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Marathon Man is a 1974 paranoid thriller novel by William Goldman. In 1976 it was made into a film of the same name starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, and Roy Scheider and directed by John Schlesinger.

Plot synopsis

The former Nazi SS dentist at Auschwitz, Dr. Christian Szell (inspired by Josef Mengele, the last doctor in charge of Auschwitz II), now residing in Paraguay, must smuggle many diamonds out of the United States after the accidental death of his father in New York City. This involves a secret intelligence agency named "Division".

Meanwhile, at Columbia University, Thomas "Babe" Levy is a graduate student in history and an aspiring marathon runner. He is haunted by his father's suicide, provoked by the HUAC witchhunts of Senator McCarthy decades earlier, when he and his elder brother were boys. Unbeknownst to Babe, his brother works in Division.

Both the novel and the film contain a graphic depiction in which Szell tortures Babe by drilling into his teeth, without anesthetic, and repeatedly asking the question, "Is it safe?" Babe does not know what the question means, nor the interrogator's identity. In the course of torturing him, Szell offers him anesthetic clove oil as inducement to cooperate.

In popular culture

The quotation Is it safe? is ranked #70 on the 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list.

The quotation was parodied in the ZAZ spoof Hot Shots! and by Randal Graves in the Clerks. TV series pilot.

A scene in the Seinfeld episode "The Doorman" parodies the movie. In the episode, a group of German tourists recognize Cosmo Kramer as a putative criminal and chase him down a sidewalk in New York City, calling out "Stop that man!"

A daydream sequence in the cartoon Doug parodies the movie's famous Is it safe? quote in which the title character has bad thoughts about going to the dentist about his toothache.
Also the Webcartoon The Silicon Apartment puts Jerry Seinfeld in the Dentists Chair.

A scene in Gremlins 2: The New Batch parodies the torture scene.

A sample of the Is it safe? line is heard in the Skinny Puppy song Assimilate.

In an episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look, one of the "Numberwang" rotating board gags features Robert Webb, dressed as a doctor, drilling a man's teeth and saying "Is it safe?" with a German accent.

From Wikiquote

Marathon Man is a 1976 paranoid thriller about a graduate student and obsessive runner in New York who is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his globe trotting brother, his European girlfriend, and a Nazi war criminal in hiding.

Directed by John Schlesinger and written by William Goldman, based on his novel of the same name.

Dr. Christian Szell

• I envy you your school days. Enjoy them fully. It's the last time in your life no one expects anything of you.

• Oh, don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp. That is unless, of course, you can tell me that it's safe.

• You're weak. Your father was weak in his way. Your brother in his and now you in yours.

• Thus far I find you rather repulsive, may I say that without hurting your feelings?

Others

• Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [to Babe] Do you ever clean this armpit of a place? How can you live like this?

• Peter Janeway: [referring to the Agency] Everything we do cuts both ways!

• Professor Biesenthal: Well, you four have the dubious honor of having been picked from over two hundred applicants for this seminar. Well, let me just say this. There's a shortage of natural resources. There's a shortage of breathable air, there's even a shortage of adequate claret. But there is no shortage of historians. We grind you out like link sausages. That's called progress. Manufacturing doctorates is called progress. Well, I say, "Let us hush this cry of progress until ten thousand years have passed." That's a quote. Who said that? Come on, who said that? [none of the students answer] Tennyson! Alfred, Lord Tennyson. My God, but you can't compete on a doctoral level and not know "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall 60 Years Later"! I hope you all flunk. Dismissed.

Dialogue

Babe: Look, I'm sorry I stole your book.

Elsa: What?

Babe: I took your book and put it underneath mine. I, I didn't know how to talk to you, I was embarrassed, so I took your book.

Elsa: Aren't you embarrassed now?

Babe: Yeah. I'm, I'm humiliated.

Elsa: So, why do you pursue people who sit at your library table?

Babe: I don't. It's just that... you're pretty.

Elsa: Ohh!

[She smiles and turns to walk away from him]

Babe: Well, I can't talk about how smart you are; I don't even know you. Anyway, I'm done lying with you.

Elsa: Are you always so incompetent with women?

Babe: Oh, yes. Today's way above average for me.

Elsa: Congratulations.

[She is still smiling as she unlocks her door to leave him]

Elsa: Good night.

Babe: That's too bad. I could make you so happy. I'm smart as a whip; you won't meet another thief like me in the library again. Come on; why don't you say you'll see me, huh?

Elsa: All right. I'll see you again. But it won't come to anything.

Babe: You can't tell.

Elsa: [wistfully] Yes, I can.

[She shuts her door in his face]

Janeway: Szell's brother's been killed in Manhattan. A collision with an oil truck.

Doc: Oh, boy. Any changes?

Janeway: Only everything.

Doc: [in a fancy restaurant] How could you forget to wear a tie?

Babe: I didn't forget it. Who wears a tie when they eat lunch?

Doc: [to Elsa] Well, at least his fly is buttoned!

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: You're talking to me?

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: Is what safe?

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you something's safe or not, unless I know specifically what you're talking about.

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: Tell me what the "it" refers to.

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it.

Szell: Is it safe?

Babe: No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful.

• Note: the line, "Is it safe?" is ranked #70 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

Janeway: My name's Peter Janeway. But you can call me, Janey, all of my friends do.

Babe: I'm not your friend.

Janeway: In 1945, Szell let it be known around Auschwitz he could provide escape for anybody who could pay the price. He started out with gold naturally, but very quickly worked his way up to diamonds.

Babe: Why did you say "naturally" when you said he started with gold?

Janeway: Szell knocked it out of the Jews' teeth before he burned them. Szell was a dentist.

Janeway: Listen, why don't we begin with what happened tonight, hmm? Perhaps you could... you know, give me some of the details.

Babe: I was here, Doc... died, you came.

Janeway: That's it?

Babe: I'm a demon for details.

Janeway: [Referring to his dead brother] What did he do?

Babe: He was in the oil business.

Janeway: I know exactly how Doc made his living, and the closest he ever came to the oil business was when he filled up at the friendly neighborhood gas station.

Janeway: I don't think he knows anything. And I think he knows too much.

Szell: You can afford to think what you wish. I can't.

Babe: Listen, I want you to rob my apartment.

Melendez: [laughs] Why?

Babe: There are some guys out there after me, I got a gun in my desk drawer, and I want you to get me some clothes.

Melendez: What's in there for me, man?

Babe: I got a TV set, I got a hi-fi, you can take it all. Do it.

Melendez: What's the catch?

Babe: The catch is it's dangerous. Please do it.

Melendez: That ain't the catch. It's the fun.

Szell: I was in a state of hysteria, you know. [referring to the open suitcase filled with diamonds] Don't you want to take a closer look than that?

Babe: No!

Szell: You see, uh, in a sense, one becomes more emotional with age. First, after a lifetime of being taken by friends and enemies alike, and then just when you think you have your possessions sure, your health begins to go. [laughs] Of course, that's the ultimate theft!

Szell: Well, what are you going to do now, shoot me?

Babe: No, I don't think so.

Szell: Then you're going to take these from me? [gestures to the diamonds] If I could say a word about that...

Babe: No, you can keep them. You can keep as many as you can swallow.

Taglines

• It isn't safe.

Cast

• Dustin Hoffman - Thomas 'Babe' Levy
• Laurence Olivier - Dr. Christian Szell
• Roy Scheider - Henry David 'Doc' Levy
• William Devane - Peter Janeway
• Marthe Keller - Elsa Opel
• Tito Goya - Melendez

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Marathon Man

• Marathon Man quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Marathon Man at Rotten Tomatoes