‘Is it safe?’
I’m terrified of the dentist. There. I’ve said it. I’ve never really put my finger on why. Perhaps it’s because my childhood dentist would always tell me that no girl would want to kiss me if I didn’t clean my teeth properly. He was half right. Anyway. After watching Marathon Man and witnessing the hideous dentistry presented in the film, I feel my phobia is justified…
Thomas “Babe” Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a history student training for a marathon, hanging around in New York and trying to bed European women. After unwittingly becoming embroiled in some international espionage through his wildcard brother, Henry (Roy Scheider), Babe finds himself head-to-head with Dr Szell (Laurence Olivier), a terrifying Nazi war criminal.
Reuniting the star (Hoffman) and director (John Schlesinger) of Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man arrived in 1976, right in the middle of the New Hollywood era, and all the hallmarks of that particular movement are present and correct here: on location shooting, dark subject matter, gritty realism, complex and layered plotting… What a time to be alive. Schlesinger cut his teeth directing British kitchen sink dramas and while Marathon Man races towards the kind of bombastic conclusion totally at odds with the intimacy of his previous films, the smaller moments here very much chime with Schlesinger’s early work. Hoffman and Olivier are incredible, especially when on screen together, and especially in the third act. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for his turn and Hoffman’s performance confirms that, if anything, he’s underrated in the context of his whole career.
It’s perhaps no surprise that a film featuring such a talented cast, directed by a true auteur and written by screenwriting legend William Goldman (adapting his own book) turned out so good, but Marathon Man really is a stunning piece of cinema. The film’s production also birthed one of the all-time great on-set anecdotes. Hoffman, a famous advocate for method acting, stayed up for three days straight to mirror the mental turmoil of his character. Olivier, upon hearing about this sacrifice, remarked, “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?” Absolutely sensational.
