Marathon Man (film)

Marathon Man is a 1976 American suspense thriller film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by William Goldman from his 1974 novel of the same title. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Marthe Keller. The film is about "Babe" Levy (Hoffman), a Columbia University graduate student and distance runner who becomes unwittingly embroiled through his brother in a plot by Nazi war criminal Christian Szell (Olivier) to retrieve ill-gotten diamonds from a safe deposit box owned by Szell's dead brother.

The film was released by Paramount Pictures on October 8, 1976, and was both a critical and commercial success. For his performance, Olivier won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category. It was nominated for four other Golden Globes, including Best Director, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (for Hoffman) and Best Actress (for Keller). It also received BAFTA Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hoffman) and Best Editing.