Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Favorite seventies thriller of Quention Tarantino. "Marathon Man" is known as a "paranoia thriller" and paranoid you will get watching it. The story is about Dusting Hofmann, playing a student in New York, who gets pursued by an ex-nazi doctor with an evil agenda. This classic was made in a now legendary period of American independent cinema, in which directors were truly their own boss and had almost total control over their creativity. Classics like "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" by Francis Ford Coppola were made in this period. So were other classics like Martin Scorseses "Raging Bull" and Alan J. Pakula's "All the Presidents Men". All these movies were created in an era of the seventies that was known for its independent financing of movies, mostly by one particular producer, which bypassed the usual hollywood monopolies. A documentary about this period has been made featuring interviews with Scorsese and Coppola, describing this golden age of American indepent cinema. This is one heavy mother of a movie. There is a "dentist" scene that makes me more horrified than the "ear" scene did in "Reservoir Dogs". The "dentist" scene is much worse and unfortunately much longer. I must skip that "dentist" scene in "Marathon Man" everytime, because I just get so noxious about the torture by the heinously cruel Laurence Olivier, who truly acts as the most shocking ex-nazi I have ever seen on the screen. What a magnificent performance though! All the actors are acting brilliantly by the way. It would become tedious to start praising all of them. Well one more example of excellence: I just have to praise Dustin Hofmann. "Marathon Man" brings the best out in him. Truly perfect acting! That very same year he also performed in another seventies classic "All the President's Men", which was about the Watergate scandal. The man was at the peak of his carreer in 1976 when this classic was released.I just could go on and on writing about this classic, because the more often I see it, the more I notice the subtle yet dynamic direction that brings out the beauty in this terrifying story. The beauty is found in the true to life portrayal of these desperate characters. And that beauty is sculpted with one of the best photography of the entire seventies. If you are gonna watch it for the first time, you will probably not notice that excellent photograhpy, because the story and acting are so dynamic and overwhelming by itself already. The photography isnt bombastic or in your face. The photography in "Marathon Man" is done very subtle. But EVERY shot is deliberatedly made that specific way. Just a still shot of an empty hallway for example, has got its own beauty as it fades to black into another scene of a river in the jungle. That hallway shot could have been a painting. Just perfect. Every shot, every edit, every movement of the camera is orchestrated so naturally and supsenseful with a beauty and power that few photographers will ever achieve. But again, I must repeat that it is done without being in your face. Only noticeable for the moviegeeks who will wanna see it more often than just once. I have seen it over 20 times by now and still I am mesmirized by it's power.Another highlight is the soundtrack! It is so vivid and scary, that just hearing it out of the blue will bring me right into the spell of this movie. The technical sound quality isnt great, to say the least. Bass sounds basically didnt excist back then. We were already pleased it was stereo sound and not mono. But despite the lesser technical sound quality the music by itself is so powerful and suggestive that it spooks me out everytime I hear it. It sounds shreek and melancholic simultaneously, but gentle harmonies still ring through it. It is beauty combined with pain. That would sum up the best way for me to summarize this movie: a beautiful trip into a world of evil.I dont want to reveal anything more, because the story has so many great twists and turns that it would be a spoiler for all of those who are gonna see this classic for the very first time. I saw it for the first time when I was a young child in the seventies. It was aired on television. I really shouldnt have been allowed to see it back then, because there are some pretty horrific scenes in it, but fortunately my parents didnt know how horrifiying it would get. And anybody who is very young knows that conflicing longing to keep watching those movies that you know will scare you to death. But even now I have to look away when the "dentist" scene arrives. Some things are just too cruel and depressing. But despite the violently, dark story, the movie in itself is of a horrifying beauty that makes me cherish it as one of the greatest classics of the seventies.

"Marathon Man" is surely one of the leading thrillers of the 1970s. Its bleak, harsh and uncompromising narrative never lets up until the end of the film. I have to confess that I am not the biggest fan of Laurence Olivier. I find his acting style to be somewhat over the top and not always very subtle. His approach to his acting might have been better suited to the theatre ( Alec Guinness is easily his equal and is more comfortable with on-screen acting) Even so, Olivier is very good here as the Nazi war criminal who comes out of his hiding place from South America and who travels to New York to meet his fellow members. Dustin Hoffman has racked up another winning performance as the student who feels slightly persecuted by his late father's past. Hoffman is one of the greatest actors to appear on the scene in the 1960s. That criminally under-rated actor Roy Scheider is brilliant as the rogue government agent. He should have had more screen time. The whole film has a distinct air of menace about it as Dustin Hoffman shows natural courage and determination in spite of himself whilst fighting the secret Nazi movement that is hoping to silence him.

Dustin Hoffman is excellent as the protagonist in this well-written crime thriller set in New York City. Laurence Olivier is also very good as the antagonist.It's quite a complicated plot, involving family, Nazis, Jews, diamonds and running.

Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a history student in New York, New York, United States. Babe's brother Henry "Doc" Levy (Roy Scheider) is a member of "the division", a top secret US Government unit of elite spies investigating diamond smuggler and ex-Nazi war criminal Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier). When Szell comes to the US, Doc follows suit and everything eventually ends up on Babe's doorstep. The film stars off slowly introducing us to all that's going on, which really works. Olivier is chilling as Szell. The scene where Szell tortures Babe is one of the most famous scenes in film history. The movie is a solid thriller that never let's up. Go check it out.