The Machinist
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| The Machinist | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for The Machinist |
|
| Directed by | Brad Anderson |
| 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 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Machinist is a 2004 psychological thriller, written by Scott Kosar, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Christian Bale.
Tagline:
- A little guilt goes a long way...
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Trevor Reznik (Bale) is an industrial machinist who has not slept for a year. He 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 an accident that costs a man, Miller (Michael Ironside), his left arm. Trevor, distracted by an unfamiliar coworker named Ivan (Sharian), bears the blame for the accident. No one at the factory admits knowing "Ivan", however, and there are no records that he was ever 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 Marie (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, for which he is fired. Trevor is no longer able to think clearly, and begins to suspect that the bizarre events in his life are a concerted effort to drive him insane. He nevertheless attempts to establish a tentative romantic relationship with Marie. Meeting her at an amusement park, Trevor accompanies her son Nicholas on a grotesque funhouse ride 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 Trevor ultimately fears may be blood.
After several unsuccessful attempts at confronting Ivan, Trevor tries to trace him through his licence plate, he follows Ivan to gain access of his licence plate just before his petrol runs out. When the DMV clerk insists that he cannot release personal information unless a crime has been committed, Trevor flings himself in front of a car in order to accuse Ivan of striking him and leaving the scene. After filing a police report with the plate number, the battered Trevor is dumbfounded when the investigator tells him that the car in question is his own: Trevor reported the vehicle destroyed 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. 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," in an anguished voice as he realises that he and Ivan are the same person: the driver in a hit-and-run car accident a year ago in which Marie's son Nicolas was killed. After the accident, Trevor fled the scene and disposed of his car. The guilt and shame he managed to push into his subconscious mind about the boy's death have caused his insomnia, drastic weight loss, and hallucinations. Trevor has invented not only Ivan as a manifestation of his responsibility for the accident, but also an imaginary relationship with Marie, the mother of the boy he killed. He turns himself in to the police and at long last falls asleep in a holding cell.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Christian Bale | Trevor Reznik |
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | Stevie |
| George Harris | Morty |
| 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
- 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. Reznik's imagined alter ego 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.
- Christian Bale starved himself for over 4 months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 110 pounds. He later regained the weight, plus an additional 40 pounds due to weightlifting, in preparation for his role in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
- The film contains many references to "sinister," in both the modern sense ("ominous / evil") and the ancient sense ("left / unlucky"):
- Both Miller and Ivan have damaged left hands.
- Ivan is standing on the left in the photo.
- Ivan's left eye is a bright blue while the other is dark brown.
- Marie's kitchen is "last door on the left".
- Stevie's bruise is on the left side of her face.
- The hangman game progresses from right to left.
- The lye or bleach is always to the left of whatever sink Trevor uses.
- On three occasions, Trevor encounters a "fork" in the road--in the "Route 666" ride, in the sewer, and when traveling to the airport ("Airport" vs. "Downtown"); the "left" (sinister) path is always darker and more dangerous, and each time Trevor chooses to follow it except for the last time, he chooses right (downtown, "salvation").
- Ivan's car number plate is 347 CRN, while Trevor's is the reverse: NRC 743.
- Harold Sunthorpe of the Metcalf Film Review described Christian Bale's physicality in the film as "like being caressed by a natural yoghurt"
- 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".
- Despite being set in a West Coast American city, the film was shot in its entirety in, or just outside of, Barcelona, Spain.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Fischer, Russ (2004-10-13). Interview: Brad Anderson. chud.com. Retrieved on 13 October 2006.
