Sunday, July 29, 2018

MARATHON MAN (1976): Is It Safe?



Marathon Man is one of the popular films that also makes for good viewing among a more particular set of moviegoers.  This is in great part due to good storytelling and acting.  But there is something else to the film that makes it compelling.  At all times in the movie, viewers know precisely what the main character is thinking and feeling.

Presumably the storyline in the film takes place presumably around 1970.  It stars Dustin Hoffman as Babe, a stellar student and runner who is about to have his life upended due to some bizarre circumstances.  Babe is in the process of writing his doctoral thesis on tyranny at Columbia University in New York.  His hero is Abebe Bikila, the Olympic marathon runner most famous for winning the 1960 Olympic event while running barefoot through the streets of Rome. 

Babe’s family circumstances are complicated.  His father, a blacklisted professor at Columbia, committed suicide at the time of the Joseph McCarthy hearings.  Babe, as a young boy, was the one to find his father after hearing the gunshot.  Babe’s brother, Doc (Roy Scheider), claims to be an executive in the oil industry, but is actually a government agent dealing in some nefarious schemes.  The two brothers care for each other, but also have almost nothing in common.  Babe lives in a dumpy New York apartment and seems to care almost nothing for worldly success or popularity (a neighborhood gang refers to him as “the creep”).  Doc travels the world and dines in the finest restaurants.  More importantly, Doc never understands why Babe obsesses over the death of his father rather than get on with his life and make something of himself.

The agency Doc works for is in the business of locating Nazi war criminals in hiding.  As a source, they use an infamous war criminal called Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier).  Szell is as evil as any character in movie history.  He made himself rich in Auschwitz by blackmailing Jewish prisoners to either provide him their riches or go under the most extreme tortures.  His fortune resides in diamonds kept in a safe deposit box in New York City under the watch of his brother.  But because Szell’s brother dies in a spectacular car accident (a scene that no one forgets), Szell needs to come to New York in person to access to the diamonds.

Babe in the meantime falls in love with a girl named Elsa (Marthe Keller).  While Elsa claims to be Swiss, she is actually from Germany.   She works for Szell.  Her mission is to keep an eye on Babe (and consequently Doc) to find out if they know anything about the diamonds.  Doc, who understands there is something wrong about the relationship between Elsa and Babe, first confronts her and then confronts Szell, himself (after Szell arrives in America), to leave Babe alone.  Szell doesn’t take the lecture well and instead stabs Doc to death.  Doc, badly bleeding and wounded, makes his way back to Babe’s apartment only to die in Babe’s arms.  He is never able to tell Babe what happened.

Due to the dealings of a corrupt agent named Janeway (William Devane), Babe ends up in the custody of Szell.  In probably the film’s most memorable scene, Szell tortures Babe to find out if Doc did tell him anything.  All along, Szell asks Babe, “Is it safe?”  Szell is wondering if it is safe to go to the bank to collect his fortune without anyone else interfering. 
By chance, Babe is able to escape Janeway and Szell.  Eventually, he is able to kill Janeway and Szell’s henchmen.  Elsa, who in the end attempts to save Babe, dies for her one good deed.  
Babe discovers where Szell is keeping the money and confronts Szell as Szell tries to walk away with the diamonds.  In Central Park, at a local facility, while confronted with a knife-wielding Szell, Babe throws all of the diamonds down the sewer.  Szell, in pursue of the diamonds, falls down the staircase and accidentally stabs himself to death with his own knife.  Through the hard-fought ordeal, Babe is for once victorious.

This long summary actually gives away very little of the convoluted plot of Marathon Man.  In fact, many movie reviewers obsess over the plot holes throughout the film rather than try to figure out why the film is extremely effective.  While every moviegoer is horrified by particular scenes (especially Babe sitting helplessly in the dental chair while Szell goes to work on his teeth), reviewers are trying to piece together a plot never designed to make literal sense.


Marathon Man is not so much about the plot as about a character study of someone almost every other character in the film underestimates.  Directed by John Schlesinger, it is 125 minutes long.  The character of Babe, beautifully played by Dustin Hoffman, is naïve, insecure, and cares too much for the truth and for others.  His counterpart, Szell, is conniving, cynical, and cares for no one besides himself.  In between, we have characters like Doc and Elsa, who for a time look aside at the evil rather than directly confront it.

Babe is a decent person.  His victory over Szell sometimes seems clumsier than heroic, yet Babe never runs away from a fight who could most likely lose. Marathon Man is like other effective 1970s adventure films such as Jaws or The French Connection.  These were also intelligent and unpretentious films with preposterous subplots – films which critics could not understand the appeal.  Sometimes, the viewer is more perceptive than the critic.

July 30, 2018



© Robert S. Miller 2018