The Machinist Movie - Essay Example

It looks at the protagonist of the movie and looks into the reason why this person cannot get any sleep and is frequently attacked by severe paranoia. This is important because catharsis is natural but when people start hiding from their own emotions, sometimes they have to face severe consequences. In this movie, the protagonist, Trevor Reznik is an average male working at National Machines, a manufacturing facility that builds machine parts. One year back, he hits a little boy on the road with his car while reaching for the cigarette burner.

He drives away in his car demonstrating a classic example of ‘hit and run’. Although he escapes but this incident gets to him and he is unable to get any sleep. His body does steal a few moments of sleep when he is unaware but these comforting moments last only for seconds and he wakes up again. He tries to bury the whole road accident inside his head but he remains unsuccessful. Running away from the scene of the accident was his instinctive self-defense mechanism but keeping it in him without sharing was a bigger mistake where he went against nature.

The insomnia starts eating away Trevor’s peace of mind and he is never really awake as he starts hallucinating and imagining different things. He tries to lock up severe emotions inside him. He never talks to anyone about the road accident but he is unable to get rid of this memory that has stuck in his thought cycle. He reflects to a prostitute that he hasn’t slept in over a year. Moreover, he loses his body mass considerably. He starts looking sick, like a drug addict. He is unable to perform his job without getting into trouble.

He is having troubles living a normal life all because the guilt is making him abnormal. But more troubles are yet to come as his hallucinations begin and he gets shocked at seeing normal things such as car cigarette burner, which reminds him of the road accident. He doesn’t get memory flashbacks when he sees the cigarette lighter but he remembers that such a piece of equipment is significant somehow. His subconscious still tries to bring out that memory but he suppresses it and this conflict represses such memories.

He gets the feeling that something is there but he never gets to know what exactly it is that is bothering him. He starts seeing this big fat man, Ivan, who is also a projection of his mind and not a real human. This big fat and mean looking person is only a reflection of himself. That is how he sees himself as a repulsive fat person. This is another attempt of his subconscious mind to relive the trauma that he is hiding from. He has tried so hard to forget the accident that his conscious memory has actually forgotten it but his subconscious hasn’t forgotten it.

That is why it tries to push out those feelings, visions and emotions that Trevor is running away from. He sees Ivan as if he is standing right in front of him and he nearly kills a man because of this delusion; His co-worker Miller asks him to help him with the machine, Miller starts fixing the machine while Trevor assists him, during that instant, Trevor sees Ivan and accidently hits the machine switch, turning it on, Miller loses his left arm as he is unable to free himself even after struggling.

His delusional persona Ivan, makes a gesture right before this accident happens, he makes a ‘slit throat’ sign at him most probably pointing at what he had done in the past. He frequently visits the cafe