by John Schlesinger. It was adapted by William Goldman from his 1974 novel of the same title and stars Dustin Hoffman , Laurence Olivier , Roy Scheider , William Devane and Marthe Keller .
Doc suspects that the criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) will be arriving to retrieve an extremely valuable diamond collection. Szell later sends a burly assassin named Chen (James Wing Woo) to kill Doc in his Paris hotel room, but Doc fights the hit man and breaks his back.
“Marathon Man” is almost all people and predicaments — or, more exactly, one person and his unending series of predicaments. We meet him during his ritual morning long-distance run: A graduate student named Babe ( Dustin Hoffman ) who has all sorts of frustrations bottled up inside.
Even though the Academy mostly ignored Marathon Man, Schlesinger managed to film one hell of a film, a brilliantly tense and ceaselessly exhilarating thriller that perfectly echoed the dark themes of McCarthyism and Nazism, inspiringly worshiping the quality of relentless perseverance needed to survive in such a harsh environment.
Jun 6, 2021 · The film was a critical and commercial success, though a number of changes from Goldman’s original intentions–the removal of scenes deemed excessively violent, and how Szell dies at the end of the film–brought the film down a few notches…in Goldman’s own assessment, too.
Apr 10, 2024 · The story behind the film has a happy ending. Laurence Olivier was very ill during filming and believed he would soon die. The medication he was taking affected his memory and significantly hindered his performance. Yet in the end, Olivier not only recovered but also received an Oscar nomination for his role.
In the end, "Marathon Man" isn't quite another "French Connection," but it's got more than enough suspense to crush a lot of the dross that infests theaters today. It's worth watching just for the terrifying scene when the bad guys start tearing Hoffman's door off its hinges - it's good stuff.
