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thurstey, cctcbcr 23, 1976
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:0oi'o5inicnig 'Moral
By m IlsGasn
Marathon Man is a nasty, ruthless and totally enter
uining thriller.
It begins on a tense note and never lets up for a
moment. The movie is an example of superb cinematic
engineering, directed towards one single goal-audience
involvement. ....
Dustin Hoffman plays Babe Levy, a Columbia graduate
student who is robbed, beaten, shot at and tortured in
the-course of one of the most relentlessly violent films
of the year.
Babe is drawn into a deadly web of international
intrigue and double dealing through his older brother.
Doc(RoyScheider).
Doc and his partner, Janeway (William Devane), both
work for a shadowy, super-secret government agency that
.spies on both the FBI and CIA, in addition to performing
various other distasteful tasks.
Either as part of their duties, or on their own volition
(we never know for sure), Doc and Janeway act as inter
national diamond couriers for a Nazi war criminal named
Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier).
Wealth splendid
Szell resides in secret and isolated splendor some
where in the Uruguayan jungle, living off the gold and
diamonds he has extracted from the Jews in concentra
tion camps.
SzeD is also a dentist, which we learn comes in handy
for either extracting the gold from his gas oven victims or
performing a bit of excruciating, non-novacaine drilling
on Hoffman. (This particular scene is bound to make even
the most brave-of-heart a wee bit squeamish on their next
trio to have a cavitv fiVedY
The film opens with the fiery death of SzeWs brother
(and only link to the diamond fortune), which forces
Szell to come out of hiding, go to New York and attempt
to recover his treasure in a bank safety deposit box.
The plot is set in motion when "Szell begins to suspect
Doc is planning to rob him; and, although we never find
out for sure, anything seems plausible in the heartless
milieu in which the film is set.
Babe is thrust into a life and death struggle against the
well-equipped and superior forces who won't believe he
is ignorantof his brother's dealings.
- Marathon Man is based on the best selling novel by
-William Goldman, who also wrote the script. Director
John Schlesinger Midnight Cowboy, The Day of the
Locust) gets the tension going early with Hoffman
running a fierce race with himself around Central Park.
For most of the rest of the film Hoffman is t man on
the run for his life.
Suspense
Scheslinger's direction methodically builds suspense as
he cross-cuts between New York, Paris and South America
as the plot threads begin to converge.
Lavish production values are in evidence hi the fine
location photography of New York, Uruguay and Paris.
Schesiinger nicely contrasts the opulence of a Parisian
Opera house with the urban jungle of New York and the
tropica! jungle of Uruguay.
However, in Schlesinger's vision, all are populated with
the same ruthless brand of operatives struggling in a
contest where violent death is an everyday occurrence.
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PSsoto courtesy off Paramount Pictures
Sr Lacrence CMsr plays Chsistsa SzeB, a mttm
ioiss Nazi war crisslssl and dentil, in Marathon
Man.
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Schlesinger extracts maximum suspense from several
sequences.
In one sequence, Szell, the .former exterminator of
Jews, is recognized and pursued down a street in a Jewish
section of New York by two former concentration camp
inmates, while the young Jewfch bystanders stare with
disinterest at the reenactment of a drama more than 30
yean old and part of a time and place they don't know or
remember.
SzeD, as played by (Xrvier, is a perfect example of how
a great screen presence can create a memorable character.
Olivier doesn't have to go to any great lengths to look or
act ominous; he can convey all the menace he needs by
a small gesture or expression or a quick slash of a foot
long switchblade always concealed in his coat sleeve.
r As Babe, Hoffman gives a nervous, energetic perfor
mance that makes the audience identify with his dil
emma. Extra dimension is added to his character (and
plight) by flashbacks explaining how his father, a famous
historian, committed suicide as a result of persecution
during the McCarthy era.
As the two super-secret agents, Scheider and Devane
radiate the kind of cool, well-tailored, impeccably
mannered confidence that sets them in stark contrast to
the fumbling and seemingly ineffectual Dabe.
As the arch-villian Szell has all the Biblical simplicity of
vile of all, so it is only natural that the final confrontation
freeze
frames
6 1
between Babe and SzeH has all the Biblical simplicity of
David and Goliath.
This scene, shot in the Central Park waterworks, is a
perfect climax to the kind of sharp, cold-hearted movie
Marathon Man is. -
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'In their final confrontation, Babe catches Szell leaving
the bank with his fantastic fortune of diamonds. Esbe
holds Szell at gunpoint on a metal grating over the water
works and calmly teCs Szell that he can keep only as
many of the diamonds as he can swallow.
It is a grand, fulfilling moment for the audience. Ve
have been so effectively conditioned and drawn into the
narrative that we feel the same thirst for revenge as Babe.
- Szell places a glittering diamond between his teeth;
pauses for a moment, then swallows with a pained
expression on his face.
The audience claps and cheers. The movie has been so
effective that only the most sophisticated intellectual will
not feel a little righteous satisfaction at seeing, good
triumph over evil. In a distinctively amoral world, the
filmmakers have exploited our old desire for clear-cut
choices.
After all, movies are entertainment, and when we pay
$230 to see "a thrder" (Marathon Man's basic advertise
ment line) we don't want the movie-makers to fool
around. Ve want our thrills and spills and suspense, and
that is exactly what Marathon Man delivers.
Marathon Kn is probably the ultinsate h spy
tanersMhe best that time and money can buy. Gse may
not agree with, its content, but one can't fault its
execution. - .
Speaksig of executions-out of the 12 pmcmd
.characters, II are dead bv the end of the film. Eia youH
fcave to go to the movie to find out who the lucky
survivor is. J
i ernes' creators : .
th JSf 4 tis American art form, wi3 be
Amenca s best known comic book heroes.
The program "Creators of Comic Bock Heroes," wO
uf. f-iAmerjca CoIIe Art Assocktion fiiACAA
which is being hosted by the UNL Art Dept l"ALA
wrignt, wid preside over the program.
nJTH.1"0 according to Dan'Hownrrf Art
Dept. chairman, and president of MipaV ' I
the few native Ameridn art forms. IhU " r
cant Muenceon AmericafpoXllt '
ference registration del . f r" t0 1 psn' at
g-birauon dek at the Lincoln Hilton Hotel.
