AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

rattsbreath "Oh, please don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp... unless of course you can tell me that it's safe."

Jellybeansucker Possibly the best of the Nazi hunter movies, well the best thriller in the genre anyway. It's not as solid or authentic as The Odessa File before it - a nicely genuine and believable Nazi hunter movie, but it adds real thriller excitement in a few quite hard hitting scenes for its era. Schlesinger uses his trademark visual impact to good effect and the Oscar winning Goldman script is just as flashy, making Marathon Man an overtly confident and ambitious thriller.It has intrigue and plot twists to keep your mind alert but this can get you dizzy as you're heavily engaged in the visual action, so I always found trying to work it out without missing any of the narrative very demanding. But the acting is even more starry in this flash movie. It's Olivier versus Hoffman and I do mean versus, in a celebrated classical meets method acting showdown. Having said that Roy Scheider is the best thing in the movie for me with a terrific no nonsense performance that cuts through all the intrigue and suits the thriller element the best.A classic movie thriller that maybe suffers from its ambition and showiness and possibly its age judging by the surprisingly low ratings here. When it came out it was much hyped and talked about. Maybe there've been too many thrillers since with licence to be more graphic and clever still which have overshadowed this one. But for its charisma and ambition it is still a belter for me, way up there in the thriller ranks, being easily more involving than most that came after.

alexanderdavies-99382 "Marathon Man" is surely one of the leading thrillers of the 1970s. Its bleak, harsh and uncompromising narrative never lets up until the end of the film. I have to confess that I am not the biggest fan of Laurence Olivier. I find his acting style to be somewhat over the top and not always very subtle. His approach to his acting might have been better suited to the theatre ( Alec Guinness is easily his equal and is more comfortable with on-screen acting) Even so, Olivier is very good here as the Nazi war criminal who comes out of his hiding place from South America and who travels to New York to meet his fellow members. Dustin Hoffman has racked up another winning performance as the student who feels slightly persecuted by his late father's past. Hoffman is one of the greatest actors to appear on the scene in the 1960s. That criminally under-rated actor Roy Scheider is brilliant as the rogue government agent. He should have had more screen time. The whole film has a distinct air of menace about it as Dustin Hoffman shows natural courage and determination in spite of himself whilst fighting the secret Nazi movement that is hoping to silence him.

Leofwine_draca Well-shot, well-made, quite brilliant; those were the thoughts running through my mind as I started watching this excellent '70s thriller, which sits neatly with the unconnected BOYS FROM BRAZIL. It's the kind of expert, thrill-packed movie that never lets up from the word go, utilising the cream of Hollywood talent and ability to create one of the all-time classics of the genre. As with the best thrillers, the plot is simple, Hitchcockian in nature: a graduate student, who enjoys running as a hobby, becomes caught up in a conspiracy involving a former Nazi concentration camp commander.To say too much more would be to spoil it, but what evolves is a twist-packed film full of great action sequences: there are sweaty chases, nightmarish moments of claustrophobia, shoot-outs, one of the best hand-to-hand battles I've seen and, of course, a set-piece sequence involving dentistry tools and a drill that has gone down in history as one of the most fear-inducing and repulsive ever seen. One of the biggest surprises I had was seeing Roy Scheider as a tough, muscle-packed fighter whose bout against a Chinese assassin is quite simply brilliant. Usually Scheider plays these lean, slender leading men but not so here: now that's acting! The main role is taken by a sympathetic Dustin Hoffman, required to do quite a lot of emoting in his part and never failing to do the job. The scene-stealing Laurence Olivier has one of the biggest parts of his later career, playing a thoroughly evil, cold and clinical ex-Nazi who you hope will get his just desserts by the time the credits roll. It works, because the film starts off feeling disjointed but gets gradually better and better as it goes on, as the plot elements fit together, as the cast list grows smaller and in the end it's just a showdown between two guys with everything to gain and everything to lose. Wonderful choreography, plenty of black humour, some unpleasant violence and a great supporting cast (including a suitably slimy William Devane) – what more could you want from a thriller? The answer is nothing, as this is one of the best of all time.