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Marathon Man is probably best remembered for the scene in which the evil Laurence Olivier tortures a sweaty, helpless Dustin Hoffman by way of dental surgery. The movie was director John Schlesinger's take on two popular mid-'70s genres: it was a paranoid spy film, like Three Days of the Condor or The Parallax View, and a Nazi-on-the-loose film like The Odessa File. Written by William Goldman, the material is somewhat preposterous, but Schlesinger fills the movie with moments of tense intrigue and suspense. Olivier was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Hoffman appeared in another classic paranoia film, All the President's Men, that same year.