Marathon Man

Marathon Man is a crime thriller about Thomas "Babe" Levy, a history graduate student in New York who is training for a marathon while his older brother Henry, known as Doc, works for a secretive government organization. When a fugitive Nazi war criminal named Christian Szell returns to the United States to recover a cache of diamonds held since the war, his path crosses with the brothers, and Babe finds himself pursued by people who want Doc dealt with, forcing him to work out why he has become a target.

John Schlesinger directed the film, which followed The Day of the Locust in his filmography. William Goldman wrote the screenplay, and Robert Evans and Sidney Beckerman produced it. Dustin Hoffman plays Babe, Laurence Olivier plays Szell, and Roy Scheider plays Doc. Marthe Keller, William Devane and Fritz Weaver also appear among a credited cast of 59. The film runs 126 minutes and was made for about 7 million dollars, earning roughly 22 million worldwide, a solid return on its budget.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.4 from 48 reviews, while on TMDB it sits at 7.2 from 1,274 votes, close figures that indicate both professional reviewers and general viewers responded similarly. Its box office and persistent audience vote count reflect its standing as a well-regarded thriller of the 1970s.