By ERIC RED
SEE
RED’S IMDb PROFILE HERE
MAN
(1979)
Director:
John Schlesinger..
Writers: William Goldman. Based on his novel.
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Oliver, Roy Scheider, William
Devane, Marthe Keller.
It begins with a series of seemingly unrelated events…In New
York City, a nerdy, athletic graduate student marathon runner named Babe Levy
(Dustin Hoffman) trains and works on his history thesis…A minor traffic
altercation between two crusty old men, a German and a Jew, erupts into an
anti-Semitic shouting match and in seconds both drivers are trying to kill one
another in a geriatric duel in their cars, culminating in a fiery crash into an
oil truck…In Paris, an suave and paranoid American spy (Roy Scheider) who finds
his espionage contacts are getting murdered barely survives a savage and bloody
hotel room ambush by another rival assassin…
In South America, a supremely evil fugitive Nazi concentration
camp doctor named Szell (Laurence Olivier) leaves his armed enclave to come to
New York to get something that belongs to him he’ll stop at nothing to get. All
these pieces are tied together as intricately as a time bomb, triggering a chain
of events that plunge marathon man Hoffman into a nightmare that push him to the
limits of his physical and psychological endurance. This is an original,
bracing, visceral thriller that blisters along from start to finish.
The
biggest star of this meticulously directed, brilliantly acted, handsomely
produced, star-studded production is William Goldman’s screenplay. It’s one of
the best constructed thriller scripts ever, a story twist machine. I’ve seen
this movie many times, and there’s something new to notice and savor in the
characters, performance, dialogue, photography and direction each time. I’ve
kept this review relatively spoiler free so as not to reveal the twists if you
haven’t seen the film. If you have seen it, see it again.
I read the original novel by Goldman in my early teens and
it blew the top of my head off, just simply one of the most thrilling books I
had ever read, generating an adrenaline excitement I had only experienced in
movies like “THE FRENCH CONNECTION.” The pace. The twists. I couldn’t wait to
see the picture when it came out.
That the film wasn’t as good as the book
didn’t matter, it was close enough. It made me want to write screenplays. Hell, it made me want to write anything. Years later, I had the thrill of
casting Roy Scheider as a hit man in the first film I directed, “COHEN AND
TATE,” and it was his role as the good/bad spy assassin in “MARATHON MAN” that
convinced me he’d be able to play a hell of a bad guy. Roy agreed.
“MARATHON MAN” is famous, or infamous, for the horrific
dental scene where Nazi dentist Oliver drills into the captured Hoffman’s teeth
to torture information out of him. “Is it safe?’ asks the elegant villain over
and over to his confused and terrified captive, who has no idea what his captor
is talking about. “Is it safe?” Oliver’s subtle and sinister shifting
inflection to each line reading of those three repeated words in Goldman’s
classic terse dialogue is classic screen acting.
Hoffman’s raw terror and
apprehension in this scene is equally powerful. This dental scene was
controversial in its day, actually causing audiences to walk out of the
theatres, but current viewers have become so conditioned to far greater screen
violence that the sequence now appears a model of restraint and masterful
suspense handing with its impeccable precision camerawork and editing.
Red’s Rules says every quality genre film requires great
plot twists and set pieces. This film is proof of the rule. One memorable
sequence is the big chase where the marathon runner hero’s physical training
pays off in the run-of-his-life where he escapes from the bad guys. Wounded and
bloody in his bare feet and wearing just pajama bottoms, he flees his tormentors
in a surreal and visceral foot chase through the hellish, steamy night
underpasses and gleaming rain slick streets of the ominous lower Manhattan West
Side Highway.
In his mind, Hoffman psyches himself up imagining he is competing
in an Olympic race with his Gold medal champion hero as he brutally outruns
speeding cars and gunmen. Cinematographer Conrad Hall outdoes himself in the
photography of the gritty, shadowy, stark and subjective chase lit by the
explosive backlight of streetlamps and headlights of the night New York streets.
Then there’s the diamond district sequence where the Nazi
Szell defiantly ventures into the Jewish neighborhood and wanders through the
crowds of Jews in order to visit a diamond shop for information. Despite
disguising his identity, the Nazi gets recognized by an elderly homeless woman
and a shop owner who were his victims in the concentration camp. They pursue
Szell down the sidewalk as he tries to blend in the crowd and flee while a mob
scene develops and he strikes with the deadly wrist blade he keeps hidden under
his cuff. The suspense in this beautifully filmed sequence is milked
admirably.
The acting in this film is phenomenal, due in part to
director John Schlesinger’s non-genre background of fine character-driven dramas
like “MIDNIGHT COWBOY.” Dustin Hoffman has never been as primal, raw and
physical in a role as he is here in “MARATHON MAN,” bordering on an action
hero. Brawny and toned, running barefoot and half-naked through the night New
York streets in his pajama bottoms to survive, sucking on the hole drilled into
the front of his teeth to keep himself sharp with pain, he strikes an iconic
figure.
For proof of Hoffman’s range, watch this and “STRAW DOGS” where two
characters with a similar arc are played in two entirely different ways…
Lawrence Olivier brings his classical performance style to the cunning,
contemptuous and murderous Nazi, providing chilling nuance.
In an excellent wardrobe choice, he is dressed in expensive
silver and grey suits, which with his white hair give the character an aura of
formidable cold metal. The political philosopher Hannah Arendt spoke of the
“banality of evil.” Szell is the embodiment of that banality where the root of
his monstrous deeds is petty greed…
Roy Scheider successfully portrays the cool
killer spy as a complex figure. Guilt and doubt ridden beneath his polished and
smooth tough guy exterior, he is a conflicted and compelling anti hero who is
both good guy and bad guy…Beautiful Marthe Keller is the sexy and mysterious
European grad student who becomes the love interest of Hoffman, convincingly
contemporizing the femme fatal thriller archetype.
There’s an ensemble quality to every really good film,
where all the departments excel in sync, the whole being greater than the sum of
its parts. For an example of a movie where the acting, direction, photography,
editing, music and most of all script all come together, don’t miss “MARATHON
MAN.” “It’s not safe. It’s very dangerous.”
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