The Machinist – Dark and Disturbing (Maquinista, El)
THE MACHINIST is the story of TREVOR REZNIK, a lathe-operator who is dying of insomnia. In a machine shop, occupational hazards are bad enough under normal circumstances; yet for Trevor the risks are compounded by fatigue. Trevor has lost the ability to sleep. This is no ordinary insomnia...
The Machinist is a great movie (it rolls in with a 7.7 on IMDB at time of writing), I only came to find out about it as it was shown on the 'International' screens at GSC, and the poster looked intruiging. Christian Bale is almost unrecognisable from his bulky muslce-bound Batman figure.
Christian Bale lost an amazing 63 lbs. for this role, making himself into a skeletal shell of 120 lbs. for his creepy potrayal of Reznik in this movie.
I will say though, this is definately not mainstream popcorn cinema, if you like films like Memento, Pi, Magnolia, Donnie Darko and Saw, then you will like this. The story plods a little, but you have to appreciate the sheer genius of the cinematography, character development and directing. It is very Hithcock-esque in parts, and has a bit of a Hitchcock feel to the whole thing.
It's basically a story of a man, a machinist (operating heavy factory machinery) who having terrible insonmia hasn't slept for a year, he loses weight rapidly, and starts to lose his grip on reality, he doesn't know what is real and what is not, a scary devilish character with a wicked grin shows up to torment him more (Ivan).
The movie establishes new plotlines and new characters so smoothly you don't feel any transition, it is I would say fairly much a masterpeice.
If you are into Brittney Spears and Spice Girls movies however, I'd say you should probably avoid this.
I would give it a very good 8/10, it's a movie that will stay with you.
Tags: christian-bale, films, Movie-Review, Movies, paranoia, the machinist
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15 Comments so far
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this movie is awesome. bale's acting deserves an oscar or something for this movie in addition to his physical transformation. i mean it's easy to gain weight (the monster), add more nose (the hours) but to lose 30+ kilos? woah! the only person i remember who could top that is adrien brody (the pianist), he lost loads of weight AND learnt the piano.
hey, i'm not much more than 120 lbs. cis
yea when i watched the dvd, my gawd he spooked me. so bloody thin!! very disturbing film indeed. so dark.
If I remember my University Psychology (Which I beleive I do), paranoia and halucinations normally kick in after day eight from people who have had no sleep.
I'm surprised that the movie allows him to go one year before he gets these things (or is it implied he might have been loosing his grip on reality before it begins) I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not sure how it all fits together. Just making the comment based on my understanding of the description (so forgive me if it is incorrectly understood).
Sounds like my sort of movie though.
The secret to Trevor Reznik's diet is apple and tuna only.
Now I cannot see myself just eating that. Damn.
Bale is a great actor, come on, give the man an Oscar alrady! anyone watched American Psycho? and yeah, his physique is really disturbing, on par with De Niro's weight gain in Raging Bull...
Better than Emily Rose?
Seen the movie too. Very good and recommended. Not your average movie though.
yeah very nice indeed... one of my fav movie btw ST have u watch "City of God"?that is my top 5 movie =)
i shall hail bale as my most respected individual for the century... losing 30kgs just like that.. and i'm having problems shedding even 1kg...
cis!
If you didn't sleep for a year you would die. So the movie itself can't be very factual.
Whoa! He looks damn creepy. I'm watching this.
this is 1 amazing film . On par with fight club . Good recommendation ST!
Using
This film is a great study of the effect of guilt. Gorgeous cinematography. Bale's acting is top notch. He went for Batman Begins audition in that body and i have to salute Christopher Nolan for believing in Bale's capability.
Using
[...] This is a truly allstar cast mixing new talent with old, pitting Hugh Jackman (Robert Angier) and Christian Bale (Alfred Borden) against each other is a work of genius, both have already proved themselves with movies such as X-men and Batman Begins and even more so for Bale with the haunting The Machinist. [...]