[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]
Connection to Nicholas & Alexandra: Both star Laurence OIivier
Premise: A grad student gets caught up in a plot involving a Nazi war criminal and some stolen jewels.
The 70s was a golden era for the conspiracy-minded. People just got out of a turbulent decade full of assassinations. We’d been publicly lied to about Vietnam and Watergate. The post-hippie haze led to a lot of people hitting middle-age who just had their minds blown. The herculean accomplishment of the Moon landing begged for doubters. The Cold War was maturing from always thinking we were on the brink of war to assuming both sides were infiltrating the other. The run of conspiracy thrillers of the 70s is one of the easiest to understand trends in cinema history. And I’m here for them.
I haven’t disliked one of these thrillers that I’ve seen yet. Even when they are simply generic, they normally involve an actor I love being really intense for two hours and no immediate expectation of a happy ending. True to form, Marathon Man doesn’t feel unique to me. As the weeks pass, I’ll confuse all parts of it with Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, etc. It’s a lot of fun though. 70s leading men could believably come off as random guys. Sure, a Robert Redford has conspicuously chiseled features, but others like Dustin Hoffman and Roy Schieder in this have some grit to them. And New York City of the 70s wasn’t trying to sell anyone on it. They were OK letting it be dirty; big without inspiring awe.
I appreciate how dumb a lot of the motivation for this story is. It’s set off by a road rage accident. All the murders and espionage are for a guy trying to get some jewels. Despite the size of the conspiracy, it’s all so simple. So, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. Just that it was fun to watch.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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