Marathon Man
Director: John Schlesinger
Year Released: 1976
Rating: 2.0
An unkempt Columbia U. history student (Dustin Hoffman) gets involved in some business with Nazis and diamonds after the death of his special agent brother (Roy Scheider). The script's lack of consideration for common sense and logic is a slap at the audience - it doesn't answer questions because it probably doesn't feel it's important to do so (it's a Jewish Revenge story, that's all anyone needs to care about) - and much of it is quite tacky, like the scenes with the two old men playing bumper cars, Sir Laurence Olivier slitting a man's throat on Jeweler's Row and Hoffman's final confrontation with Olivier in a sewer. The chase scenes are competent, however, and much of the picture's notoriety comes from a tense torture scene where (an uncharacteristically maniacal) Olivier offers Hoffman a free dental consultation. (It's never safe.)
