The above question may seem innocent enough, but you'll probably never think of it the same way again after seeing Marathon Man. The infamous "torture scene" is among the more harrowing you'll ever see. It happens at a critical point in the film, too. The audience has watched two or three subplots, separate unto themselves, until they all converge at that moment. The result is ghastly, but unfortunately one of the only highlights in a movie with mixed intentions that cause mixed results.
The credits seem to read as a who's who of high-caliber moviemaking. You've got John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy, The Day of The Locust) in the director's chair. You may have heard of Laurence Olivier (1948's Hamlet, Sleuth, and who could forget Clash of the Titans?) or maybe Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer). Add supporting actor Roy Scheider, fresh from the mega-hit Jaws, and a screenplay by William Goldman (All the President's Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Princess Bride) and the essential ingredients all seem to be accounted for. You may be asking why I'm listing all of these other films these gentlemen have worked. Well, it's mainly to show that they've done better work. There's nothing really about Marathon Man to nitpick as necessarily bad, only that all who were involved have worked on better projects, making it a slight disappointment.
It's about a university student named Babe (!), played by Hoffman. Life is status quo for Babe until an unexpected visit by his brother (Scheider) unwittingly throws him into a cloak and dagger scenario involving diamonds, former Nazi officers, and untrustworthy allies. Hoffman and Olivier as the German Szell are compelling, but I actually found Scheider the most impressive of the lot. There's a spiffy scene near the beginning in a hotel room where an unexpected guest pays him a visit, and both of the scenes where he returns to Hoffman's apartment are well done too.
Surely at the time it was made in 1976, there were Nazis still alive from the Second World War, scattered all over the world, hence some of the factual basis of Marathon Man. Still, the buttons don't get pushed far enough. There is a real potential for volatile and charged scenes between Szell and, well, everyone else he encounters. Instead, when all is said and done, the movie is little more than a get-rich caper cleverly disguised as a thriller. There's nothing wrong with that, and as far as movie choices go for a lazy Sunday afternoon, it is safe.
