El Maquinista
Very good movie. Though the movie is filmed in Barcelona, Spain, it looks like it is filmed in LA. There are a couple of things that I'd like to write about this movie
i) Parallel lines between El Maquinista and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
1. Crime and Punishment has three parts. Part 1 is the murder that the main character commits, Part 2 is his discovery of his crime and Part 3 is rebirth of the main character. El Maquinista basically takes out Part 1 and Part 3 and only focuses on Part 2. There are parallel lines between El Maquinista and Part 2 of Crime and Punishment. Trevor Reznik played by Christian Bale struggles to discover the fact that he killed a young boy; he has no physical defect, yet he is psychologically tormented so that he cannot connect his life and the murder that he committed. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment also experiences similar difficulty of accepting the fact that he committed murder.
1.2. While both characters have great difficulty of accepting their crime, they both choose to suffer to seek salvation. Trevor Reznik keeps losing weight; he physically suffers, and he elevates the level of suffering, as more time passes. Raskolnikov also chooses to suffer; he chooses to suffer psychologically more than physically, but the extent to which they both choose to suffer is rather extreme, and this is where we find parallel lines.
2. Both the woman who comforts the main character Trevor Reznik in El Maquinista, Stevie, and the woman who comforts the main character Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment are prostitutes, though they meet their women in different circumstances. Trevor Reznik meets Stevie as a customer, but Raskolnikov meets Sofya through Sofya's father; Raskolnikov is not a Sonya's customer. However, there are many similarities in how these two women comfort their men and guide them to free their soul.
ii) Symbolisms in El Maquinista
1. Trevor Reznik becomes so thin that he almost does not exist physically. This symbolizes the state of his mind, which is that he does not want to exist. More specifically, he wishes that a part of him that killed a young boy would not exist.
2. Trevor Reznik's losing so much weight also suggests that he is suffering by his choice. Trevor Reznik is not a slender person; he is a walking skeleton, and he clearly shows that he suffers physically.
El Maquinista is a well-crafted movie; the story also has depth. There are so many things that I can write about this movie (I might come back and re-review this movie some time in the future), but I just mentioned several things in this blog entry.
i) Parallel lines between El Maquinista and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
1. Crime and Punishment has three parts. Part 1 is the murder that the main character commits, Part 2 is his discovery of his crime and Part 3 is rebirth of the main character. El Maquinista basically takes out Part 1 and Part 3 and only focuses on Part 2. There are parallel lines between El Maquinista and Part 2 of Crime and Punishment. Trevor Reznik played by Christian Bale struggles to discover the fact that he killed a young boy; he has no physical defect, yet he is psychologically tormented so that he cannot connect his life and the murder that he committed. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment also experiences similar difficulty of accepting the fact that he committed murder.
1.2. While both characters have great difficulty of accepting their crime, they both choose to suffer to seek salvation. Trevor Reznik keeps losing weight; he physically suffers, and he elevates the level of suffering, as more time passes. Raskolnikov also chooses to suffer; he chooses to suffer psychologically more than physically, but the extent to which they both choose to suffer is rather extreme, and this is where we find parallel lines.
2. Both the woman who comforts the main character Trevor Reznik in El Maquinista, Stevie, and the woman who comforts the main character Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment are prostitutes, though they meet their women in different circumstances. Trevor Reznik meets Stevie as a customer, but Raskolnikov meets Sofya through Sofya's father; Raskolnikov is not a Sonya's customer. However, there are many similarities in how these two women comfort their men and guide them to free their soul.
ii) Symbolisms in El Maquinista
1. Trevor Reznik becomes so thin that he almost does not exist physically. This symbolizes the state of his mind, which is that he does not want to exist. More specifically, he wishes that a part of him that killed a young boy would not exist.
2. Trevor Reznik's losing so much weight also suggests that he is suffering by his choice. Trevor Reznik is not a slender person; he is a walking skeleton, and he clearly shows that he suffers physically.
El Maquinista is a well-crafted movie; the story also has depth. There are so many things that I can write about this movie (I might come back and re-review this movie some time in the future), but I just mentioned several things in this blog entry.
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