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

VICTORIA & ABDUL (2017): An Unusual Friendship

Having visited the country, India remains for me perhaps the most fascinating nation in the world.  The people speak more languages and dialects than anyplace else.  It is also the home to the most religions.  Yet somehow the nation still holds together.  As a republic, it began in 1947.  As a people, India goes back thousands of years.

Throughout much of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, India had to submit to a rule of a much smaller nation.  In terms of population, India is twenty times larger than England.  A large portion of that rule came under the reign of Queen Victoria (Judy Dench).  This is the backdrop of the film Victoria & Abdul, a 111-minute film directed by Stephen Frears. 

Unable to travel to India due to a fatwa placed upon her by an Indian Muslim, Victoria nevertheless was curious about the nation for which is empress.  To the surprise of her entire staff, she hires as her servant Abdul (Ali Fazal).  Abdul is an unusual choice.  Against orders and expectations, he looks the Queen in the eye and kisses her feet in public.  Though outraging Victoria’s staff, the young man makes an impression upon her.  She asks him to teach her Urdu.  Later, upon learning he is a Muslim, she appoints him as her "munshi," or teacher.

That Victoria lavishes attention upon Abdul particularly outrages her oldest son, Albert or Bertie (Eddie Izzard), the Prince of Wales and eventually King Edward VII upon Victoria’s death.  Bertie tries to find anything he can use against Abdul to bring him out of favor with the queen.  Mostly, Bertie only succeeds in alienating himself from his mother.  Unfortunately, Bertie has time on his side to get his revenge.  

With Victoria’s health increasingly failing, she tells her favorite servant, Abdul, that it is best that he, his wife and his wife’s mother go back to India.  She is well aware of the dangers he will face without her there to protect him.  Abdul chooses to stay.  His best friend, Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar), who came to England with Abdul is physically unable to cope with England’s cold climate – so very different from that in India.  As Mohammed refuses to provide Bertie with any information he can use against Abdul, Bertie chooses to keep Mohammed in the country to die away from his homeland.

When Victoria does die, Bertie tries to destroy all documents and belongings that would show Abdul ever had any connection with the fallen queen.  Abdul, his wife and her mother then return to India to live out their lives.

Though sometimes sad, Victoria & Abdul, overall makes for pleasurable if mostly light viewing.  There is humor dispersed throughout the movie, and the two leads generally work well together.  It is an example of good storytelling as the story seldom bogs down.

But like most movies of its kind, its attention is more upon English royalty than upon the nation England subjects.  Steven Frears also directed The Queen that concerned our current Queen Elizabeth and the remainder of the royal family following the death of Princess Diana.  The topic of royalty seems to obsess him.  And judging by a recent royal wedding, it is a subject of fascination for a great deal of other individuals as well.  Royalty obsesses us.

I also question whether the film isn’t historical revisionism.  How accurate is such a portrayal of the queen when such a story only came to light a century later.  While watching the film, we view Bertie and the household staff and their prejudices in disdain while not really understanding that India was under England’s thumb for a long period of time.  This includes the entire Victorian age.  Despite whatever favoritism Abdul may have actually found with Queen Victoria, he nevertheless remains a servant to her.  I fear that such a historic lesson is lost upon many of the viewers as well as the film director.

Having said this, Victoria & Abdul remains remains a powerful character study and a worthwhile film to watch.  Perhaps Queen Victoria, nearing the end of her life, was tired of the hypocrisy and understood there was no reason not to form a warm and wonderful relationship with her odd and eccentric friend.  Judy Dench plays the role powerfully and with singularity.  We would hope that all of us would care as little for public opinion under the same circumstances as the character of Victoria does in this film.  She represents the best of humanity while her royal staff, full of their own self-regard, remains the absolute worst

May 28, 2018

© Robert S. Miller 2018