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Marathon Man [1976] [DVD]
 
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Marathon Man [1976] [DVD]

DVD ~ Dustin Hoffman
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Customers buy this item with The Boys From Brazil [DVD] [1978] DVD ~ Gregory Peck

Marathon Man [1976] [DVD] + The Boys From Brazil [DVD] [1978]
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Product details

  • Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller
  • Directors: John Schlesinger
  • Writers: William Goldman
  • Producers: George Justin, Robert Evans, Sidney Beckerman
  • Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
  • Language English, French, German, Spanish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 18 Mar 2002
  • Run Time: 119 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005UO5W
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5,766 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) directed this gripping, entertaining 1977 thriller that centres on graduate student Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Tootsie). Hoffman plays a sullen and cowardly loner haunted by the suicide of his father, a suspected communist. He is drawn into a murky web of international intrigue when his brother, CIA agent Doc Levy, played by Roy Scheider (Jaws, The French Connection), is murdered by a former Nazi (Laurence Olivier) who has come to the United States to reclaim a valuable stash of diamonds. Babe (Hoffman) must confront his fears of the past as he runs for his life and tries to avenge his brother's death at the same time. Featuring a classic torture sequence and a terrific cast that includes William Devane and Marthe Keller, Marathon Man written by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) stands as a great entertainment and as one of the seminal films of the 1970s. --Robert Lane


Special Features

English
Region 2

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The terror among us!, 4 Mar 2004
What an incredible film!

This starts off as a slow simple everyday scene in New York which after a chain of events builds into a plot involving ex-Nazi war criminals, diamond-smuggling, anti-Semitic feeling, and a fast-paced chase leading to its inevitable bloody climax!

The gripping storyline had me hooked from the outset.
Ex-Nazi Szell, played by Olivier, has come out of hiding in Brazil to retrieve his diamonds. Hoffman's brother, played by Roy Scheider (fresh from "Jaws" fame), works for the Secret Service tracking Szell who is believed to have stolen the diamonds. After a double-cross which he witnesses (don't want to give too much away here!) Hoffman's life is in danger and he desperately tries to avoid Szell and his henchmen's clutches...

The entire cast are on top form.
Dustin Hoffman plays a convincing student and went for days without sleep to prepare himself for certain scenes like the dental torture scene (hence the immortal line from Olivier "why don't you try acting, dear?" when Hoffman asked him for advice).
And although Olivier was battling with gout and cancer during the entire shoot, he comes up with one of the performances of his career, horribly convincing as the sadistic Nazi Szell.
Marthe Keller, the Swiss model whose film debut was in Marathon Man, also impressed, especially as she spoke virtually no English as filming began!

The pace of the film also puts you on the edge of your seat (you're never sure who to trust), and although things start off calmly, it builds and builds into a brutal film, with a handful of shockingly violent and unexpected scenes. The most famous dental torture scene has been described in detail, which really is squirm-inducing, certainly one of the most terrifying scenes in cinema history. It's more the allusion to violence rather than seeing everything in graphic detail that makes it so effective. You may not want to go to the dentist ever again...

Schlesinger plays out the scenes of Olivier's Szell at large on the New York City streets wonderfully well (the Big Apple never looked so threatening!), the bustle of the city almost concealing the horror of a war criminal at large.
This is still valid today, what with the constant fear of terrorists living in our midst.

The DVD transfer has only improved the film - colour, sound and picture quality are fantastic and have been digitally restored. Equally impressive are the special features on this DVD edition, with excellent commentary and an interesting documentary ""Going The Distance: Remembering Marathon Man" with interviews from most of the cast & crew (Marthe Keller looks even more attractive over 25 years later!)

To sum up this has to rank as one of the best, most powerful, dark and disturbing thrillers I've ever seen. Although it does look a little dated now, this DVD should definitely have a place in your collection. Highly recommended.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great acting makes the difference, 28 Jun 2001
By Yaakov Wise, MA (Manchester, UK) - See all my reviews
Hoffman, Olivier and Scheider all give excellent performances in this fast action movie written for people with brains still employed. Proof that you can have a good narrative; cultural references (McCarthyism,Nazis in hiding)and drama without descending to the banal. Olivier goes slightly over the top as the Mengele character (the scene where his Nazi dentist tortures the young Jewish Hoffman with his drill will put you off dentistry for life). Hoffman is at his best reprising his "Graduate" character - the young Jewish New Yorker with angst. Excellent support from Scheider as his shady older brother.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly great thriller., 1 Jan 2003
Marathon Man (1976) is a scary nightmare thriller, best known for the suspenseful pursuit scenes and a truly repellent scene of torture.
Doc Levy (Roy Scheider), an American secret agent, who is thought to have stolen a valuable cache of diamonds, is killed by evil ex-Nazi Szell (Laurence Olivier), an ex-concentration camp dentist by profession. Szell has come to New York to retrieve the fortune in diamonds. Szell kidnaps Doc's brother, a lone, idealistic Jewish graduate student Babe Levy (Dustin Hoffman), who knows nothing about his brother's involvement.

In the most memorable torture scene, Szell uses his dental instruments for sadistic oral surgery to torture and extract information from Babe. Szell is the essence of evil and disturbingly effective during the torture, repeatedly asking Babe the question:

Is it safe?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Daddy of all Nazi hunter/CIA agent movies
The undisputable classic out of the very good 1970s batch of political intrigue and Nazi hunter movies. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Lou Knee

5.0 out of 5 stars Contains one of the scariest scenes ever !
Scripted by William Goldman, 'Marathon Man' is undeniable classic of cinema, Dustin Hoffman, plays Babe Levy, a keen graduate student and the 'Marathon Man' of the title,... Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2007 by Jay

5.0 out of 5 stars So underated!! But is it Safe?
Marathon Man is an absolute gem of a film. It is like something you catch on TV late at night. It has people you know in it but you don't really understand why you have never... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2004 by Mr G R Leslie

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Safe at All
Having watched this movie back in the 70s as an uncomprehending kid and then a couple of times on TV in the interval, I FINALLY GOT IT! Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2003 by Captain Cook

5.0 out of 5 stars A true classic
Marathon Man is a scary nightmare thriller, best known for the suspenseful pursuit scenes and a truly repellent scene of torture. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2003 by kennythfc

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