On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 18:20:06 -0800, skuke wrote:

On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 17:46:42 -0800, RainLover wrote:

I was just curious. I suspect that the readers here aren't the
regular art house, movie-going crowd here, but I'm wondering if anyone
else saw "The Machinist"?

This post is more about artsy-fartsy crap, but since the movie *IS*
about a machinist, and since a person gets his arm ripped off in a
machine, I figure it's "on topic" enough.

It's been haunting me for over a week now.


THANKS!!

James, Seattle



I saw it the other night.

I liked it as a type of movie that needed to be discussed with friends
afterwards over some coffee (to help get that insomnia started). We wanted
to try and understand what/why/how the lead machinist went through and if it
was even remotely possible. How much sleep deprivation could a person
handle? How are the prisoners in Git-mo handling the sleep
deprivation/torture?

I haven't seen the movie , but I know what sleep deprivation can do.
After about a week you become delusional where vivid dreams become
instant reality when closing your eyes. Like watching the real world
and slowly blinking and then seeing say horses running wild and then
right back to the real world when you open them. You start seeing the
world kind of like the movie the matrix where solid objects become
particles of energy. Like grout joints racing with energy in different
colors. After 10 days it becomes almost indescribable with long time
repercussions kind of like post traumatic syndrome. Don't ask why I
know this and it has nothing to do with drugs , but I would assume
that they most likely compound the delusions where you wouldn't be
able to tell the difference between real and dreams.

I didn't like it as a "who done it" thriller movie. I thought the director
gave too much away and was fairly predictable. Not predictable to the very
end, but he gave enough clues away so that I wasn't very surprised by
anything that happened. It was as if Hitchcock directed it after a
sleepless night and hungover.

The movie did leave me with an uneasy, gritty feeling afterwards and I'm
glad I went to see it with a machinist friend rather than with my wife.
Thinking more about the movie now, I'm getting that "haunting" feeling again
that you're experiencing.

I am a tad perturbed about the title. It could have been called The
Sanitation Worker, The Editor, The Accountant, The Plumber... the fact that
he was a machinist was not really important. The character could have been
anybody and certain situations (like arm ripping in a machine) could have
easily been changed to suit the profession. The theme had nothing to do
with his occupation. So while I saw the movie because it was about a
machinist rather than a plumber, I felt a little misled by the title.

Overall, I give it a thumbs up and would recommend it to most people. I
wouldn't take queasy people.