Marathon Man
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| Marathon Man | |
| Author | William Goldman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Conspiracy thriller novel |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
| Publication date | 1974 |
| Media type | print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 309 pp |
| ISBN | 0-440-05327-7 |
| Followed by | Brothers |
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.
[edit] 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 Uruguay, must smuggle many diamonds out of the United States after the accidental death of his brother 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 so, Szell offers him anesthetic clove oil as inducement to cooperate.
[edit] 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.
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