M's Musings on MARATHON MAN

Marathon Man. Dir. John Schlesinger.  Book & Screenplay by William Goldman.  Ft. Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider. Paramount, 1976.

First things first.  While Dustin Hoffman may have been almost forty years younger than he is today when he shot Marathon Man, he was already too old for the part.  I mean, he just simply wasn't awkward enough and single-focused enough to be Babe.  I liked what he did with the role, for the most part, but I wanted to see a real snivelling loser who spent so much time oogling girls and memorizing data that he had no idea how to act in the real world.

As a fellow grad student, I know what it is like to be completely absorbed in your work, to the detriment of your personality, social life, social skills and general well being.  Dustin Hoffman, you couldn't pull this off if you wanted to.  Spend three or four months in front of a laptop screen eating not-quite-expired food, and then I think you would be better able to get "inside" your character.

One thing I like about DH is that he isn't really all that good looking.  By no means is he tragic, but he isn't terrifyingly rugged in a way that is distracting and uncomfortable.  Hell, if he could pull off Tootsie and still land a lady, he has proven his masculinity (I guess?).

Hated the new ending.  The whole book is about Babe learning to be less naive and to FINISH SOMETHING HE STARTED.  Its about agency and control, which he asserts far less by watching Szell fall down the stairs.  No longer talking to shadowy imaginings, but standing up and taking charge is really important.  If he was able to kill all the bad guys, then he has actually taken revenge... or grown up... or entered the real world... or something of the sort.

Eating the diamonds was also a strange choice.  Was it because the jewels would have been stored in various Jewish body cavities to keep them from the Nazis, like Szell?  I didn't follow that.  I liked it better when the idea was that he doesn't even see the diamonds until he is in the process of throwing them away.  And, by throwing them into a body of water, instead of some treatment plant, I felt like they were returning to the earth, instead of being processed (much like the Jews in the Holocaust?).  Why did the diamonds go through the same "cleansing" process?  I don't know.  Maybe I am way off base.

I really liked the Doc character.  He was charming and didn't get enough screen time.  I wish they had shown the scene with him conversing with the other double agent.  It would have really filled out his character.  I found the transition to him being Babe's brother really awkward and confusing.  There was no build up whatsoever.

Final thoughts?  Definitely worth watching.  Maybe even more so if you aren't comparing it against the book.  I heard on the interweb it was one of the first big screen movies to use a steadicam.  A kind of interesting tidbit.

Final final thoughts?  A great read.  Definitely pick it up.  Many thanks to a dear friend for encouraging me to read it many years ago (though I didn't read it until yesterday).