Essay on Saw

This is my essay on the film Saw.

Essay - Saw

It is an American film released in 2004 that became a franchise, the film had a very small budget and was all recorded in 18 days which meant that the film wasn’t going to be up to a massive Hollywood budget standard, but it doesn’t need to be due to most horror films being low budget because there is no need for fancy effects and Hollywood star actors. The story in the first film is to do with the two main male characters that are chained in a bathroom and given instructions on what they need to do to be able to survive and win. Police investigate into the murders that are occurring and try’s to find the victims locations and learn how to defeat the game, the characters that are in the film need to decide which thing they would rather kill to live themselves and see if they have earn a good life back. The man who runs the games has cancer and wants to see whether or not they are happy with the life that they have been given to see if they are grateful of what they have. The people that viewed the film had very mixed opinions on whether they liked it or not due to it being a very twisted film and a very gruesome horror.

The first scene in the film is to do with the main character ‘Lawrence’ next to a bathtub attached to a pipe where he cannot escape the lighting is very dull and there are no big clues inside the room apart from the saw in the middle of the room and a range of cameras placed around the corners of the room. There is a body in the middle of the floor where there is a tape recorder showing that the clues will slowly start to appear as he learns about the Jigsaw Killer. There are many flashbacks that occur during the film as they show the past life of the different characters making sure that the audience is able to relate to parts of the characters life before the game. At the end of the game the characters are just left to die, in a psychological murder.

Todorov: The film starts with disequilibrium due to the characters being thrown into the bathroom straight away. Equilibrium: the equilibrium is only seen during the flashbacks that the characters are having, during the flashbacks the characters’ lives that they are living where they are able to have their own families and live their everyday lives as their last. They are just getting on with normal things such as working, partying and eating. They might not have everything that they want but they are learning to live with the things that they already have. They are in a good position in life they might be able to get more out of it and be happier but they aren’t having a bad life they just might not appreciate it as much as they possibly could.

Disequilibrium: the problems that occur is that the characters have to play the game where they end up either dying or killing the people that they know (or could be strangers) they are through into a situation that they cannot get out of and are not happy with the things that are happening as they just want to go back to what they used to have, they now appreciate what they have more than they used too which is what the game in Saw is all about. They just want to go back to the way that things were before as things are just slowly getting worse and they are not happy with the things that are occurring during the film. They are beginning to appreciate the old events that were occurring more as they know that they were able to control the events that were happening and make room for improvements. 
New equilibrium: would be that the people are able to escape and carry on with their lives, however they aren’t able too as they are pulled back into the game that jigsaw is playing along with the psychological damage that the characters will be facing. When some of them end up being able to leave and escape their lives will all have been changed as they will be uncomfortable with doing the things that they used to. Even though they are back to the things they used too there will always be the worry that they will be brought into it again and not be comfortable with the idea of doing things that they used to do in the fear that something will go wrong or get worse. They are slowly becoming happier with the things that they have in the case of Saw they are happier with the life that they have been given and are doing things to help the people around them and not just help themselves, this then makes a big impact on their life as they are learning about the things they should be treating with great respects as this is the aim of the game of saw (which is to show people to look after their life and get the most out of it as they aren’t suffering with any illnesses).  

Levi-Strauss: There are many binary opposites that appear during the film due to the constant change in characters and events that are happening. 

·         Positive vs Negative – there should be positive effects on the characters as they are now realising that they should be more appreciative of their life and live it to the maximum that they can do. However it is a negative effect as the characters are thrown into a very difficult situation where they are then left with lifelong psychological problems because of the events that have happened, this could be seeing a death of someone that they are close too or being tortured into admitting their life isn’t as bad as they think it is.

·         Power vs Powerless/Good vs Evil – Jigsaw has lots of power as he is able to treat people as good or as bad as he likes because he is able to use things such as family and friends against them to make them do things that they wouldn’t normally do whereas the powerless are the other characters who are in the game and need to either hurt themselves or others to be able to survive and become very selfish on saving themselves.

·         Female vs Male – there are an equal mix of female and male characters in the film as they appear at different times throughout.  

·         Sane vs insane

·         Survival (life) vs Death – the characters need to try staying alive along with making sure their families and friends stay alive too, it’s a battle of life and death. The characters either need to hurt themselves to live or die with nothing.

·         Harmless vs violent

The opposites will change throughout the film due to different scenarios that the characters are being put in for example sane vs insane the characters are placed in a room where they need to be able to escape they are not thinking properly when they are going through the games events. They make situations worse for themselves such as pushing others into holes and making them not think about what they are doing before they do it.

Propp: All of the characters will be listed in one way or another as a certain character type depending on how much they are seen throughout the film and how often they are asked to do something.

      ·         Villain; Jigsaw who creates the problem and brings people into the situation

·         The Helper (helps the quest); this is also pighead as she makes sure that things are going to plan and that people are learning there lessons throughout the film and the games.

·         Father; is the detective whose son is in the games he needs to try getting him out to save his life and to make sure that the person making all the problems is stopped before they end up getting worse

·         Dispatcher (makes the problems); is themselves as they made the problem for themselves due to having a negative look on life

·         Anti- Hero; Jigsaw tries to teach them a positive lesson by being a hero figure as he wants them to come out of the games by doing something positive however he does a bad thing by putting them in a negative situation and making the characters die one by one for no reason

Barthes:
Action Codes: in the game when the characters get themselves into pointless situations such as when the character Amanda needs to get the key out of her boyfriend to save her own life, she then kills him so that she can get the key and live another day. These events happen one after another and lead to Amanda becoming very alone and sad as she has now murdered someone else to save herself.

Key Enigma Codes: The audience will watch the film and question why the characters are in this sort of situation where they are fighting for their lives, the answer to this question is later revealed when Jigsaw tells them that they are in the game because they do not appreciate their lives.

Signs and Symbols: the saw that has been left on the floor, the tape recorder that plays the message about the game to the characters and make them aware of what is going on. All of these suggest what is going on and links in the violence of the games.

Cultural References: the film is made in both the present tense and in the past as the characters all have flashbacks to their old life and are able to see the situation that they are in and they are always in the same place which is the bathroom that the games are being held in this is where the characters live and die in the games. The film itself is a linear as all of the events that occur in the film follow one after another however during the film it can go back to past event or forward to what might happen when they do something or if they don’t. Due to the film being linear it means that the story carries on going in a good and correct order