Marathon Man

Running time: N/A

As part of the Cinequest tribute to John Schlesinger, this taut, harrowing, Nazi-hunt thriller is vastly entertaining. The film twists and turns in the most unexpected ways. Dustin Hoffman and you are challenged to keep up with and keep track of who knows what and who's on whose side. Hoffman is Babe Levy, a Columbia University student and marathon runner. He's very well educated but doesn't have a clue that his own brother, Doc (Roy Scheider), is a government agent seeking Nazi war criminals-or is he collaborating with them? Someone wants to know what Doc knows, and when they can't get it from Doc, they go after Babe. Old wounds from Babe's past, specifically from his father's suicide as a result of McCarthyism, don't help. But Babe's biggest problem is Szell (Olivier), a Nazi exile who is forced to travel to New York to recover a stash of diamonds. Szell was a Nazi dentist extorting diamonds from Jewish prisoners. In one of the most chilling scenes on film, Olivier uses his dental skills to "extract" information from Dustin Hoffman. See Marathon Man, one of director Schlesinger's finest works, and decide. --Jeffrey Vargas