Machines (2016) User Reviews

Immersive study of a textile factory sweatshop.

[robinfilmo · 8/10 · 29 January 2018]

At first, the sight of young Indian men enduring dark, difficult working conditions in a textile mill might seem off-putting. The promise of this superb observational film comes from staying with it, and feeling the change of perspective as a modern consumer it might move you to experience. Being allowed to observe, through a starkly objective lens, the human need and will to keep going every day in these dark and noisy textile mills is a humbling experience. The film narrative does not need any intrusive commentary, in my opinion. It is perfectly clear in every beautifully chosen shot and sequence what you should understand, and how you might feel about how the products we consume are made.

It should be seen by everyone. A social document that records the working conditions humans endured in a part of the planet during the early 21st century.

More observational than analytical

[simon-1303 · 6/10 · 21 May 2017]

This could have been many things - an explanation of garment making, an analysis of industrial relations, a review of global garment making economics, an exploration of working class relationships, a description of Indian state governance.

There is a bit of all of this in the film, but it is above all observational - the beauty of the textile designs, the dirt, mess and lack of health and safety of the factory, various industrial processes, brief interviews with various parties who generally say what one would expect. There is no commentary. It is thus impressionistic rather than fully explanatory. For a fuller analysis of a similar situation, read The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels.

No Fresh Air; No Humanity

[gsandra-26876 · 8/10 · 17 July 2019]

This is the hardest-to-watch film I've ever seen. I kept looking for some glimpse of fresh air throughout -- there was none. More devastating was watching these young boys and men spending their youth in such a hell. There must be some kind of international legal body than can intervene to stop such inhuman treatment of these workers.

The photography and direction was exceptional -- taking us into this suffocating workplace where people are subject to long exhausting hours in filthy conditions for meager wages that keep them enslaved to this tortuous life. I've never seen anything quite like this. I've seen news of manufacturing plants in India and elsewhere so poorly constructed that they crumble and cause many deaths because of non-existent building codes and fire escapes.

Surely the owners of these hellish workplaces are guilty of many crimes including exploiting young boys to do this awful work. How are these slave masters not held to account for their brutal treatment of these people? Doesn't India care at all about its people and their welfare?

Really well made but sour grapes in the end.

[etann-36707 · 6/10 · 18 November 2023]

The mob surrounding the film crew asking them what they will do for them was just met with silence, I was curious too what were they going to do about this clear problem. I was shocked at how much intimate footage they were able to capture and the admissions of the bosses who are callous and deaf to the pleas of these workers, even admission of violence to keep these workers in these conditions. It does feel quite hollow in the end, like an art piece where someone gets to look through the peephole of another society and then just have no power to change or do anything about it. My final thought was anytime I see "Made in India" I'm just not going to buy it. I don't want to support these squalid and horrid conditions. The worse it gets the more likely they will tire and rise up against their oppressors and take hold of their own fates and be the heroes of their own society. Hoping someone else comes in and does something about it is clearly not working, even when they say politicians or whomever is in authority comes there, they make a speech and leave and nothing changes. So what is a foreigner supposed to do but stop feeding the industry. This is also a fault of their neighbor China who's offloaded labor so that they can live better and easier lives. It's always someone passing the buck. From what I have gathered over the years this is also a cultural issue where they have little compassion for their fellow man and use him like livestock to make their own lives easier. You can't change this from the bottom up it's from top down where changes will happen. I've heard that it's culturally accepted that those on the bottom are there because they deserve it somehow, you would have to change that cultural norm before you can expect anything different to happen.

For me one of the most disgusting things was that the boss was saying if they paid them more they would just spend it on alcohol and tobacco and have a full stomach and be comfortable and not want to work for 12 hours a day. Well it's just natural for them to want to have a good life like the one he has. The irony is beyond comedic it's tragic.

In the end I'm left with more questions than answers, just like the workers being filmed were frustrated. Honestly, name one thing anyone who watched this can do to change this societal norm? Plus I wonder, would any one of those workers in that same seat of power change anything? Would they just enjoy their comfy seat in a more powerful position, well nourished and blind to the same conditions they endured? It's hard to believe when they've received no compassion that they would be likely to give any.

Fantastic

[michellelem · 10/10 · 24 March 2018]

This beautifully shot documentary gives an intimate look into the lives of these workers. Although the subject is heavy and these workers are clearly being exploited, the optimism of the factory workers was fascinating. Jain's film gives tremendous freedom to the viewer to ask their own questions and reach their own conclusions.

Excellent documentary

[gmarway · 10/10 · 7 September 2019]

Beautifully shot and enjoyed watched every nuanced moment. Must see

Mesmerizing & Honest

[hhagstoz · 10/10 · 22 March 2019]

This movie is at once hypnotic in the way you become fully immersed into this chaotic underworld and thought provoking. There is not much dialogue and it causes the viewer to pay attention that much more when there is. One worker explains how it pays 210 rupees a shift, which we previously learn is 12 hours. I'm sure this is the average rate, or the optimistic rate; which comes out to $3.03 per shift or .2525 cents an hour. This work is clearly dangerous, toxic, and grueling in a way first world citizens imagine a Dickensian factory might have been. It appears that many of these workers, a lot of them clearly teenagers, are living within the bowels of this giant textile mill, sleeping on piles of waste fabric, bathing amid the clanking machines; sometimes it is so dark in the steamy damp depths it is hard to pick out people from the cotton bundles. And while almost all of those who speak are clearly grateful for the employment, as well as dignified and self respecting, the abject and depressed body language speaks so much louder. They live within this machine. Being the place where Ghandi also had his textile mills, the reality today couldn't be more bleak and oppressive. This documentary is such a blank canvass for the viewer's imagination. It makes a strong point of simply showing up and letting the environment tell it's objective truth; one can read what one wants onto it. Today people ask how much longer before the machines begin to make us the slaves in their system, but what this documentary shows me at any rate is that we were enslaved a long time ago. One only has to watch this for twenty minutes before it becomes starkly clear these people are the living and breathing parts to this giant mill, one mistep and it would certainly devour them. This film is a mirror being held up to our faces, a piece of deep humanity and introspection.

Freaking dark

[doomedmac · 8/10 · 26 August 2020]

This is an amazingly-short, extremely depressing movie. Very good.