Friday, May 11, 2012

Friday Flicks: Marathon Man

I first saw this movie on VHS back in the early 1980s when I started running. At the time I was studying WWII history as a hobby, particularly the Third Reich. This movie knocked my sweaty running socks off! After I saw the movie, I read the novel by William Goldman. I was impressed with this fascinating story of a former Nazi hiding out in South America, then getting mixed up with a Jewish grad student who is writing his dissertation on the McCarthy era when his black-listed father committed suicide.

Terrific performances by Dustin Hoffman and Lawrence Olivier.

The theme of the movie is best expressed in Olivier's famous line to Hoffman: "Is it safe?"

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