Hasitha Fernando on the story behind The Machinist as it turns 20…
Any fan of Christian Bale’s body of work would be familiar with The Machinist and that’d be because of the infamous and extreme physical transformation the talented actor underwent for that specific role. But the movie is much more than a simple gimmick in that it explores complex themes pertaining to loneliness, mental illness and the importance of companionship during troubled times. As the twisty turny psychological thriller hits 20, we look back at what went on during the making of the film…
Scott Kosar wrote the screenplay as a spec script straight out of UCLA
Before his career bloomed Scott Kosar was a screenwriter fresh out of the graduate screenwriting program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Wanting to try his luck Kosar crafted a spec script which he then shopped around to various film studios and industry producers. This spec script was none other than the screenplay for The Machinist. Kosar’s fledgling effort, although considered overwhelmingly dark caught the attention of producer-director Michael Bay who hired the writer to pen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remake that would be bankrolled by Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes.
The box-office success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which at that time made it the highest-grossing installment of the franchise, spurred Bay to collaborate with Kosar once again for the remake of The Amityville Horror which also went on to become moderate success. Other credits to Kosar’s name are the critically lauded The Crazies remake and writer-producer stints on A & E’s Bates Motel and Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House.
The story was influenced by Russian novels & Scott Kosar’s love for the Nine Inch Nails
Having Russian novel and Nine Inch Nails in the same sentence is weird enough but to have these disparate sources function as influences for one story certainly takes the proverbial cake, but that is exactly what happened when Scott Kosar was crafting the spec script for The Machinist. Kosar was heavily influenced by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s works and more specifically his novel The Double. The screenwriter’s admiration for Dostoyevsky can be seen in the many Easter Eggs and nods we come across during the course of the film including Trevor Reznik reading Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot and Reznik’s ‘mysterious friend’ being named Ivan like in The Brothers Karamazov. Scott Kosar’s love for Nine Inch Nails is also evident in the movie as the film’s protagonist is named after Nine Inch Nail’s frontman Trent Reznor. Kossar’s original draft even had a quote from one of their song’s lyrics on the very first page.
The movie would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud
The Machinist is Brad Anderson’s most notable work to date despite churning out decent efforts such as TransSiberian, Vanishing on 7th Street and The Call every few years or so. From the get-go Anderson wanted his film to evoke the same visual expressionism as in 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and 1922’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. In the end however, Anderson ended up crafting a movie that possessed a very distinctive feel that was eerily reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s works.
Seeing these similarities Anderson compiled a ‘temp track’ that was full of Bernard Herrmann’s music and instructed the movie’s composer Roque Baños to follow in maestro Herrmann’s footsteps and compose an appropriately tension filled, haunting score. There is also a nod to Miklós Rózsa’s Oscar-winning contribution to Hitchcock’s Spellbound released in 1945 from Baños through the use of the musical instrument known as the theremin.
Christian Bale’s much talked about physical transformation
Christian Bale has been known for taking his roles very seriously including going into great lengths to alter his physical appearance to suit the performance. For American Psycho Bale got into terrific shape within a matter of weeks to play the self-absorbed investment banker who led a double life as a murderous psychopath. In order to play Trevor Reznik, Bale strenuously dieted for a period of four months prior to the commencement of the shoot and according to a biography penned by one of his ex-assistant’s this diet consisted of “water, an apple and one cup of coffee per day, with an occasional shot of whiskey”.
As a result of this extreme diet Bale lost 62 pounds (28kg), reducing his total body weight to 120 pounds (54kg). Bale wanted to continue this trend to cut down his weight to 99 pounds (45kg) but Brad Anderson wouldn’t allow it due to the risk it posed to Bale’s health. At the conclusion of filming Bale had only six weeks to once again regain enough muscle mass in order to screen test for his now iconic role of Batman in Batman Begins. The actor achieved this by weight lifting consistently and binge eating pizzas and ice cream. Not a bad reward, all things considered.
Shooting in Barcelona posed its fair share of complications
As no major studio was willing to bankroll this risky project the movie was ultimately produced by a Spanish company and was shot entirely in Barcelona, Spain. Since the story takes place in Los Angeles the production designers had to painstakingly recreate the look and feel of many an “everyday Americana” item so as to be accurate to the setting from a story-telling perspective. Because of this entire streets, all forms of signage, automobiles and their license plates were changed where the movie was being shot, which sometimes took place in “some of the worst areas of Barcelona” according to screenwriter Scott Kosar.
One of the conditions of the Spanish production company was to cast a Spanish actor in a lead role. To fulfil this requirement the producers cast Aitana Sánchez-Gijón to play Marie, the waitress at the airport coffee shop. The actress certainly brought a lot of emotion and depth to her performance which complimented what Bale brought to the proceedings perfectly.
Receiving critical praise & achieving cult status
Made on a less-then-modest budget of $5 million The Machinist went on to make a decent $8.2 million which was certainly impressive considering the limited theatrical release that it had. In review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes the movie has a score of 77% based on 142 reviews and an average rating of 6.6/10. The critical consensus describes the movie in the following manner: “Brad Anderson’s dark psychological thriller about a sleepless factory worker is elevated by Christian Bale’s astonishingly committed performance”. Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert also wrote a glowing review of it giving the effort three out of four stars and writing the following, “The director Brad Anderson, working from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness. The photography by Xavi Gimenez and Charlie Jiminez is cold slates, blues and grays, the palate of despair. We see Trevor’s world so clearly through his eyes that only gradually does it occur to us that every life is seen through a filter”.
The movie’s popularity too increased with the passage of time and this had a lot do with the meteoric rise of its lead actor Christian Bale who went on to play Batman in the critically lauded The Dark Knight trilogy and established himself further as a talent to be reckoned with by winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in David O. Russell’s 2010 biographical sports drama The Fighter. His acclaimed performances in movies like American Hustle, The Big Short, Vice and Ford v Ferrari showered only cemented his super star status in Hollywood. In a career that spans multiple decades and a multitude of astonishing movies Christian Bale has proved himself to be one of our generation’s finest actors and The Machinist has proved to be one of his most unforgettable efforts to be put on film.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
