Eight Millimeter is a dramatic, mysterious film of the year. Welles spends most of his time on small cases that involve nothing too dangerous. A small, innocuous-looking plastic reel of film turns Welles life into an increasingly dark and frightening path, as he follows a trail of evidence from Harrisburg to Cleveland and North Carolina, and then on to the streets of Hollywood and New York City. The mystery plastic reel of film has kept Welles away from his family, as his work turns into an obsession with the fate of a girl who is a complete stranger to Tom. From missing persons archives, to shelters for runaway girls and into society's seamy, unspeakable underbelly, Welles relentlessly wends his way to the truth.
Welles learns how deadly a small reel of eight millimeter film can be.
The movie defines the realistic and dark side of pornography. What also sickens me is that people actually enjoy watching it. In the movie Eight Millimeter , Chris Bauer portrays Machine, a character who is himself the victim and perpetrator of such dehumanization. Although Machine looks very innocent, he enjoys torturing people by killing them. Anthony Heald plays Longdale, Mrs. Christian's lawyer.