Film of the Day: 68

Marathon Man (1976)

In the past, I have written about a few Hoffman films. Very recently I wrote about his portrayal in Lenny, All the Presidents Men and before that Midnight Cowboy.

Well being that today is Dustin's 74th birthday, I felt the need to write about another one of his films and instead of choosing one of his most famous films such as The Graduate or Kramer vs Kramer, I'd bring attention to a lesser film of his, Marathon Man.

This was an excellent thriller directed by John Schlesinger (who also directed Midnight Cowboy) and was based on the acclaimed novel of the same title by William Goldman.

Asides from the horribly over-rated Straw Dogs, Hoffman had not been in any major thrillers until 1976 with All The Presidents Men and this.  Dustin plays Babe, a grad student and marathon runner, who is still haunted by his father's suicide 20 years ago gets caught in the middle of an international conspiracy.

His older brother Doc (Roy Scheider), a wealthy businessman who just arrived from Paris, mysteriously appears at Babe's apartment at the break of death with some very dangerous men after him. Later Peter Janeway (William Devane) of the CIA appears and Babe learns that his brother working for the agency and was caught in the middle of a conspiracy and are after Nazi war criminal Christian Szell, played brilliantly by Laurence Olivier.

Szell was a Jew hating Nazi dentist who stole gold teeth from the Jews in the concentration camps, now it seems Szell has made a deal with a few agents for his freedom in South America in return for diamonds other Nazis have in hiding.

Babe then gets kidnapped by the same people who did his brother in and gets tortured by Szell with his dentist tools (weapons). However, Babe later manages to escape but is now caught in the middle and must find a way to help the CIA stop Szell and his men.

Laurence Olivier (Szell) & Dustin Hoffman (Babe)

The film was mainly a success for Olivier's haunting performance as a very convincing Nazi criminal. But to me it also made me look at Hoffman in a new way as I had never seen him like this before in a film like this before. He is known for taking on very challenging roles such as Midnight Cowboy, Tootsie and Rain Man, and him stepping in to a film like this is another reason why I think Dustin Hoffman is a terrific actor.

Click here for the trailer