Saw (Analysis)

Film: Saw

Directed by: James Wan

Starring: Tobin Bell, Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Michael Emerson

Released: 2004

Elements of Mise en Scene, Editing, Camerawork/Cinematography and Sound

The majority of the camerawork in Saw is steadicam. This is significantly used in the bathroom scenes with Adam and Doctor Gordon. This is so we get a hands-on gritty experience with them in bathroom and gives the film a sense of realism and it makes the audience feel like they’re up close and personal with Adam and Doctor Gordon in the bathroom because we can then see their every move and their emotions. This also presents the film in an eerie, uncertain sense because the camerawork is very loose, unguided and un-artificial. This specific technique is the most effective for building tension.

There is also some uses of close-up shots on the characters, again, specifically on Adam and Doctor Gordon in the bathroom. One example of this is when Doctor Gordon is on the phone to his wife who is being held captive and as she is tormented, Doctor Gordon becomes very upset and starts to breakdown. The close up shot on Doctor Gordon’s face helps capture his emotions up-front and personal so the audience can really get an idea of the situation and how badly Doctor Gordon is feeling. This allows the audience to feel sympathetic for him.

Another use of steadicam in Saw is when Alison Gordon (Doctor Gordon’s wife) breaks free from captivity, and tries to overpower ‘Zip’. As she does this, there is a lot of confrontation between the two characters. Steadicam is used in this scene to accomplish the fast-paced action of the scene and follows Alision as she tries to escape. This particular use of steadicam keeps up with the pace of the action and emphasises the pace and speed, also making the audience uncertain but intrigued because the camerawork is very impulsive and uncontrolled and the audience then have to focus more on what is going on.

The mise en scene in Saw is very important and plays a vital role. Right at the beginning of the film, their is very dark lighting being used as Adam awakes in the bathtub and and starts to stumble around and find out where he is. He is very confused at this point and because of the dark, low-key lighting, the audience are also very confused as well because they are in the same position as Adam. Adam has woken up in the darkness and the audience have started watching the film with the film beginning with darkness. It also emphasises the sense of mystery and intrigues the audience to the film because they want to discover where Adam has woken up.

When the lights turn on, we are immediately exposed to the filth, dirty set of the bathroom. The bathroom is absolutely filthy with broken mirrors, broken tiles, dirty and mould riddling up the walls, rusty toilet and bathtub and disgusting pipework around the bathroom. This helps show the bathroom’s age and misusage and gives background and mystery to the setting - has the bathroom been used for torture and captivity before? It also makes the film more gritty and makes it more realistic.

Throughout the course of the film, there is an obvious transformation being done to Doctor Gordon. Every time we see him in the bathroom, his face gets more pale and starts turning white, ultimately making him look ghost-like. This is showing Doctor Gordon’s deterioration and possibly saying that the bathroom which he is trapped in is slowly killing him and draining him, causing him to break-down, resulting in him going crazy and cutting his foot off to escape. The white make-up on Doctor Gordon (getting more pale throughout the film) gives the character realism and a sense of believability for the audience as they watch him slowly become stricken.

An example of digitally enhanced sound is when we hear a striking electric and buzzing sound when Adam gets electrocuted. The sound is ‘digitally enhanced’ and extremely emphasised to make the audience hear how painful it is for Adam as he screams in agony, as his body shakes to the reaction of the electricity and to also make the sound and action more forceful and striking.

Diegetic sound plays a big role in Saw, especially in the bathroom scenes. In these particular scenes, there is good use of diegetic sound to make the room more realistic and tense. Realistic, because all the sound that are heard are natural and belong to that bathroom and tense, because there isn’t any additional music/narration on top of the scenes, making them more quiet and eerie. Non-diegetic sound is not needed for these scenes because the quiet, natural sounds of the empty, misuses bathroom are enough to grip the audience and make them intrigued to the natural dialogue of Adam and Doctor Gordon.

Non-diegetic sound is used at some occasions in Saw. One example is at the end of the film, when Adam discovers the audio tape on Zip, and plays it, there is the Saw ‘theme tune’ (soundtrack) being played over the scene as he listens to the audio tape. This has been added to make the ending of the film more shocking and tense as we slowly reach the conclusion. The music is also a crescendo and gradually becomes louder. This makes the ending of the film more tense and gripping for the audience as they become glued to the screen. Right before the end credits appear, the music reaches it’s ultimatum and suddenly stops as Jigsaw closes the door on Adam, leaving him trapped in the bathroom to rot and die. When the music does suddenly stop, the only sound we hear is Adam’s screams (diegetic sound) as the credits appear. This has been done to show that even though the film is over and the credits are rolling, Adam is still left trapped in the bathroom and the audience shouldn’t just forget about him, which is why his merciful screams play over the ending credits, leaving the audience in a total shock.

How does Saw fit the Thriller genre?

I would say that Saw is more of a psychological thriller. This is because the danger of the protagonists (hard to pinpoint, but Adam and Doctor gordon are the main ones...) is heavily emphasised. This is clearly obvious that their danger is a strong element of the film because they have woken up in this misused bathroom without any indication of where they are specifically and how they got there (although we do find out later on in the film). This is also why it is more psychological because the two protagonists are uncertain of what is actually going on so their emotions take over them and conflict starts to erupt between them and ultimately drive them both crazy(leading Doctor Gordon to cut off his own foot to escape). In addition, psychological thrillers make the characters solve a mystery and Saw is one big mystery. Why are they in there? Who put them in there? - and throughout the curse of the film, they discover more clues and facts that make them realise why they are actually there...