The Machinist (also known as El Maquinista) is an English-language Spanish-made 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).
Plot
Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is a machinist who has had chronic insomnia for a year and has progressively lost weight to the point where he has become severely emaciated. 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 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, ideas which are fed by small clues, such as a picture of Ivan and one of Trevor's old co-workers fishing. 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 destroyed one year ago.
He runs from the baffled policemen and finds Stevie, who clothes and washes him. However, Trevor finds the picture of Ivan fishing in her home and accuses her of conspiring against him. Stevie replies that the picture is of him, but Trevor refuses to believe it. After a short fight, Trevor is thrown out.
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 dead fish. His mind then flashes to a picture that he has of Reynolds, a man he worked with, and Ivan (who is Trevor himself) holding a fish.
The scene then returns to one which occurred during the opening credit roll, in which Trevor tries to dispose of someone's corpse (presumably Ivan's), rolling it in a rug and struggling to cast it into the ocean. When the rug unravels, there is nothing inside. Ivan, very much alive, appears holding a flashlight, 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 use the car's cigarette lighter. The boy's mother, who he knows as Maria the waitress, was present; Trevor fled the scene. Finally, Trevor arrives at the police station, escorted by an encouraging but silent Ivan, to confess to his crime; Trevor at long last falls asleep in a holding cell.
Production
Bale lost more than 60 pounds (27 kg) for his role in
The Machinist.
Despite its setting in a West Coast American city, the film was shot in its entirety in and near Barcelona, Spain.
Christian Bale starved himself for over four 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).[2] According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54 kg). Bale wanted to go down to 100 pounds (45 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, and proper eating, in preparation for his role in Batman Begins.
Brad Anderson hurt his back during filming and directed much of the film while lying on a gurney.[3]
Dostoyevsky influence
Reznik means "butcher" in Czech language, which could hint at his identity as a killer. 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.[3] Other NIN tributes include the reversed N on the movie poster and early press articles describing Reznik as experiencing a "downward spiral".
However, the strongest influence is the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In the DVD commentary, Scott Kosar states that he was influenced by Dostoyevsky's The Double: A Petersburg Poem. The character Reznik is shown reading Dostoyevsky's The Idiot early in the film. When Reznik is riding the "Route 666" attraction, one of the faux movie marquees reads Crime and Punishment. Reznik's physical appearance draws a distinct parallel to Hans Holbein's Christ in his Tomb; a painting that heavily influenced, and is often mentioned, in the novel. Nicholas, the epileptic boy, may also have been a reference to the novel's protagonist, Prince Myshkin, or even a reference to Dostoyevsky himself, both of whom suffered from epilepsy.
Another character, named Ivan, is a possible reference to the character Ivan Karamazov, who is wracked with guilt, goes insane and has nightmares of the devil in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.
Reznik's relationship with the prostitute Stevie is reminiscent of the underground man's relationship with Liza in Notes from Underground. His behavior — paranoia, extreme suppressed guilt and finally turning himself in to the police — is also reminiscent of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment who also has a liberating experience with a prostitute named Sonya.
Reception
The Machinist was well received critically with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75% of the critics' reviews tallied were positive.[4]
Cast
See also
References
External links
