An road-rage argument between two OAPs on the streets of New York, which results in their deaths when their vehicles collide with a petrol truck at high speed, is the start-off point for a tale of espionage, which student Babe (Dustin Hoffman) only sees the remnants of as he runs around Central Park. His brother Doc (Roy Scheider) returns to visit him and berates him for using his father as part of his university thesis. Babe becomes involved with a mature student (Marthe Keller) whom he meets in the library, but when Doc questions her about her background, she reveals she is German.
Meanwhile, Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier), a Nazi living in exile in South America, returns to New York and meets Doc regarding diamonds. Doc is stabbed and Babe becomes a pawn in an even bigger conspiracy, which is destined to shape his own future perceptions….
Adapted from his own novel into this 1976 film directed by John Schlesinger, legendary scriptwriter William Goldman’s tale of a university student who faces up to his late father’s wartime legacy and his ordeal at the hands of a Nazi dentist has passed into folklore, not least in one scene that has made people even more phobic about remedying an abscess of two.
Along with Franklin J Schaffner’s THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) adapted from Ira (ROSEMARY’S BABY) Levin’s novel of the same name, MARATHON MAN was one of the earliest examples of tapping into the legacy of the Second World War and those who were responsible for the lasting damage on people they came into contact with during the war years.
A more recent example was MUSIC BOX (1990) with Jessica Lange and the combination of past and present colliding is always a tempting point of conflict for film-makers wanting to explore contemporary issues.