I was talking to a couple of people I work with,they are maybe in their early 40s about this film and they had never heard of it or seen it.
I am British,aged 55 and this film has often been on British tv and I thought it was a well known film but is it a generational thing?
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It is funny to think that Marathon Man isn't as well known as other 70s movies like Taxi Driver or Jaws. I think you're right that it's partly a generational thing. Most younger folk would only know of this film if they were classic movie buffs.
For example, my father (who is in his late 50s) knew immediately what I was referring to when I made the "Is it safe" joke to him when he was going to the dentist. Likewise, my mother also knows Schlesinger's earlier film "Billy Liar," because it came out when she was young.
Schlesinger, on the whole, isn't that well known among younger circles. I asked some fairly young friends of mine if they had seen Midnight Cowboy. Their response: never heard of it.
~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.
I'm 32 and I first saw this on BBC 1 in the early 90's ; I was only about 8 years old and my mother let me watch it, because it wasn't a school night. That's just me, though. I'm at a loss when it comes to the general public and "old" movies... I've come to the conclusion that most of the people who really raved over Mad Max: Fury Road never saw the original films.
IS THIS SOMETHING YOU CAN SHARE WITH THE REST OF US, AMAZING LARRY?!?!
Well it is a forty-year old movie. Some folks just aren't into older movies and they would have been small children when it came out in 1976. Good flick though. Ignore the idiot in the cheap seats.
shareI'm an American, and have never seen this on tv. I'm 29 years old, and don't know anyone else who has seen it. I discovered it because I took a university course called "history and appreciation of cinema." We watched and studied "The Graduate" and after enjoying it so much, I started watching other films starring Hoffman earlier in his career. Marathon Man being one of them. I absolutely love the film, and it ranks as one of my favorite thrillers. It's a shame this film seems forgotten.
shareI first saw the movie in 1980 on CBS (television network in the United States) when I was twelve. It is my understanding that the movie has never gone into moratorium. In other words it's alwasy been available for sale on tape, DVD, Laserdisc and Blu-Ray. It also was on Netflix for a longtime and was only just recently removed. Many folks still watch it, but we're of an older generation and what we like to watch tends to not get as much attention I guess. Twenty-seven years ago we were the "hot" age group, but not anymore.
shareI saw it in a theater when it was released. I enjoyed it and never forgot it.
shareIt's not on often.
shareAs heralded as the 70s movies are/were...a lot of them didn't get a lot of TV airplay -- network or local -- because of the sex and violence factors.
At the same time, they weren't geared to teenagers, either.
So they just kind of disappeared. Scores of them.
But TCM, DVD and streaming have brought a lot of them back.