The Machinist is a psychologist movie produced in 2004 by directors Brad Anderson and starred Christian Bale. The movie revolves around character Christian Bale (Trevor Reznik) acting name, who works in a machine parts shop and is a frequent visitor at airport café at night. The movie opens up with credits where Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is heard grappling with something large and heavy. Reznik drives hos red sport-car near a dam and appears to be carrying a wrapped body ready for disposal. At one point, someone approached holding a flashlight as the carpet unrolls ( Anderson, 2004) . The man catches up with him and says, "who are you?". Reznik washes his hands with bleach in the bathroom sink, and upon looking up the mirror, he sees a post written: "who are you?" The emaciated body of Reznik is revealed the comment of Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) after they finished making love. Reznik is a machinist who used to follow all the rules outlined in the OSHA and used to socialize well with his colleagues until now that he looks disturbed and lonely. A waitress at the airport Marie (Aitana Sánchez Gijón) also looked concerned about the emaciated body of Renziak and want to know why he appears at the airport very late at night ( Anderson, 2004) . It is after he returns to Marie that he reveals he has not slept in one year. Every day the condition of Reznik gets worse until a workplace incidence happened to alienate him from coworkers. He finds a piece of paper at his apartments, which makes him believe someone is trailing him. Through the use of a phantom employee named Ivan, Reznik goes in search of evidence to understand the cause of his insomnia. Reznik follows Ivan, everywhere he went hoping to get an understanding of who he was and the reason he was chasing after him sending him messages like "I know who you are ?” and “ER” ( Anderson, 2004) . The film ends with character Trevor having understood that his guilty of hitting a child, threw him in a dam, and destroyed his red sport-care, which was evidence been searched by the police. The movie ends with Reznik in prison relaxed and ready to sleep after a year of nightmares.
Connect Media to Psychology
Media, especially films, play a crucial role in featuring characters possessing symptoms of various psychological disorders. The movie The Machinist is a haunting psychological thriller whose main character displays symptoms of several mental disorders, with the main one being insomnia. Across the film, Christian Bale things to the extreme in the embodiment of his character. The movie reveals psychological tortures that an individual goes through while trying to understand their past and come in terms with reality. Reznik portrays his character effectively from his near-starvation body mass, which brings tension as the audience explores further the cause of his emaciation ( Fielding, 2016) . Across the movie, Reznik begins to doubt his sanity due to the increase in bizarre things around him at work and home. Across the video, it gets clear that Reznik is struggling to come in terms with events that happened at the beginning of the film, where he caused hit and run. The events cause him to develop paranoia and incidents ( Anderson, 2004) . The movie revolves around the theory of personality psychology, which covers id, ego, and superego ( McLeod, 2016) . According to Sigmund Freud, the three elements of personality lead to complex human behavior.
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One of the psychological symptoms of insomnia is Super Ego, which affects his ability to coordinate work and cause serious workplace accidents. According to Freud, the ego develops from id and is responsible for dealing with reality ( McLeod, 2016) . The ego of Reznik affects his behavior at work and in social relationships. Reznik faces several warnings, and his superego causes split between the middle manager and head of the department. The middle managers hurl at him, severally assuming that by punishing him, he would help put his ego aside. Differently, the head manager is concerned with Reznik, where he points out that he looks sick and requires some help ( Anderson, 2004) . The split of the superego between the manager and the head of the department makes Reznik fed up and drained. He develops a new side of himself seen through his actions of smoking, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket to show his rebelliousness. When he could not change his behavior, Reznik got fired after casing a severe accident, an action that led to a downward spiral of paranoia and delusion.
The media depict the effects of psychological disorder in social relationships. People with mental disorders reveals trust issue and are disconnected from society. Focusing on character Trevor Reznik, it is evidenced that he lives lonely and cannot hold social relationships with his colleagues. The only two people who Reznik allows in his life are Stevie, a prostitute, and Marie, a waitress at the airport ( Fielding, 2016) . Resnik tries a relationship with Marie, and her son Nicholas whom he thinks will help him return to his normal self. At the course of the relationship, the three take a trip to a theme park where he goes for a fun ride with Nicholas, which turns horrific. The epileptic fit Nicholas since he hit and run over a boy similar age and figure to Nicholas ( Anderson, 2004) . Individuals with psychological disorders try to use their id to resolve the tension created by their actions. According to Freud, individuals form mental images of desired people and objects to satisfy their needs ( McLeod, 2016) . Resnik sees many flashing disturbing images that take his sanity out of control. The relationship between Trevor, Marie, and Nicholas plays the role of the superego. Reznik wants to use the fictional relationship as a source of repentance and use the friendship with Nicholas to cure his guilt hence curing his insomnia. At the end of the movie, Reznik fails to hold a relationship with Stevie, who realized his insanity and recommends he visits a psychologist.
Another effect of psychological insomnia is malnutrition and lack of enough sleep. A guilty conscience caused Reznik's emaciation. Here, Freud's theory of id, ego, and superego is clear where Ivan is Reznik’s “id” ( McLeod, 2016) . The personality of Ivan from a stressed situation is evident. Ivan represents the personality of Reznik, where he was living with emotions and carrying out actions within our thinking of "ego." The situation of Ivan and Reznik reveals the struggle between id and ego, where the id struggles to unleash unconscious desire while ego struggle to rationalize actions ( Anderson, 2004) . The one year stay without getting enough sleep weakened Reznik’s ego, gave strength to id hence making character Ivan reappear haunting his guilt. It is the strength if the id presented by Ivan that pushes him to seek the truth and hand himself to the police.
Overall Opinion of the Film
In my opinion, I feel the movie is dead-on, and I love it. The film was cleverly constructed where the behavior of character Trevor Reznik reflects the behavior of people who have insomnia. The movie perpetuates the stereotype that psychological torture, especially guilty conscious, affects social life, hallucinations, lack of sleep, and work coordination. The only cure to insomnia arising from guilty conscious is to repenting and telling the truth on the hit and run accept to take charges for the crime committed. Another reason why I love the movie is how the story and Camera are edited to force the audience into the fear and experiences of Trevor. The director cleverly hid some instances within the story, which became noticeable, ate the end of the movie. The suspense made the film exciting and remarkable.
References
Anderson, B. (2004). The Machinist (2004) [Video]. Castelao Productions: Castelao Productions.
Fielding, J. R. (2016). The Machinist. Journal of Religion & Film , 10 (1), 11.
McLeod, S. A. (2016). Id, ego and superego. Simply Psychology , 3 , 1-4.
