[By] contrast with the vapidity of routine cinematic fare, Marty appears—at least at a casual glance—as a refreshingly unusual film….

Paddy Chayefsky 1923–1981 © François Bota

Marty has all the qualities of an unpretentiously filmed fait divers, an anecdote involving ordinary people and presented with an effort to achieve veracity in characters, backgrounds and moods. And it could be accepted as such and dismissed with a conventional review were it not for the fact that it obviously attempts to be something of far greater depth and that both critics and public seem to have looked at it through a magnifying glass which lent it dimensions it does not even approximate….

At the root of the misunderstanding is the claim that Marty is a realistic film. Seen in proper perspective, it is at best a "slice of life", a fairly adequate exercise in imitating the premises and practices...