AP Analysis of The Machinist (Brad Anderson, 2004)

Genre

• The Machinist is a psychological thriller about a man who after not having slept for a year starts to question his sanity. However, there are several film noir elements to the opening sequence.

• The audience's generic expectations of a film of this genre are definitely fulfilled in this opening. It portrays the main character Trevor rolling up a body in a carpet. The audience is positioned as a witness to this crime and we see this action unfold through a window which gives the opening an element of film noir.
• As the typical audience of a psychological thriller we are allowed to let our minds run wild to imagine how the dishevelled character we are introduced to, and his story, will develop. 

Media Audiences

• The likely target audience of The Machinist is that of the Curzon Crowd (24-35), the more intellectul 'art-house' audience who want to be active in their viewing and The Machinist definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how further Trevor's sanity will be questioned.

• The possible audience reading of this opening could be that it follows the typical gender stereotypes of men being strong and in control however, the probable audience reading of this text would challenge the stereotype because Trevor appears emaciated and unstable which mirrors how the audience could perceive this film.

• As a British teenager I find this opening typical of the psychological thrillers I have researched. They all successfully use the idea of conflict of the mind to connote a sense of disorientation, insecurity and uncertainty. 

• As a female I have noticed that most psychological thrillers use men as the main character while women are used as the sympathetic stock characters. The only exception I have found in my research is that of Mulholland Drive where the main character is female.

Institutional Context 

• Christian Bale has been selected for the main character in this film. He is a bankable star and is an acclaimed actor when it comes to the thriller genre. He has starred in several other psychological thriller films such as American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000) and  The Prestige (Nolan, 2006).

• The Machinist was produced by the Fantastic Factory label of Filmax Entertainment and Casteleao Productions which is an independent Spanish company that has a focus on international productions. It was distributed, however, by Paramount Classics or Paramount Vantage which specialises in distributing more 'art-house' type films. 

• Nonetheless, it only grossed $1,082,715 worldwide after starting out with a $5,000,000 budget. Even though The Machinist was distributed by Paramount Classics it was only released on 3 screen in the USA. The largest amount of screens it was released on was 116 screens in Italy. 

• Overall I don't believe that this film was marketed properly when it was in it's infancy. I think that it had a lot of potential to be a box-office hit even if it is more of an independent film. It could have been the next Donnie Darko.