MARATHON MAN – Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier
Marathon Man (1976)
Direction: John Schlesinger
Screenplay: William Goldman, from Goldman’s novel
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Richard Bright, Marc Lawrence
The worst sin a good-guy-vs.-bad-guy movie can commit is to — unintentionally — have us root for the evildoer. That is exactly what screenwriter William Goldman (adapting his own novel, reportedly with some help from Robert Towne) and director John Schlesinger, he of Darling, Midnight Cowboy, and Sunday, Bloody Sunday, achieve in the thrill-less "thriller" Marathon Man. Adding insult to injury, the villain I came to root for was a horrific Nazi war criminal, while the hero that bored me to tears was a pacifist Jew.
Now, how could anyone manage to tip the scale toward such a monstrous character, especially when we have a Jewish hero fighting him? Well, ask Laurence Olivier, who has a grand old time as Dr. Christian Szell (inspired by the concentration camps’ Angel of Death, Josef Mengele), as he eliminates from view every lesser actor with whom he comes in contact. Schlesinger and Goldman should have done a good balancing act so our hero would be a match to the fascinating villain, but neither they nor star Dustin Hoffman succeed in making the peacenik-turned-avenger protagonist into anything more intriguing than a one-dimensional movie dud.
(As an aside, Hoffman says that Olivier’s oft-quoted remark, "Why not try acting? It’s much easier," came out of concern for Hoffman’s excessive partying while trying to forget his recent divorce and other personal issues. It was not a put-down of his Method acting style.)
Like other 1970s conspiracy films such as The Parallax View and The Odessa File, Marathon Man actually starts out well, with a preposterous but well-edited car chase through the streets of New York City, a furtive encounter at an antique shop in Paris, and a bomb-laden baby carriage that explodes on a Parisian street. From then on, the film goes precipitously downhill.
Someone somewhere forgot to add a brain to most of the characters and a modicum of sense to the intricate plot. Although the filmmakers bravely attempt to make everything so confusing that the viewer won’t notice the absurdity of it all, missing here is the sort of cinematic flair that would have made at least marginally acceptable plot holes the size of continents. (Check out Howard Hawks‘ impenetrable — but enjoyable — The Big Sleep.) A generally capable director, Schlesinger gets lost trying to create both human drama and movie thrills. The end result is that Marathon Man offers precious little of either.
Since the plot must keep on rolling, there are secretive meetings, a one-eyed East Asian villain, a mysterious woman (Marthe Keller, sans any mystery), silly Hitchcockian touches lifted from Rear Window and Dial M for Murder, and people doing stupid things (such as never calling the police when in danger) because it’s a movie.
The plot, by the way, is some murky trifle about precious stones that have been hidden in a vault in New York City. Fugitive Nazi and former sadistic dentist Christian Szell (Olivier) escapes from an alternate-reality Uruguay (where the weather is tropical) to New York because he wants those gems at any cost. Szell believes that Babe Levy (Hoffman) knows where they are, for Hoffman’s Babe is the brother (apparently of different parents) of Roy Scheider’s double agent, Doc Levy.
The poor Babe, of course, is completely innocent — and must suffer for his ignorance. Szell mercilessly drills Babe’s mouth in a sequence that is nearly as harrowing as it is funny. "Is it safe?" Szell asks Babe time and again. Neither the drilled Babe nor I knew what the hell Szell was talking about, but I loved Olivier’s campy German accent anyway.
In fact, once Olivier enters the scene in the film’s second half, Marathon Man perks up whenever the veteran actor is on screen. "The land of plenty," Szell says with utter disdain upon his arrival in chaotic, strike-plagued New York City. "They were always so confident God was on their side. Now I think they’re not so sure." With that same nonchalance, he looks for oil inside Babe’s mouth, kills off people right and left, and gets his comeuppance with the flair of a shameless scene-stealer. (Olivier’s bad guys — Richard III, Othello — are usually much more interesting than his heroes.) Ultimately, Laurence Olivier’s presence in Marathon Man is what makes this drab motion picture more tolerable than two hours in a dentist’s chair.
Academy Award Nomination
Best Supporting Actor: Laurence Olivier
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Tags: Dustin Hoffman, Film Reviews, John Schlesinger, Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man, Marc Lawrence, Marthe Keller, Oscar 1976, Oscar Movies, Thrillers, William Goldman
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