"Marathon Man" (1976) - Movie Review

I gave up in early years of attempt on book reading due to the monumental word play the novel piled up in tasteless pages which I survied for sufficient number of it. Why do I want to bother on the curly curve of a dress in a murder mystery? What significance of suspense does it add to know that the man about to be killed had a chiseled body? Patience is an impatience to master for books on those days and sometimes now too. After pages running like decades, stars align for that part when everything makes sense and the true pleasure of the reading is awarded. Such happened in the very first book I managed to gain the patience for nearly hundred and fifty pages called “Honour Among Thieves” by Jeffrey Archer. I say this because “Marathon Man” adapted from the novel of same name by William Goldman is in heart and soul a novel over the screen. Chapters in pages of no relation to one another are the scenes of characters in the film. Clueless and in a mild distress “Marathon Man” is a suspense and a thriller assimilating in fragments when that part of reward in book comes undead and chilling.

Dustin Hoffman as Thomas “Babe” Levy is a history student living with his father’s suicide ashes over chapters in thesis dissertations. And for all the mighty title, he runs and runs and runs and when his gasps of breath are a long awaited gush of releasing tiredness, it is truly deserved. In another clunk of scene we see a spy or a government agent in suits and shrewdness is Doc (Roy Scheider). Hoffman’s character is in New York and when Doc lands in hotel we are led to believe he is in the city. But in subtle touches sloping up with obviousness director John Schleslinger reveals the place is actually in France. He is carrying a box of mints which of course does not have mints and we would not know what is in it till the third act. He is strong and sarcastic, full of energy and suspicion but mainly knowing the readings of a person he communicates, friend or foe or a stranger. Even before all this, an old man walks in a bank and gets the box of mint from his safe to be later handled to Doc gets into an accident. We cannot connect any of this except the box in two stories which adds up to nothing.

But there is a meandering presence of detail when the part of jolting pain and chase happens. When Hoffman and Scheider meet, their connection is by watching their body language and the words they choose to communicate. Often in films materials are written in order for the clarification and detailing to say these are the people and they are related. And too often we forget the fact the mannerisms are the unsung and invisible being to believe in that. Scheider and Hoffman tip toes each other in the familiarity and the reaction of Scheider on his student single place and hence forth by Hoffman teaches to aspiring actors. And Scheider repeats it with the deadly villain Szell (Laurence Oliver).

Oliver’s Szell is a restless old man with his clock running fast to grab his fortune. He is suspicious, threatened which brings out the worst in him. The most celebrated and shocking scenes of those times is the torture he orchestrates on Babe later in the film. In current so called horror films eyes are popped out, mutilation and invention of torture methods are performed with a dedication for disgust. It indeed is a sick fest but the idea of putting forth such an event is the pain and suffering felt in a psychological trauma. Instead of that, the coming films have used it as the Viagra for a pleasure of gore with emotional barfing before going onto the screen. When Szell inflicts his dental acupunctural skills on Babe, the pain pricks in gums and deeper than that on the watching people. The terror does not stick with the screen afterwards. And we want Babe to run as he did healthy and peaceful in central park except health and peace are substituted with pain and fear.

“Marathon Man” created the buzz obviously for its grim portrayal of a thriller in a pace and tone that was not tried before. The state of mind and the more importantly the handling of a history student and a son trying hard to make sense of his father’s end to the dangerous situation are real. After the suffering when the tables are turned which is bound to happen, Babe is level headed and the moral dilemma with anger and action is truthful. It is a kind of its own thriller in noir form which some might not agree. The uniqueness has of course been roughed up by time but it is a class apart for it started off and revolutionized the genre of thriller. And it said that it could be detailed, slow and painful to culminate marvelously.