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Title:
The Machinist
Region:
One
Genre:
Psychological Thriller
Stars:
Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gjon, John Sharian, and
Michael Ironside
Writer:
Scott Kosar
Director:
Brad Anderson
Feature
length: 101 minutes
Extras:
Director’s Commentary, Featurette, Deleted and Alternate Scenes, Theatrical
Trailer, Home Video Previews
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 15
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2004/DVD Release: 2005
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Classics
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“A little guilt goes long way…” – Trevor Reznik
Christian Bale slimmed down to 110 pounds to portray the troubled machinist Trevor Reznik in the film of the same name “The Machinist.” Trevor claims to have not slept in a whole year and aside from a late night regular chat with a waitress at an airport diner and sessions with a prostitute (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Trevor leads bleak and lonely life of self-denial and bizarre ritual. He constantly washes his hands with bleach and scrubs bleach onto his bathroom floor with a toothbrush. After an accident where Trevor’s fatigue caused one of his factory co-workers (Michael Ironside) to lose a limb, Trevor begins to suspect someone is playing an elaborate trick on him with mysterious and cryptic notes in his apartment and visions of a grotesque co-worker haunting him. Convinced someone is trying to make him go insane, Trevor embarks on a quest to find out the truth no matter where it leads.
“The
Machinist” is a disturbing psychological thriller that calls to mind the works
of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch as well as Alan Parker’s “Angel
Heart.” The film has a look as if it took place in two different worlds.
Trevor’s world is pale and sickly in appearance with dreary greens and bright
whites while the locations of those where Trevor interactions are somewhat free
of his trauma, are quite colorful and somewhat lively. There are plenty of hints
in the film that will have the viewer assuming they know what the outcome is
going to be and yet the screenplay by Scott Kosar and screen direction by Brad
Anderson (Session 9) are smart enough to always leave a little bit of doubt as
to whether or not what we are seeing is real or imagined. Once one has completed
Trevor’s journey by watching the film through to it’s conclusion, “The
Machinist” is worth a second or even a third look to catch the clues one might
miss the first time around. In fact, much like “Session 9,” a second viewing
yields a completely different experience, but no less disturbing. I have to hand
it to Director Brad Anderson, he knows how to make a good thriller and he is
able to do so without relying on excessive gore. I thought “Session 9” was
one of the most disturbing ghost story/psychological thrillers I had ever seen
and true to form, Anderson’s “The Machinist” creeped me out too, but I
have to say that while it did disturb me, I thought it was a great thriller and
perhaps one of the best of it’s type that I have seen since “Session 9.”
I
am not entirely sure if it is in the screen direction, the writing, or both, but
Brad Anderson appears to be able to tap into a primal area of the brain where
shadowy images and tricks with light have a profound effect on the viewer’s
psyche. It is almost as if he kept a record of everything that scared him as a
child and then took the most subtle bits to infuse his films with them to create
a feeling of being lost in the dark and the silent terror that can accompany it.
Mr.
Anderson provides an articulate audio commentary for the film as well as some
select comments on certain deleted and alternate scenes where he discusses
Christian Bale’s dramatic weight loss for the film, the location shooting in
Spain where another abandoned mental hospital was used to shoot certain
interiors. He comments that it gave him a certain amount of comfort because it
reminded him of his on location filming for “Session 9.” He discusses the
casting of the film, which included John Sharian as “Ivan,” a figure that
seems to hold they key to Trevor’s conscience in the film. Anderson also
references the works of Kafka and other writers as well as Hitchcock frequently
as inspirations for the film. All in all this is a very interesting and detailed
audio commentary well worth listening to after viewing the film.
Other
extra value features include eight letterboxed deleted and alternate scenes that
can be viewed individually or with a “play all” option (9:50) as well as a
behind the scenes featurette (25:18), where Christian Bale states he appeared in
the film because this is something he’d want to see, and the theatrical
trailer (2:32). In addition, home video previews for other Paramount Classics
titles now available on DVD that include “Mean Creak”, “Enduring Love”,
“Suspect Zero”, and “Schultze Gets The Blues” (9:13) are available to
the viewer to examine. These previews also appear before the main menu for the
film. All of the DVD menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy
to navigate.
The
film is presented with a beautiful anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio
that preserves the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically as close
as possible for home video users and the DVD also features an atmospheric
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix. An English Dolby Surround
Soundtrack and English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as
English Subtitles are encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options too.
“The
Machinist” will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, June 7, 2005 at retailers on
and offline courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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