''Marathon Man'' is a 1976 American
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger (; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Midnight Cowboy'', and was nominated for the same award for two other films ('' Darling'' an ...
. It was adapted by
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...
from his 1974
novel of the same title and stars
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...
,
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...
,
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting ...
,
William Devane
William Joseph Devane (born September 5, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Sumner on the primetime soap opera '' Knots Landing'' (1983–1993) and as James Heller on the Fox serial dramas '' 24'' (2001–2010) and '' ...
and
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
. In the film, "Babe" Levy, a graduate student (Hoffman), becomes embroiled in a plot by Nazi
war criminal Christian Szell (Olivier) to retrieve stolen diamonds from a safe deposit box owned by Szell's dead brother. Babe becomes unwittingly involved due to his brother Doc's (
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting ...
) dealings with Szell. It was a critical and box office success, with Olivier earning an
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
nomination for
Best Supporting Actor for his role as Szell, the film's antagonist.
Plot
Thomas "Babe" Levy is a history Ph.D. student and an avid runner researching the same field as his father, H. V. Levy, who died by suicide after being investigated during the
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
era. Babe's brother, Henry "Doc" Levy, poses as an oil company executive, but is actually a government agent working for a secret agency headed by Commander Peter "Janey" Janeway. One of Doc's jobs is to serve as a diamond courier for the infamous
Nazi war criminal
The following is a list of people who were formally indicted for committing war crimes on behalf of the Axis powers during World War II, including those who were acquitted or never received judgment. It does not include people who may have commi ...
Dr. Christian Szell, in return for the latter's assistance in tracking down other Nazi war criminals. Szell is known as ''der weiße Engel'' (German for ''The White Angel'') due to his prominent mane of white hair. A wanted war criminal, Szell is ensconced in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
and is living off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. The diamonds are kept inside a safe deposit box at a bank in New York City and are withdrawn as needed by his brother Klaus Szell. After Dr. Szell's brother Klaus is killed in a fit of road rage, Szell feels that he cannot trust anyone anymore and proceeds to try to have all of the diamond handlers and couriers murdered, including Doc himself.
Escaping several murder attempts, Doc suspects that Szell will come to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to retrieve his valuable diamond collection. Doc comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. Meanwhile, Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel, who claims to be from
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, are mugged by two men dressed in suits. When Doc takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, he tells Babe that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a
U.S. citizen
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
. After Szell arrives in America, Doc confronts him, stating that he should not have involved Babe in these matters and that he himself is not to be trusted. Szell then takes Doc by surprise and stabs him with a blade concealed in his sleeve. Doc returns to Babe's apartment and dies in Babe’s arms.
The police interrogate Babe until government agents, led by Janeway, arrive. Janeway asks Babe what Doc told him before he died, and tells Babe that his brother was a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway is convinced Doc would not have struggled all the way to Babe's apartment without giving him vital information.
Babe is later abducted from his apartment by the two men in the park, and he is tortured by Szell using dentistry. During his torture, Babe is bombarded with questions, but he continues to deny any knowledge. Babe is then rescued by Janeway, who explains that Szell is in the U.S. to sell off his large cache of diamonds. Janeway presses Babe about Doc's dying words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself as a
double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
and returns Babe to Szell. Still unable to extract anything from Babe, Szell drills into one of his healthy teeth. Babe eventually escapes, aided by his skills as a marathon runner.
Babe phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. Arriving at her country home, Babe guesses that Elsa has set him up, forcing her to confess that the home was owned by Szell's deceased brother. Janeway and Szell's men arrive, but Babe takes Elsa hostage. Babe kills Szell's men as they attempt to shoot him. Janeway offers to let Babe kill Szell in revenge for Doc's death, if Janeway can have the diamonds. Babe agrees, but as he leaves, Elsa alerts him to Janeway's attempt to betray him and is fatally shot. Babe then shoots Janeway through the window, killing him.
Attempting to determine the value of his diamonds, Szell visits an appraiser in the
Diamond District in
midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
. A shop assistant who is a Holocaust survivor believes he recognizes Szell as a war criminal. After Szell hurriedly leaves the shop, an elderly Jewish woman also recognizes him. Trying to cross the street to get closer to Szell, the woman is hit by a taxi, causing a crowd to assemble and aid her. Amidst the confusion, the shop assistant appears again, directly confronting Szell, who slits the man's throat.
Szell retrieves his diamonds but, as he attempts to leave, Babe forces him at gunpoint into a water-treatment facility two miles away in South Gate House,
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. Babe tells Szell that he can keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. Szell initially refuses, and Babe begins throwing the diamonds into the water. Szell relents and swallows one diamond, but then refuses to cooperate further. Szell releases the catch on his sleeve blade and tells Babe that both Babe's brother and father were weak. Babe throws the rest of the diamonds in Szell’s briefcase down the steps towards the water; Szell dives for them, but stumbles, and falls on his own switchblade, with his corpse falling over a railing and into the water. Babe heads out into Central Park, stopping to throw his gun into the reservoir.
Cast
Production
Goldman was paid a reported $500,000 for the film rights to his novel and to do a screenplay, before the novel had been published. (Another source said $450,000.
[ ]
Clipping of first page
Detail 1
Detail 2
second page
third page
fourth page
an
fifth page
from Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
.)
"The book reads like the movie-movie of all time", said producer Robert Evans. "I regard it as a cheap investment because you don't often find books that translate into film. This is the best thing I've read since ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
''. It could go all, all the way – if we don't foul it up in the making."
Goldman estimated he wrote four versions of the screenplay and says
Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger Corm ...
was brought in at the end.
Goldman says John Schlesinger only agreed to do the film because he had just finished ''
The Day of the Locust
''The Day of the Locust'' is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett, who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scene ...
'' and was "terrified he was dead in Hollywood."
Laurence Olivier was cast early on. However he had health problems, and at one stage, it was uncertain whether he would be able to do the film.
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, '' Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...
auditioned for the part, but Olivier eventually recovered and was able to participate in filming.
''Marathon Man'' was the second feature film production in which inventor/operator
Garrett Brown
Garrett Brown (born April 6, 1942) is an American inventor, best known as the creator of the Steadicam. Brown's invention allows camera operators to film while walking without the normal shaking and jostles of a handheld camera. The Steadicam wa ...
used his then-new
Steadicam
Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for Movie camera, motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement ...
, after ''
Bound for Glory''. However, it was the first feature using the Steadicam that saw theatrical release, predating the premieres of both ''Bound for Glory'' and ''
Rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess M ...
'' by two months. This new camera stabilization system was used extensively in ''Marathon Man''s running and chase scenes on the streets of New York City.
The movie was filmed from October 1975 to February 1976.
"Why don't you just try acting?"
''Marathon Man'' is famous in acting circles for an often quoted exchange between Hoffman and Olivier concerning a perceived difference in their approaches to acting.
In the usual telling of the story Hoffman, a proponent of
method acting
Method acting, informally known as The Method, is a range of training and rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, u ...
, prepared for a scene where his character had been awake for three days by doing the same himself. When told of this, Olivier suggested "why don't you just try acting?" In an interview on ''
Inside the Actors Studio
''Inside the Actors Studio'' is an American talk show that airs on Ovation. The series premiered in 1994 on Bravo where it aired for 22 seasons and was hosted by James Lipton from its premiere until 2018. It is taped at the Michael Schimmel Cente ...
'', Hoffman said that this exchange had been distorted: he had been up all night at the
Studio 54
Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater was ...
nightclub for personal rather than professional reasons and Olivier, who understood this, was joking.
Themes
The film explores themes of endurance and the
pursuit of Nazi war criminals.
[Bouzereau, Laurent. ''Ultraviolent Movies: from Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino''. Citadel Press, September 1, 2000, 136. , .][Phillips, Gene D. ''Major Film Directors of the American and British Cinema, Volume 1999''. Lehigh University Press, 1999]
236
Retrieved from Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on January 30, 2012. , . Some critics believed that the violence exhibited was necessary to the film and to the character of Babe. Other critics found the violence to be offensive.
[Bouzereau, Laurent. ''Ultraviolent Movies: from Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino''. Citadel Press, September 1, 2000]
135
Retrieved from Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on January 9, 2012. , . Critic
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
considered the film a "Jewish revenge fantasy". The nickname given to Laurence Olivier's character, "der weiße Engel" (The White Angel) was inspired by Nazi doctor
Josef Mengele
, allegiance =
, branch = Schutzstaffel
, serviceyears = 1938–1945
, rank = ''Schutzstaffel, SS''-''Hauptsturmführer'' (Captain)
, servicenumber =
, battles =
, unit =
, awards =
, command ...
, known as the "Angel of Death" or also, "der weiße Engel" because when he stood on the platform of arrivals to concentration camps, he looked like a "white angel" directing victims to their deaths.
Babe originally has childish traits. As the film progresses, these childish traits are replaced with more adult ones. Michelle Citron of ''
Jump Cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...
'' compared Babe to
Carrie White
Carrietta Nadine White is the title character and protagonist of American author Stephen King's first published 1974 horror fiction, horror novel, ''Carrie (novel), Carrie''.
In every adaptation and portrayal of ''Carrie'', she is portrayed as ...
in the 1976 film ''
Carrie
Carrie may refer to:
People
* Carrie (name), a female given name and occasionally a surname
Places in the United States
* Carrie, Kentucky, an unincorporated community
* Carrie, Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Carrie Glacier, Olympic Nati ...
''.
[''Carrie'' meets ''Marathon Man'']
" ''Jump Cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...
''. No. 14, 1977. P. 10-12.
Janeway is only interested in his own gain instead of the ideal to advance U.S. interests. Paul Cobley stated in ''The American Thriller: Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s'' that Janeway "can be read as the impersonality of late capitalism
..or a post-
Foucaldian embodiment of the shifting locations of power" or "a representative of the vicissitudes of the market". Cobley identifies Melendez and his group as Janeway's "nemesis".
Music
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger (; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Midnight Cowboy'', and was nominated for the same award for two other films ('' Darling'' an ...
asked composer
Michael Small
Michael Small (May 30, 1939 – November 24, 2003) was an American film score composer known for his scores to the movies ''Klute'', ''The Parallax View'', '' Marathon Man'', and ''The Star Chamber''.
Personal life
Small was born in New York Ci ...
to make music that matched the theme of "pain, and the endurance of pain".
The opera
Hérodiade
''Hérodiade'' is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont, based on the novella ''Hérodias'' (1877) by Gustave Flaubert. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels o ...
by
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
is featured in the scene that takes place at the
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...
(Act III scene 8, ''Dors, ô cité perverse !... Astres étincelants'', sung by
Joseph Rouleau
Joseph A. Rouleau, (February 28, 1929 – July 12, 2019) was a French Canadian Bass (voice type), bass opera singer, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoires.
Life and career
Born in Matane, Quebec, he studied privately w ...
with the orchestra of the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
conducted by
John Matheson
John Ross Matheson, (November 14, 1917 – December 27, 2013) was a Canadian politician, lawyer, and judge who helped develop both the national flag of Canada and the Order of Canada.
Early life
John Matheson was born in Arundel, Quebec, t ...
, published on
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
).
Reception
The film was a financial and critical success. Olivier's performance was particularly praised.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives the film an approval rating of 81% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The consensus reads, "''Marathon Man'' runs the gamut from patient mystery to pulse-pounding thriller, aided by Laurence Olivier's coldly terrifying performance and a brainy script by William Goldman."
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave ''Marathon Man'' 3 out of a possible 4 stars. He wrote: "If holes in plots bother you, 'Marathon Man' will be maddening. But as well-crafted escapist entertainment, as a diabolical thriller, the movie works with relentless skill."
Accolades
Cultural influence
Dr. Szell was ranked as villain #34 on the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
's "
100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" list. The film itself was ranked #50 on the "
100 Years...100 Thrills" list. He was also ranked in ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' as one of the 25 greatest movie villains. Both the novel and film contain a graphic depiction in which Szell tortures Babe by first probing a cavity in one of Babe's teeth with a
curette
A curette is a surgical instrument designed for scraping or debriding biological tissue or debris in a biopsy, excision, or cleaning procedure. In form, the curette is a small hand tool, often similar in shape to a stylus; at the tip of the cu ...
, and later drilling into another tooth, without
anesthetic
An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia — in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...
, while repeatedly asking the question "Is it safe?" The quote "Is it safe?" was ranked #70 on the "
100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" list. The
dental torture scene was named #66 on
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
's ''
100 Scariest Movie Moments
''The 100 Scariest Movie Moments'' is an American television documentary miniseries that aired in late October 2004 on Bravo.(November 2004)Liner Notes '' Starlog'', p. 20 Aired in five 60-minute segments, the miniseries counts down what produc ...
''. The torture scene has been described as one of the most frightening sequences in film.
Critics have remarked on the high level of talent and class.
[Brown, Dennis ''Shoptalk'', Newmarket Press, 1992, p 70]
Director Schlesinger said that ''Marathon Man'' was successful not only because it had elements of
escapism
Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or genera ...
, but also because the audience easily identified with Babe Levy. Schlesinger said that he "is definitely someone that you can root for. The film is about his survival in a grim and hostile world. In our present age of anxiety we can all identify with characters who are not trying to get ahead but simply to survive."
Deleted violent scenes
Although the first preview of the movie was successful, the second one in San Francisco did not go well. The audience complained about all the violent scenes, so director John Schlesinger and editor Jim Clark chose to delete the following scenes and shots: the scene near the beginning of the film in which Doc fights with two assassins who have killed his friend; the graphic and gory close-ups of Szell disemboweling Doc with his wrist blade; and both of the torture scenes, which were heavily cut. Graphic insert shots from the torture scenes, which were filmed by Clark, were removed. Some photos, such as original lobby cards and stills, show Szell torturing Babe longer with dental instruments in the first torture scene and actual onscreen drilling of Babe's tooth in the second torture scene.
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater.
Career
Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...
of
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
wrote-'While people said that the violence in Marathon Man was excessive, I was surprised: I had wriggled through that dental torture, but it hadn't seemed a pinnacle in a year during which I had seen two penises cut off and another penis nailed to a board—in films from France and Japan'.
Differences from the novel
An 8½-minute sequence was shot of Doc fighting with some men who kill a spy colleague of his. William Goldman speculated that the scene was cut because of its violence and called the cut "grievous" and to the detriment of the film.
[Bradey, John Joseph. ''The Craft of the Screenwriter: Interviews with Six Celebrated Screenwriters'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), p. 162.] With the sequence missing, Doc's character seems to be less flawed than he really is.
In the novel, Janeway and Doc are homosexual lovers. This is handled subtly in the movie (when Doc arrives in Paris he calls Janeway on the phone and says "Janie, I miss you. Get your ass over here (to the hotel room)." In the book, their sexual relationship is not subtle at all and has Doc pining for Janeway at several points in the book.
The ending was rewritten by
Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger Corm ...
; it has been speculated that this was because Hoffman was unhappy with it.
[Bradey, p. 166.] Goldman told an interviewer he thought the new, more famous ending was "shit" because it left out two important plot clarifications. The final confrontation between Babe and Szell, in particular, is changed: in the film, Babe "spares" Szell in a pump room, tries forcing him to swallow his diamonds and Szell then falls on his own retractable blade, dying. In the novel, Babe resolutely leads Szell to
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
and shoots him multiple times, subsequently lecturing him. He then throws the diamonds away and is quietly led away by a policeman.
Notes
References
Further reading
* Kerner, Aaron. ''Film and the Holocaust: New Perspectives on Dramas, Documentaries, and Experimental Films''.
Continuum International Publishing Group
Continuum International Publishing Group was an academic publisher of books with editorial offices in London and New York City. It was purchased by Nova Capital Management in 2005. In July 2011, it was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing. , al ...
, May 5, 2011. 169–173. , .
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
1976 films
1970s crime thriller films
1970s political thriller films
American crime thriller films
American political thriller films
Films about brothers
Films about dentistry
Films about Jews and Judaism
Films about murderers
Films about Nazi fugitives
Films based on American novels
Films based on works by William Goldman
Films directed by John Schlesinger
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe winning performance
Films produced by Robert Evans
Films scored by Michael Small
Films set in New York City
Films set in Columbia University
Films set in Paris
Films set in Uruguay
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films shot in New York City
Films shot in Paris
Films with screenplays by William Goldman
Paramount Pictures films
Torture in films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films