John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man is exactly what I want from my ’70s paranoia thrillers. Corrupt government officials keep us from being able to trust anyone onscreen, and every character our protagonist meets is immediately suspect. Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier both give really compelling and completely surprising performances. Olivier plays a vicious and malevolent villain motivated entirely by self-interest and petty greed, and yet there are some incredibly powerful moments in which he is haunted by his brutal legacy – the consequences of his past transforming him into a furtive and pathetic shell of a person. The script is tight – executing plot twists with deft precision – and the pacing is flawless. I can’t believe I’m just getting around to this now – it’s really fantastic.
