"Saw" (http://www.sawmovie.com/) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/)
Directed by James Wan
Twisted Pictures
R / Ireland:18
2004
Reviewed by a contributor November 1, 2004
It isn't obvious whether "Saw" is trying to depict the "unintended consequences" of male gender socialization, or actually portraying serial killers as gender oppressors who especially benefit from patriarchy. Either way, the movie obscures the fact that the vast majority of Euro-Amerikan men are still among the greatest beneficiaries of patriarchy despite their occasional victimization by serial killers.
Although a female victim appears in "Saw," this movie focuses on two male victims of a serial killer nicknamed "Jigsaw." The victims, one a surgeon (Cary Elwes) and the other a freelance photographer (Leigh Whannell), are Euro-Amerikan as are all of the serial killer's "game" players shown in the movie. [Spoiler warning] The heavily built serial killer is of European descent and has a tough "Mr. Clean" look. He is able to abduct and incapacitate his intended victims.
Jigsaw would be considered intelligent. Rather than kill them directly, he prefers to come up with elaborate ways to force his victims to kill themselves or each other. He likes to teach his victims to appreciate life by putting them in lethal situations. The serial killer is also preachy, declaring, to his victims, when they've learned his "life lessons."
The two Euro-Amerikan men wake up chained to the piping of a filthy bathroom. There's another man face-down in a pool of blood on the middle of the floor. In microcassette recordings, the serial killer lets them know that they each have until 6 o'clock to kill the other man on the opposite side of the bathroom. They find hacksaws for both of them to use and other items. It turns out that the surgeon's child and wife were taken hostage, and that the surgeon had been cheating on his seemingly long-distraught wife with an Asian womyn in a hotel room.
Movie viewers may perceive the surgeon to be a gender oppressor who is oppressed by the serial killer. The photographer, Adam, may also be looked at in the same way. Adam complains to Lawrence about how his "feminist vegan" ex-girlfriend thought "he" was too angry. Throughout the movie, Adam comes off as being a whiny asshole—or a persyn with whom young, urban Euro-Amerikan men in the audience might identify.
Although Adam seems to make good money doing his photography work, he thinks his dingy apartment in the city, his own apartment, is a "shit hole."
Beside the serial-killer content, there isn't a whole lot to this movie. We have the typical manifestation of urban imperialist-country parasite angst about not having complete control over one's own life. Among the surgeon and his family, there is the typical intimate-partner romance and parent-child sentimentality. That fact that a persyn, in almost every place in the united $tates, has a greater chance of being killed by their own partner or parent (in the case of children) than by a serial killer probably doesn't cross most moviegoers' minds.
One is young, and the other, old, but Adam and Lawrence go out of their way to cooperate with each other. Their common "enemy" is the serial killer. They are united in their Euro-Amerikan manhood. The movie doesn't touch on the serial killer's background outside getting into some of his criminal history. He represents the terrible tragedy that "could happen to anyone." "Saw" never makes clear what city the story is set in. And the serial killer's repeated take-home message is that people in general normally don't appreciate being alive. Thus, "Saw" has universal application for people who identify with the Euro-Amerikan, adult, male characters featured in the movie.
This reviewer is not going to dispute whether the Mr. Cleans of the world, body-builders or whoever have some physical leverage with respect to other people. The issue is, are serial killers at the top of the patriarchy. The answer is no. The issue of serial killers and killing is numerically relatively small(1), and serial killers mostly kill wimmin. Whether serial killing is partly a result of specific biological and psychological factors(2), or class or patriarchal "societal contexts which shape and nurture individual pathologies"(3), serial homicide rates do not seem to reflect a society where serial killers, in particular, benefit from patriarchy financially or even in terms of leisure time.
The serial killer in "Saw" has access to a lot of electronic equipment and has expertise in making gadgets. But recently, serial killers may be like multiple murderers. "The modern multiple murderer comes from the lower strata and kills representatives [not necessarily actual members] of the higher strata"(3). However, "money sometimes" is the motive for only 19% of male serialists(3).
According to a rough estimate, "at any given time there are an estimated 20-50 active serial killers"(4). In constrast, in 2003, there were about 2.3 million millionaires in the united $tates.
Looking at some serial-killer typologies, serial killers don't seem to have more leisure time than most Euro-Amerikan men. What leisure they have, they may use "to prepare and perform their horrific acts"(5). In terms of where and initially how they spend their leisure time, serial killers may not differ much from many "normal" men. For example, Henry Lucas and Ottis Toole's delinquent activity revolved around cruising the highways, eating, drinking beer, and looking for "fun," rather than things dictated by an imaginary widespread culture of leisure time-use specific to serial killers(6).
Adam likens his current situation in the bathroom to a reality-TV show. This raises an interesting point. Do imperialist-country parasites perceive their lives to be so empty that they feel they have to watch reality-TV shows—and "Saw"-like parodies thereof? Evidently, with "D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear" (2003), there is some entertainment value to be got from even stories about serial killers.
The D.C. sniper notwithstanding, serial killers (and homicide perpetrators in general) mostly kill with their own "race," so it is no surprise that all of Jigsaw's victims are light-skinned and likely Euro-Amerikan. Yet, "Saw" sometimes leads movie viewers to think that the detective played by Danny Glover is the serial killer.
Notes
1. Lindsay Pieper, 2004 October 21, "Students learns about habits of a serial killer," Collegiate Times, http://www.collegiatetimes.com/index.php?ID=4431
Jack Levin's recent estimate of 200 Amerikans killed by serial killers per year is much lower than estimates quoted by Stephen Giannangelo, but Giannangelo's rough estimates are still low compared to general homicide rates:Stephen J. Giannangelo, 1996, The psychopathology of serial murder: a theory of violence, Westport, CT, Praeger, pp. 5-6
2. Stephen J. Giannangelo, 1996, The psychopathology of serial murder: a theory of violence, Westport, CT, Praeger
3. Ronald Hinch and Crysal Hepburn, 1998, "Researching serial murder: methodologial and definitional problems," Electronic Journal of Sociology, http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.002/hinch.html
4. "H. R. 2110," 2003 May 14, http://www.theorator.com/bills108/hr2110.html
5. Erik Heijmans, 1996 September 19, "The drawbacks to leisure," Wisp'r, 27, 2, http://www.wau.nl/wub/w962702.htm
6. Patrick Bellamy, "Killing Time," in Patrick Bellamy, Henry Lee Lucas: deadly drifter, http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/lucas/time_7.html