Aug 7 2012

Saw

It I had earlier seen parts of this film but couldn’t quite understand what the bits I saw had meant. The movie was Saw in which two men, “Gordon” & “Adam” awake after being attacked by a serial killer named “Jigsaw” and find themselves chained to big pipes in a filthy, grimy old bathroom with no windows. Between them lies the bloody corpse of an older man with a gun in his hand, an apparant suicide. The two men find a cassette tape and recorded in which they play the voice of a man who tells then what they have to do. “Gordon” has to kill the younger “Adam” by 6pm in order for his family to live. They find a pair of hacksaws, but they aren’t strong enough to cut through their chains; they are, however, strong enough to cut through flesh and bone. “He doesn’t want us to cut through our chains,” notes Gordon. “He wants us to cut through our feet.”

“Jigsaw” is a killer who puts his victims in twisted mind-games that usually end in tragedy. The case was investigated by Det. David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Det. Steven Sing (Ken Leung). The earlier victims included: A man who faked suicide for attention (He was put in a maze of razor wire), a man who faked an illness (He was burned while poisoned), and a drug addict named Amanda (Played by Shawnee Smith, she was one of two survivors of Jigsaw’s traps after she had to cut open and find a key in a heavily sedated man to prevent her jaw from being ripped apart).

The two men try to fake “Adam’s” death but that does not work out. Finally while listening on a cellphone, “Gordon” gets desperate as he hears his wife and child nearly killed by a man called “Zepp”. At the same time, one of Adam’s photos reveal that Zepp, Gordon’s assistant from the hospital, is the one holding his wife and daughter hostage. The clock strikes 6:00, ending the time limit. Zepp and Diana fight for the gun while Tapp rushes to save her. The fight turns into a chase as Tapp tries to catch Zepp before he can get to the bathroom. Believing that his wife and daughter are still in danger, Gordon finally saws off his own foot. Tapp nearly emerges victorious, but Zepp kills him first and rushes to the bathroom. Free of his shackle, Gordon shoots Adam. Zepp arrives in the bathroom and Adam, who is surprisingly alive, beats him to death with the toilet lid. After a tearful goodbye, Gordon leaves, saying he has to “get help, or he’ll bleed to death”.

Adam, however, is still trapped. He searches Zepp’s pockets for a key, but instead finds another cassette. Zepp was a pawn in Jigsaw’s game all along. The real Jigsaw, it turns out, was the “corpse” on the floor, which rises up and explains what happened: Adam’s key was lost when he first awoke. Jigsaw has been killing people to make them learn life lessons, as he himself is bitter from his approaching death of cancer. Jigsaw shocks Adam and abandons him in the locked bathroom. “Game over,” he says, ending the film with Adam, being trapped in the pitch-black bathroom, screaming into the credits.

It is a creepy movie and I found the scenes disturbing. I read that critics really panned the movie and that the killer’s character was not fleshed out. However, I was deeply disturbed by the movie and …… I wish to see the sequels!! 8 outta 10!

By Roshan • Movies • 0