The Machinist

Starring:Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana SÃ¡nchez-GijÃ³n, John Sharian, Michael Ironside, Larry Gilliard Jr., Reg E. Cathey, Anna Massey, Matthew Romero Moore, Robert Long (VII), Colin Stinton, Craig Stevenson, Ferran Lahoz, Jeremy Xidu, Norman Bell, Nancy Crane, Richard Torrington, Buffy Davis (II), Reg Wilson, Ramon CamÃn
Director: Brad Anderson (II)
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

As a bleak and chilling mood piece, The Machinist gets under your skin and stays there. Christian Bale threw himself into the title role with such devotion that he shed an alarming 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik (talk about "starving artist"!), a factory worker who hasn't slept in a year. He's haunted by some mysterious occurrence that turned him into a paranoid husk, sleepwalking a fine line between harsh reality and nightmare fantasy--a state of mind that leaves him looking disturbingly gaunt and skeletal in appearance. (It's no exaggeration to say that Bale resembles a Holocaust survivor from vintage Nazi-camp liberation newsreels.) In a cinematic territory far removed from his 1998 romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland, director Brad Anderson orchestrates a grimy, nocturnal world of washed-out blues and grays, as Trevor struggles to assemble the clues of his psychological conundrum. With a friendly hooker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and airport waitress (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) as his only stable links to sanity, Trevor reaches critical mass and seems ready to implode just as The Machinist reveals its secrets. For those who don't mind a trip to hell with a theremin-laced soundtrack, The Machinist seems primed for long-term status as a cult thriller on the edge. --Jeff Shannon

Description

THE MACHINIST is the story of Trevor Reznik, a machinist who hasn't slept in over a year. Working in a machine shop, Trevor faces the usual occupational hazards, yet his extreme fatigue only makes them worse, causing him to accidentally cut off a co-worker's hand. What Trevor suffers from clearly isn't a typical case of insomnia…

Customer Reviews:

Have to admit, I didnt' like it at first..........2007-06-14

After watching it a few times, I can appreciate what they were trying to do with this film. If you can, watch it when you're really, really, really tired.

A film with some serious atmosphere.......2007-06-14

Christian Bale's Trevor Reznik hasn't slept in a year. He's so thin you can see his ribs and spine. His main social interactions are with his regular call girl and the waitress at the local airport late-night diner. He's obsessed with cleaning his body and house with bleach.

As the movie opens, we see a husk of a man inhabiting the grimy, industrial streets of a coastal city. Reznik is a machinist, and lately he's been seeing a new guy at work that no one else can see. Reznik is obviously hiding from some traumatic even in his past, and the movie consists of the unfolding of the jigaw puzzle of his life. The Machinist is an atmospheric movie, one that will transport you to a waking-nightmare state of dark colors, somber music, and a general haziness between reality and horror.

The best movie ever!!!!!!!.......2007-05-20

I love this movie to death!!!!! My favorite type of movies are suspense movies and this one reigns supreme. I consider myself pretty smart,but this movie had me confused in the beginning. I had no clue, which is what makes this movie great!!! And Christian Bale....EXCELLENT!!! Now, everytime I watch it, I pick up more clues. It's a masterpiece and I highly recommended to anyone who like to challenge their brain!

NERVOUSLY BRILLIANT.......2007-05-03

It had been a while since a movie shocked me. "The Machinist" is about a man who can't sleep. He is the thinnest man you might ever see for two odd hours. You might wonder if that is reason enough for you to watch this film and that is precisely why I took me a while to finally watch it. I like films that are based solely around one character but The Machinist is something else. I thought it would be easy to write a review for this film. Well, it's about time I start mine.

I liked "Fight Club" but didn't like "Memento" too much and I thought "Seven" was good while I thought "Lucky Number Slevin" insulted movies. Some of these films werent as good as the others. The more popular ones had one or two characters to keep you interested. I liked Machinist because it had everything a character should be and more. In Trevor Reznik's heart resides a man of much mystery, intrigue and forgetfulness.

I mean, 11 minutes into the film I knew I was going to love it. It is a masterpiece because it has to be watched again to be appreciated and understood. Some might argue and find faults - too bad for them. Overall, much like my fellow readers who've written very good reviews for the Machinist, I felt the background score was truly magnificent while the semi-lucid conscience of characters had it's own charm.

The Machinist will grab your nerve and noodle it. Easily among my top 15 films of all time and I just saw it a week back. I will now go and watch every film by Christian Bale (loved Prestige) and meanwhile you should go watch The Machinist. Not to forget, fans of "Secret Window" might like this film,too.

My Rating -> 9.5/10

What's Eating Trevor Reznik?.......2007-04-16

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"The Machinist" is a very interesting film with a simply stunning performance from Christian Bale as Trevor - what he did was amazing and I mean not only his physical transformation that by itself was a real sacrifice an actor can commit for his Art. Besides Bale's performance, the film is masterfully directed and what is very important, clever written. It is one of few films that get under your skin and stay there. The ending was very satisfying and put all pieces of the puzzle together.

I read and heard that the film is a combination of "Memento", "Fight Club", "Angel Heart", Insomnia", "Thinner", and "Identity". "The Machinist" may bring all these pictures to memory but it is a masterfully crafted and compelling study of one man's journey from his crime to the punishment where he himself was a criminal, a victim, a prosecutor, and the executioner. (Trevor read the wrong Dostoevsky's novel - he should have read "Crime and Punishment") The one film I was reminded of while watching "The Machinist" - David Cronenberg's "Spider". Both films take place in the atmosphere of confusion, paranoia, guilt, and unbearable terror and both have the unforgettable performances by Christian Bale and Ralph Fiennes as two very disturbed individuals.

Average customer rating:

Amazing...
(CAUTION SPOILERS)

Machinist-Special Edition [Region 2]
Starring: Christian Bale , Jennifer Jason Leigh , and Brad Anderson
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DTS | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

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Customer Reviews:

Amazing..........2007-02-23

I love Brad Anderson. His low-key directing style along with Christian Bale's magnificent acting make one helluva combination. Michael Ironside is equally entertaining, but then, when is he not? I absolutely loved Session 9, and this is sort-of similar, if only in the way it manipulates your mind. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers and/or intelligent horror movies, this one (and Session 9!) should definitely be in your collection. As an aside, I don't think Hollywood had much to do with this movie, and I'm fairly certain that it's not to be taken as a documentary on psychosis, as the above critic would have you believe.

(CAUTION SPOILERS).......2006-12-10

This is an awesome film. Really! It is the quintessential psychotic episode portrayed by the guy who has no medication, is unknowing, has no formal diagnosis and no where to run. He slowly but so vividly spirals down the stair steps of the dark pit into raw and pure insanity. The movie portrays his footsteps ingeniously. And indeed Bale acts this out magnificently. We again have the ingenious use of a delusional and visual hallucination antagonist, like which was so beautifully utilized in Fight Club. It shouts out his paranoid delusional mental state and visual unreal images that so lusciously define authentic psychosis.

Ah, but this plot line has grown so old over the years, but for Fight Club, Secret Window, Beau Mind, Fisher King, Donny's Little Darko, etc. I mean, how much mileage does Hollywood seriously expect to get out of this?

And of course, Hollywood has its typical slant. Well, and because psychosis is not a "respectable" illness, like cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes or broken neck paralysis. No... Hollywood has thought this out long and hard and has deemed that mental illness is the gutter illness. So the film is fraught with all kinds of the typical mental illness gutter stereotypes, like bale's live-in-hooker and his homicidal tendencies - like all mentally ill people have them - and why are we all homicidal? Well because Hollywood says so, that's why! And of course homicidal, mentally ill psychotic people are what makes Hollywood money. And we're talking lots of money. Well and actors too. Just ask Bale.

Come on Hollywood, give us something more. You can do better than this. Next time, why don't you throw in the 3 day involuntary commitment, or that a 10 mg dose of tongue dissolvable Zyprexa pops you out of this type of insanity in about 3 hours and gets us back to 50% from a 0%. Or the years and years of counseling that it takes to get yourself back to about 60%. Or the Social Security Disability that many of us will have to get on. Or the 20% that commit suicide with this type of illness. Or that our spouses will divorce us because of it. I mean, after all, this film is about the 1 percent of the population who has paranoid schizophrenia (2.5 million US people) and the 1 percent of the population who has paranoid psychotic bipolar I (another 2.5 million US people), and the 1 percent of the population who has depression with psychotic features (another 2.5 million US people), and the 500,000 mothers who have post-partum psychosis. Yea, this film is about the oppression of about 8 million US people.

Next time, show the real story and the real suffering that all of us go through every day. Please quit running us through your Hollywood gutter. A lot of us are respectable individuals with a severe chronic incurable mental illness. And most of us are balancing 5 different medications just to survive it. We didn't ask for this crap. Some of us are even airborne rangers. Next time, show the real deal, and then we'll all give you more than 1 star. Have a nice day!

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