Dan's Retro Reviews: Marathon Man

After watching an episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, I decided to check out the movie Marathon Man, since the episode quoted its famous line, “Is it safe?”.

So this movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, and it follows a young graduate student/marathon runner as he inexplicably gets involved with secret agents and an evil Nazi dentist. Although it sounds like a plot to a cheesy B-movie, this is actually really good. Hoffman and Olivier turn in killer performances, especially Olivier; his portrayal of Dr. Szell is both chilling and brilliant. The torture scene involving him and Hoffman is the perfect testament:


Also, the camera work was pretty good for its time. It’s actually the first movie to ever use Steadicam, and it’s noticeable in a few scenes. One scene in particular shows Hoffman running from Szell’s henchmen, and the way it’s shot was very interesting; I had not seen camerawork like this in movies of this time period before.

As good as this movie is, it didn’t really blow my mind overall. I thought the story was a bit weak and uninteresting at points. Even though the movie is a little over two hours, there’s only so much one can take out of a story like this, and at times, it feels like they drag it out. There’s no real need for Hoffman’s “girlfriend” and I never fully understood how his father fit into the plot.


OVERALL: It lags at some points, but it’s still a pretty good movie. I would recommend watching it for the performances, as they are the only real standouts. And yes, it is safe.


RATING: 4.5 out of 5