Saw III

[Billy Cox]

At the end of Saw, we are introduced to 'Jigsaw', the feared mastermind of complex puzzles that almost always result in suffering and death to people who (in Jigsaw's judgment) don't really deserve the life they are living.

Throughout Saw II, Jigsaw is in police custody and toys with a dirty cop for most of the movie. By the end of the movie, one could easily conclude that Jigsaw is dead and that he has been succeeded by his cold-blooded accomplice.

The beginning of Saw III reveals that Jigsaw is still alive but is finally close to dying of the terminal brain cancer that has afflicted him since Saw 1. Thankfully the plot is not a rehash of the formula from Saw II - in which several people try to escape from Jigsaw's traps and one by one they die horrible deaths.

Jigsaw's accomplice kidnaps a doctor who can perform an operation to prolong his life, and of course there is a ghastly mechanical collar comprised of several shotgun shells that will blow the doctor's head off if she tries to escape or if Jigsaw dies.

Saw III is different from the other Saw movies in that Jigsaw is no longer fully in control of the plot. Even his apprentice seems barely able to maintain control of her emotions while watching her dying mentor.

Some redeeming qualities in the movie are the theme of forgiveness as played out in a parallel story. A man whose young son was killed by a drunk driver has the opportunity to save the drunk driver from a terrible death, the judge who sentenced the driver to only six months in jail, and the sole eyewitness who failed to come forward and testify at the driver's trial.

To his credit, the man actually tries to save each of the people who have wronged him, but in the end, he is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of nearly every other character in the film.

By the end of Saw III, I was wondering how in the world there can be a Saw IV and how it could possibly be worth watching. Saw III left me with the impression that the original 'magic' is gone in much the same way that the genius of the 'Alien' movies was obviously depleted after the second installment.

Even so, I'll put Saw IV in my NetFlix queue when it becomes available. It should be soon.

[Bruce Carriker]

You actually watched that garbage, Billy? And you found it entertaining?

[David Pettigrew]

In the meantime, don't forget to watch the "Jigsaw Saves Christmas" special in which Jigsaw delivers presents to all the children of the world when Santa comes down with the flu. In the process, he helps a grumpy old man and an orphan boy rediscover the true meaning of Christmas.

[Hans Deventer]

You actually watched that garbage, Billy? And you found it entertaining?

You said it, I thought it. I opened this forum but I'm astonished to see a review of a film like this, and such a positive one even!

[Billy Cox]

The movie has entertaining qualities along the lines of storytelling and character development.

If you don't like horror, don't watch it. Isn't that the standard defense against censorship?

[Billy Cox]

If the film did not have redeeming qualities, I would not post a review. It is no more violent than some of the other films posted here and apparently other people on NazNet are curious enough about Saw 1-3 that they have read my reviews.

Can you honestly know what a movie is about based on the commercials for it?

[Billy Cox]

Since you're probably not going to watch Saw, I won't be spoiling anything if I tell you that Jigsaw and his assistant both die at the end of Saw III.

Well, the assistant might have survived...stranger things have happened when the plot called for it.

btw, Jigsaw doesn't actually kill people, but he does put them in situations in which their survival is very unlikely.

[David Pettigrew]

btw, Jigsaw doesn't actually kill people, but he does put them in situations in which their survival is very unlikely.

So does Jigsaw represent big tobacco?

Sorry for picking on you in this thread, Billy.

[Jim Norman]

If the film did not have redeeming qualities, I would not post a review. It is no more violent than some of the other films posted here and apparently other people on NazNet are curious enough about Saw 1-3 that they have read my reviews.

Can you honestly know what a movie is about based on the commercials for it?

I think you can tell enough about the 'Saw' films by the trailers. All you need to know is that they keep trying to out-gross each other. The 'plot' is pointless (and I have seen I, II and III).

[David Pettigrew]

The 'plot' is pointless (and I have seen I, II and III).

This line reminds me of the old joke "That movie was so dirty I had to watch it twice just because I couldn't believe it the first time!"

Did it really take you watching all three movies to figure out they were garbage?

[Jim Norman]

No, I knew they were pretty pointless.

Why did I continue to watch? I really don't know. It's been awhile since I intentionally watched a movie like that.

I like scary movies, but 'Saw III' was just an excuse for more blood on the screen.

[Billy Cox]

Jigsaw is an existentialist to the extreme - a less kind, less gentle version of the main character in 'Dead Poet's Society'. He abducts people who are not 'seizing the day' and gives them a chance to live or die in a pretty terrible way.

[Jim Norman]

I think the point everyone is trying to make is why anyone who follows Jesus would watch stuff like that (not pointing fingers seeing as how I have seen them myself).

[Billy Cox]

Bruce and Hans (who apparently know the content of the movies based only on the trailer) expressed shock. That hardly qualifies as 'everyone'.

They are entitled to their opinions, and those opinions are important to me.

"Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' " Matthew 15:10-11

[Jim Norman]

While that's true (the passage), you can only watch so much of that stuff before it begins to take it's toll on you in some way.

[Hans Deventer]

Bruce and Hans (who apparently know the content of the movies based only on the trailer) expressed shock. That hardly qualifies as 'everyone'.

I didn't see a trailer. I read some reviews.

[Bruce Carriker]

I didn't see the trailers either, Billy. I saw a brief part of the first SAW, which was enough for me to tell my daughters to shut it off and never bring anything like that in my house again. It was also enough to know that Saw II and Saw III probably weren't going to be up my alley, either. I just have a problem with gratuitous blood and violence as "entertainment", and I don't restrict that to the "horror" genre.

I have never seen Schindler's List, though I've tried a few times. I realize that that millions of Jews were slaughtered in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. I don't need to see millions slaughtered on my TV screen, just for effect. The only effect it has is revulsion, so I turn the thing off.

I fast-forward through the first twenty minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan. (Unfortunately, that's probably the only part of the movie that has any basis in reality.) I simply don't need to see carnage graphically portrayed on the screen to know that Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 was horrific almost beyond comprehension.

"Blood and guts" seems to have surpassed sex and nudity in the movies as the thing that directors with the mentality of fourteen-year old boys do "just to see what they can get away with."

[Billy Cox]

This is true and I am careful to vary my viewing habits accordingly. Saw movies 1-3 are not movies that I will watch again, but I do not regret watching them either. My curiosity is satisfied.

[Billy Cox]

Now that I have seen the movies, I may look at some of the reviews to see if I agree.

[Barbara Moulton]

I fast-forward through the first twenty minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan. (Unfortunately, that's probably the only part of the movie that has any basis in reality.) I simply don't need to see carnage graphically portrayed on the screen to know that Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 was horrific almost beyond comprehension.


That's similiar to the reasons why I am probably one of the few Christians in the world who still hasn't seen "The Passion". And probably never will.