The Machinist
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| The Machinist | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for The Machinist |
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| Directed by | Brad Anderson |
| Produced by | Fantastic Factory (Filmax/Casteleao Producciones)(Spain) |
| Written by | Scott Kosar |
| Starring | Christian Bale Jennifer Jason Leigh Aitana Sánchez-Gijón John Sharian |
| Music by | Roque Baños |
| Release date(s) | January 18, 2004 (USA) |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Machinist (also known as El Maquinista) is an English-language Spanish psychological thriller film that was released in 2004. The film was written by Scott Kosar, directed by Brad Anderson, and starred Christian Bale. It was produced by the Fantastic Factory label of Filmax and Castelao Productions (Spain).
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[edit] Background
[edit] Production
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
Despite being set in a West Coast American city, the film was shot in its entirety in, or just outside of, Barcelona, Spain. Brad Anderson hurt his back during filming and directed much of the film while lying on a gurney.[1]
Christian Bale starved himself for over 4 months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. Allegedly his eating consisted of one can of tuna and an apple each day (approximately 275 calories), although there are conflicting reports on this. According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54.4 kg). Bale wanted to go down to 100 pounds (45.3 kg) but the filmmakers would not let him due to health concerns. He later regained the weight, plus an additional 40 pounds (18 kg) due to weightlifting, in preparation for his role in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
[edit] Influences
Scott Kosar stated in the DVD commentary that he was influenced by Dostoevsky's The Double: A Petersburg Poem. There are other relations to the works of Dostoevsky: Reznik is shown reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot. A main character is named Ivan, a possible reference to the character Ivan Karamazov, who is racked with guilt, goes insane, and has nightmares of the devil in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. In addition, when Reznik is riding the 'Route 666' attraction one of the faux movie marquees reads Crime and Punishment. Reznik's love of a prostitute also reflects the main character's love of a prostitute in Crime and Punishment. Nicholas, the epileptic boy, may have been taken from The Idiot, where the protagonist, whose patronymic is Nikolayevich, is epileptic. Another possible connection is Smerdyakov, another character from The Brothers Karamazov, who is also epileptic, or Dostoevsky himself, who also suffered from epilepsy.
The name Trevor Reznik is derived from Trent Reznor, the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, and the original script had NIN lyrics on the first page.[1] Other tributes include the reversed N on the movie poster, early press articles describing Reznik as experiencing a "downward spiral". Reznik means "butcher", which could hint at his identity as a killer.
[edit] Plot
Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is an industrial machinist. He has chronic insomnia, and has progressively lost weight to the point where he has become an emaciated skeleton. His alarming appearance and behaviour cause his co-workers to shy away from him; they eventually turn on him after he is involved in a machine accident that costs a man, Miller (Michael Ironside), his left arm. Trevor, who was distracted by an unfamiliar co-worker named Ivan (Sharian), bears the blame for the accident. No one at the factory knows of Ivan and there are no records that he is an employee. Trevor seems to find peace only in the arms of Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a prostitute who develops genuine affection for him, or in the company of Maria (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a waitress at the airport diner where he spends many of his nights.
Trevor is haunted by brief flashes of recurring imagery, and everyday objects take on a menacing air, like the car cigarette lighter he seems almost afraid to touch. A mysterious series of Post-it notes that appear on his refrigerator depict a game of hangman; these vaguely threatening incidents send Trevor further into paranoia. Another near-accident at work causes him to lash out in incoherent rage at his co-workers and as a result he is fired. Trevor is no longer able to think clearly, and begins to suspect that the bizarre events in his life are a concentrated effort to drive him insane. He nevertheless attempts to establish a tentative romantic relationship with Maria. Meeting her at an amusement park, Trevor accompanies her son Nicholas on a grotesque funhouse ride called "Route 666", that causes the boy to suffer an epileptic seizure.
Growing increasingly distracted and alienated, Trevor forgets to pay his utility bills and his electricity is disconnected. A dark, viscous liquid begins trickling out of the freezer, eventually coating the refrigerator door with streaked lines of what appear to be blood.
After several unsuccessful attempts at confronting Ivan, Trevor tries to trace him through his license plate. He follows Ivan's car to read its license plate just before his gas runs out. When the DMV clerk insists that he cannot release personal information unless a crime has been committed, Trevor throws himself in front of a car in order to accuse Ivan of committing a hit and run. After filing a police report with Ivan's plate number, the battered Trevor is dumbfounded when the investigator tells him that the car in question is his own: Trevor reported the vehicle totaled in an accident one year ago.
In the film's climax, Trevor sees Ivan take Nicholas, who he appears to have kidnapped, into Trevor's apartment. Fearing the worst, Trevor sneaks inside. Nicholas is nowhere to be seen, and does not respond to Trevor's calls. Trevor confronts Ivan in the bathroom, and asks him what he has done with Nicholas. Ivan tells him "you know he's dead." Trevor struggles with and ultimately kills Ivan, then flings open the shower curtain, expecting to see Nicholas' dead body but the bathtub is empty.
Returning to the scene that opened the movie, Trevor tries to dispose of Ivan's corpse, rolling it in a rug and struggling to cast it into the ocean. But when the rug unravels, there is nothing inside. Ivan, very much alive, is standing on the pier, laughing. Trevor, suddenly home again and staring at himself in the mirror, begins to repeat "I know who you are." He then recalls his own role in a hit and run accident a year ago, in which he ran over and killed a boy identical to Nicholas after taking his eyes off the road for a moment to light a cigarette. The boy's mother Maria, was present; Trevor fled the scene and later reported the car destroyed. Every interaction he has had with Maria and Nicholas has been fictional, a hallucination brought on by extreme insomnia and repressed guilt. At the film's climax, Trevor arrives at the police station to confess and at long last falls asleep in a holding cell.
[edit] Reception
The Machinist was well received critically with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 73% of the critics' reviews they tallied were positive.[2]
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Christian Bale | Trevor Reznik |
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | Stevie |
| Michael Ironside | Miller |
| Anna Massey | Mrs. Shrike |
| Aitana Sánchez-Gijón | Marie |
| John Sharian | Ivan |
| Larry Gilliard Jr. | Jackson |
| Reg E. Cathey | Jones |
| James DePaul | Reynolds |
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Although a sizable portion the movie takes place in a metalworking shop, almost no characters wear safety glasses or goggles while operating machinery.
- The license plate of Ivan' car (CRN743) is the reverse of the license plate of Trevor's truck (NRC347).
- All clocks in the film are stuck on the same time, the time shown on Trevor’s car radio when he hit the boy.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Fischer, Russ (2004-10-13). Interview: Brad Anderson. chud.com. Retrieved on 13 October 2006.
- ^ The Machinist (2004). Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
