One of the decade’s best suspense thrillers! Marathon Man concerns three people who are all in a figurative race to stay one step ahead of each other. First is Dr. Christian Szell, a Nazi war criminal hiding out in South America and living off stolen diamonds from his Auschwitz murder victims. He will stop at nothing to retrieve the remaining gems from his recently deceased brother’s safety deposit box in New York, despite the great risk of having his identity exposed. Second is Henry “Doc” Levy, who fronts as an oil industry executive while working as a secret government agent and one of Szell’s couriers. Szell trusts no one after his brother’s death and tries to have Doc killed several times to no avail. Doc follows Szell to New York to confront him. Third is Doc’s brother Thomas “Babe” Levy, a Ph.D. candidate and would-be marathon runner suspected of having knowledge of Szell’s identity and motives. Unfortunately, he has no idea that he is about to be mixed up with Nazis and secret government agencies. Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, and Dustin Hoffman are all excellent as always in their respective roles. Marathon Man is one of those films that get better with each viewing that reveals more of the hidden gems in performance, direction, and photography. Based on the novel and adapted for the screen by William Goldman.
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