Saw (2-Disc Uncut Edition)

Feb 24, 2008 in Uncategorized

Saw (2-Disc Uncut Edition)
Tagline: How Much Blood Would You Shed to Stay Alive?
Released: 2004
Starring Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, and Tobin Bell
Directed by James Wan
Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell

Format: DVD
Distributed by Lions Gate
DVD Release Date: October 18, 2005

Disc 1 Features:
Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16×9 TVs – Newly Remastered Alternate Cut
6.1 DTS-ES Digital Audio
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX
2 Feature-Length Audio Commentaries
English and Spanish Subtitles

Disc 2 Features:
Saw – Director’s Original Short Film – in 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
On-Set Preview of Saw II
Hacking Away at Saw – Behind the Scenes
Exclusive Episode of “Full Disclosure Report” – Go Inside the Real Jigsaw Investigation!
Alternate Storyboard Sequence
Jigsaw’s Workshop (Build a Puppet DVD-ROM)
Saw Director’s Art Gallery
Trailers
Easter Eggs

Premise: Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer abducts the morally wayward. Once captured, they must face impossible choices in a horrific game of survival. The victims must fight to win their lives back, or die trying…

Backstory: It is hard to believe the story behind this film. Two Australians sent the script and a short film (included on DVD) to America and had it picked up and turned into a multi-million dollar franchise. It isn’t Halloween anymore without another Saw film, and although the first movie was an intelligent suspense thriller, it has quickly become a horror cash cow.

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): A man wakes up in a bathtub in a dark room unaware of his location or why this is happening. He soon learns that he is not alone and when the lights come on, comes face to face with Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Both men are chained to pipes in a derelict bathroom, closed off from the world. In the center of the room is a dead body, a gun in his hand and his brains everywhere else.

They start to try and ascertain why they are here and who brought them. The answer eventually comes in the form of a tape recorder in the dead man’s hand. The contents of which explain that they are both there for the same reason – they do not value their lives. The man on the tape is going to make them prove to him they do… but how you ask?

Gordon is told, in order to survive he must kill the other man in the room: Adam. His motive? Adam is a photographer doing surveillance for the police. He has pictures of Gordon visiting his mistress and was there when Gordon was abducted. Dr. Gordon realizes this is the work of the “Jigsaw Killer” – a man who places people in situations where they must place survival over pain, more often than not, in bizarrely ironic ways. Dr. Gordon was a suspect in the Jigsaw case and was present to hear the only surviving victim give her statement. The girl, Amanda, explains the horrific account of how she awoke wearing a “reverse bear trap” on her face threatening to yank her head in two. With seconds counting down, she has to find the key in the stomach of a man dead in the room with her. Before her scalpel strikes, and with mere seconds to go, the man wakes up… and after a moment of hesitation she attacks.

As a suspect Dr. Gordon has been followed by grizzled cop David Tapp. Tapp has his own reasons for hunting Jigsaw – the death of his partner. His obsession for Gordon leads him to being suspended and staking out the Doctor’s house unaware Gordon is in Jigsaw’s hands. Gordon’s wife is also living in blissful ignorance even though the killer may be in her house.

Events unravel to the point where Gordon panics, and with the threat of his wife and child being harmed, cuts through his own leg to free himself from the chains. Bleeding to death, he crawls away leaving Adam alone. Except not… the body in the room rises and is revealed as the killer. In fear, Adam tries to shoot him with the gun, and so Jigsaw turns off the light and slams the door behind him. For now, Adam’s fate is as unknown as the dark he is left in.
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