The Machinist

Infobox Film | name =The Machinist


caption =Promotional poster for "The Machinist"
director = Brad Anderson
producer = Fantastic Factory (Filmax/Casteleao Producciones)(Spain)
writer =Scott Kosar
starring =Christian Bale
Jennifer Jason Leigh
John Sharian
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
Michael Ironside
cinematography =
music = Roque Baños
editing =
distributor =
released = January 18, 2004 (USA) | runtime = 102 min.
language = English
budget =
amg_id = A300962
imdb_id = 0361862

"The Machinist" (also known as "El Maquinista") is an English-language Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson that was released in 2004. The film was written by Scott Kosar, and starred Christian Bale. It was produced by the "Fantastic Factory" label of Filmax and Castelao Productions (Spain).

Background

Production

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.cite web
url=http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=interviews&id=173
title=Interview: Brad Anderson
last=Fischer
first=Russ
date=2004-10-13
publisher=chud.com
accessdaymonth=13 October
accessyear=2006]

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 cup of coffee and an apple (or a can of tuna) each day (approximately 275 calories)cite web
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1037396/Christian-Bale-Boy-circus-star-13.html] . 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 "Batman Begins".

Influences

Scott Kosar stated in the DVD commentary that he was influenced by Dostoevsky's "". There are other relations to the works of Dostoevsky: Reznik is shown reading Dostoevsky's "The Idiot". A character named Ivan, is 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 founder and primary creative force behind the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, and the original script had NIN lyrics on the first page.cite web
url=http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=interviews&id=173
title=Interview: Brad Anderson
last=Fischer
first=Russ
date=2004-10-13
publisher=chud.com
accessdaymonth=13 October
accessyear=2006] 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.

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 strange behavior cause his co-workers to stay 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 (John 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 kind 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 totalled in an accident one year ago.

In the film's climax, Trevor sees Ivan take Nicholas, who appears to have been 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. He walks out to his refrigerator and opens it to find the dead fish. His mind then flashes to a picture that he has of Reynolds, a man at work, and Ivan (who is Trevor himself) holding a fish.

Returning to the scene that occurred, unexplained, in the background during the opening credit roll, 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." The hangman game on his refrigerator has filled in the letters as "Killer." 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 totalled. Every interaction he has had with Maria, Nicholas and Ivan has been fictional, a hallucination brought on by extreme insomnia and repressed guilt. Finally, Trevor arrives at the police station, escorted by an encouraging but silent Ivan, to confess to his crime and at long last falls asleep in a holding cell.

Reception

"The Machinist" was well received critically with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 73% of the critics' reviews tallied were positive. [cite web
title = The Machinist (2004)
work = Rotten Tomatoes
publisher = IGN Entertainment
url = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/machinist/
accessdate = 2008-03-24]

Cast

ee also

*Twist ending
*Cinema of Spain

References

External links

* [http://www.themachinistthemovie.com/ Filmax Site]
*imdb title|id=0361862|title=The Machinist
*rotten-tomatoes|id=machinist|title=The Machinist