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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - M 2 Mins Read

    Marathon Man (1976)

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    Director John Schlesinger’s super-charged thriller is about Babe Babington (Dustin Hoffman), a Jewish Columbia University graduate student and marathon runner who, for reasons he cannot understand (his older brother was a secret agent), is pursued and tormented by Szell (Laurence  Olivier) – a surviving Nazi war criminal who is also a former dentist.

    In fact, Olivier tortures Hoffman in two ways; a) by performing unnecessary cavity work and b) by being a better actor than him.

    marathonman

    “Is it safe?” No, it bloody isn’t!

    The film is paradoxical – At times generating a tension that is nearly unbearable and then providing moments of intense excitement.

    It’s crammed with brutal killings, bone-chilling torture, and triple crosses. Yet it’s all wrapped in a murky and confusing plot that hardly makes much sense.

    Still, the final showdown where Babe forces the old man to eat his diamonds before shooting him dead is a blinder.

    The screenplay was written by William Goldman from his own best-selling novel, and Hoffman, Olivier, and the rest of the cast are in fine form.

    Just one thing . . . Babington could have solved all of his problems in a second. Phone the police, dude!

    Babe Babington
    Dustin Hoffman
    Szell
    Laurence Olivier
    Doc Babington
    Roy Scheider
    Janeway
    William Devane
    Elsa
    Marthe Keller
    Professor Biesenthal
    Fritz Weaver
    Karl
    Richard Bright
    Erhard
    Marc Lawrence
    Babe’s Father
    Allen Joseph
    Melendez
    Tito Goya
    Szell’s Brother
    Ben Dova
    Rosenbaum
    Lou Gilbert
    LeClerc
    Jacques Marin
    Chen
    James Wing Woo
    Nicole
    Nicole Deslauriers

    Director
    John Schlesinger

    Video

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    Put some beefiness into your mid-week menu with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the Radio Times on 30 September 1965.

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