Which is it going to be? ...It's up to you. ...Live or die... make our choice.

(being the third in a planned series of four posts trying to write something a little more penetrating about why I think it is that I've become so enamored--some would say obsessed--with the Saw films)

I seem to keep returning to this theme: Jigsaw (John) is a psychopath, but his intentions are good. In Saw III, as (IIRC) director Darren Lynn Bousman points out on a DVD commentary, John shows that he himself is not above his own games.

He does so when his own skull is opened up (with a power drill!) and his brain probed while he remains conscious. All so that the final test of his lifetime can be completed.

This is just one reason why Saw III is the most interesting morally, but also the goriest, of any of the Saw films to date. It examines--probably as much as you can in a film about a psychopathic killer (or two) the questions of action vs. inaction and the right action vs. the wrong action.

To write about why I have to say a bit more about its plot than I have in the first two posts in this series. So if you haven't seen the films and think you ever might, you may want to stop reading.

I'm not gonna spoil everything, but it's impossible to write about what I want to without revealing a few plot points...and the YouTube clip at the end is literally the last three-and-a-half-minutes of this DVD.


You've been warned.

In flashbacks that appear late in Saw III but which take place immediately following the end of Saw II, we see Donnie Wahlberg in a vicious fight with Jigsaw's helper, Amanda, who leaves him for dead.

Still, he might have been better off that way (left for dead) because when he angrily shouts "You're not Jigsaw, Bitch! You're NOTHING!" she turns and walks back to him...

One of the victims of the traps (in the "now" of Saw III) this time around is a woman named Lynn, a doctor whose depression has left her in such a state of inaction that a patient almost dies because she fails to respond to a page.

Her next patient will not allow for such lethargy: It's John Kramer, aka Jigsaw. This is where he has the line:

Death is a surprise party. Unless, of course, you're already dead on the inside. Unless you're the type of person who swallows antidepressants to hide the pain.

Lynn is abducted and a collar is locked around her neck. It's studded with shotgun pellets and is linked to Jigsaw's heart monitor so that if he dies, the shells will detonate. Thus she's forced into a very simple game:

Keep John alive (this is where the improvised surgery comes in) until another victim, Jeff, finishes his tests or she will be killed.

Jeff is a man so obsessed with vengeance he can no longer connect (even with his 10-year-old daughter), after his younger son has been killed by a car. He's kidnapped and put through a series of confrontations with the men and woman he holds accountable for his loss.

All are set in traps that will ultimately kill them unless Jeff intervenes. He's told that if he makes it through his tests, he will come face-to-face with the person responsible for the loss of his child.

His test: Will he save these people? And even if he will, what sacrifices is he willing to make to do so?

One example will suffice. A woman who was the sole witness to the accident that killed his son but failed to come forward. Her cowardice contributed to the light sentence the driver responsible received: Six months in jail.

She is presented to Jeff naked, suspended by her wrists in the middle of a walk-in refrigerator-



--systematically being sprayed with freezing water.

(BTW, lest you be wondering: This is probably the most un-erotic scene involving a naked woman ever filmed. This is quite deliberate, director Bousman took pains not to shoot her provocatively, but to emphasize the woman's vulnerability and humanity--Debra Lynne McCabe's performance doesn't hurt either)

She will die in a matter of minutes unless Jeff chooses to free her. What would you do? Although he hesitates, he ultimately tries to save her. But in order to reach the key that will do so, he must press his own cheek against an icy pipe, where it sticks to the ice and he must tear a chunk off of his own skin in order to get away.

When he comes face-to-face with John Kramer at the end, Jeff's actions cause Jigsaw to ask, scoffing:

You haven't learned anything tonight, have you? Your rage and your vengeance will only hurt the ones you love.

John then offers one final test, as he lies there, evidently helpless in a hospital bed: Will Jeff take the opportunity to kill him, or not?

See what I mean? Action. Inaction. The right action. The wrong action...