Marathon Man Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Dr. Christian Szell, played by Laurence Olivier, in the film Marathon Man, directed by John Schlesinger (1976).

Marathon Man is the film that made everyone scared of going to the dentist… especially if your dentist is a secret Nazi war criminal.

In this movie, Dr. Christian Szell is the Nazi-turned-dentist looking for a stash of glimmering diamonds. He thinks Babe (who is a guy played by Dustin Hoffman) knows where they are, so he decides to use his evil dental implements—redundant, we know—to torture the info out of him.

He repeatedly asks Babe, "Is it safe?" but Babe doesn't even know what "it" is. We're not quite sure either. Is "it" the diamonds and the ol' Nazi is having trouble with his subject-verb agreement? Whatever "it" is, Babe cannot answer, so he finds himself getting cavities from the crazy dentist instead of getting them fixed.

Where you've heard it

This quote falls under the category of "dental humor," the adult version of the joke, "When is it time to go to the dentist? 2:30!" (Sound it out.) Both are about as funny as a hole in a molar.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

If you hear this from your dentist, run. You're about to be tortured… with bad humor.