And you thought you hated the dentist!
Marathon Man is a mess from start to finish. A confusing espionage-Nazi hunt-jewel cache concoction of plots rolled into a sometimes spinning, swirling roller-coaster of a ride, violence and blood aplenty, though always keeping the audience in unintended general confusion.
Most characters are not who they purport to be, and when someone changes sides, they’ll more than likely change again. It reaches a point where these individuals no longer gain, or deserve, any viewer sympathy, and for those familiar with the film and are waiting for Laurence Olivier’s famous turn at dentistry, Nazi style, it may seem hardly worth the wait.
Dustin Hoffman’s and Olivier’s performances carry the film, it’s true. Hoffman is on the run for his life—the title character also in training as a runner—and Olivier is the man after him. But so is William Devane after him, and so is Marthe Keller, playing a girl friend thrown into the brew.
The revered Shakespearean actor Olivier perhaps never quite lived down his infamous comment from his early days in Hollywood, when, during the filming of Wuthering Heights in 1939, he made the pompous observation that he didn’t know if this “anemic little medium [of film]” could support great acting, referring obviously to his own and to noble stage acting. Even in later years, arrogance and conceit remained, if somewhat diminished, as a part of his personality.
In his 1982 autobiography, Confessions of an Actor, Olivier makes only one direct, one-line reference to Marathon Man (as he does to most of his movie roles versus those for the stage), that it was his only turn at playing a Nazi. The mustache, he wrote, was there to hide his scarred upper lip and its “displeasingly thin, hard line . . . , inherited from my father.” Exposing his disliked upper lip, combined with the always-reflective glasses and the bald head, fitted the image of the cruel, demented Nazi.
Thomas “Babe” Levy’s (Hoffman) who is studying for a history Ph. D., is awakened from a sound sleep by his brother Henry, known as “Doc,” who says he’s in the old business, though actually a U.S. government agent. But after an attack in his hotel room, Doc suspects that the war criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier), is in New York City.
Babe acquires a girl friend, Elsa (Keller) who claims to be from Switzerland, and both are mugged in Central Park by men wearing suits. At a restaurant, her responses to Doc’s questions about her home country prove inaccurate. She admits she’s seeking marriage to an American to gain U.S. citizenship, but Doc suspects she might be in league with Szell.
Doc confronts Szell at a public plaza and is graphically, protractedly stabbed by the ex-Nazi. Doc staggers to Babe’s apartment and dies on the floor. Babe calls the police. Government agent Peter Janeway (Devane), working neither for the CIA or FBI he says, believes that Doc must have said something before dying, but Babe says no.
Babe is abducted from his apartment by the two muggers and tied to a chair. In one of the horrific high points in the film, Szell enters, lays out his dental instruments and repeatedly asks, “Is it safe?” When Babe insists he doesn’t understand, Szell probes at a cavity he has found.
He is rescued by Janeway, who explains that Szell is in the country to sell a collection of diamonds stolen from the Jews at Auschwitz. Janeway asks again if Doc spoke any last words. Babe still insists not. Janeway then reveals he’s actually a double agent and returns him to Szell, who repeats his question, “Is it safe?” He continues his torture, now drilling on a healthy tooth.
Babe eludes his pursuers, now on his own, thanks to his endurance as a runner. In a phone call, Elsa agrees to bring an escape car to a lonely country house. Now, when Janeway and Szell’s men arrive, Babe suspects she has set him up. Janeway kills Szell’s two men, then bargains with Babe: he’s free to kill Szell if he, Janeway, can have the diamonds. After Babe has agreed, Janeway tries to shoot him but kills Elsa instead. Babe then shoots Janeway.
With the diamonds retrieved from a bank, Szell consults a jeweler to learn their value, but a shop assistant and Holocaust survivor (Fred Stuthman) thinks he recognizes Szell. Szell hurries outside with his valise of diamonds only to have a woman (Lotte Palfi) recognize him, shouting for someone to stop him. The jeweler assistant has followed Szell and confronts him on the sidewalk. Szell slits his throat with the concealed knife.
Babe catches up with Szell and forces him at gunpoint into a city reservoir pumping station. Babe grabs the valise and tells Szell he can keep as many diamonds as he can eat. Szell swallows one, then refuses to down any more. Babe begins throwing handfuls of diamonds into the surrounding water, the rest down the iron stairs. The frantic Szell lunges for them, stumbles and falls on his own knife.
As Babe runs through Central Park, he throws his gun into a lake.
Marathon Man was deemed too gory and violent by a test audience, and some entire scenes were removed, including part of the dental torture, which many viewers found too excruciating.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK26KtN99R4[/embedyt]