- Saw III
Infobox Film
name = Saw III
|210px
caption = "Saw III" film poster
director =Darren Lynn Bousman
producer = Mark Burg
Oren Koules
Gregg Hoffman
writer =James Wan
Leigh Whannell
starring =Tobin Bell Shawnee Smith Angus Macfadyen Bahar Soomekh
Donnie Wahlberg Dina Meyer Leigh Whannell Costas Mandylor Lyriq Bent Barry Flatman
Mpho Koaho
Debra Lynne McCabe
music =Charlie Clouser
cinematography = David A. Armstrong
editing =
distributor =Lions Gate Entertainment Maple Pictures
released = October 27, 2006
runtime =108 min.
language = English
country = USA
flagicon|CanadaCanada
budget = $12 million (approx.)
preceded_by = "Saw II "
followed_by = "Saw IV "
amg_id = 1:344760
imdb_id = 0489270"Saw III" is the third installment in the "Saw" series. The film is a joint effort of both "Saw's" writers/directors,
James Wan andLeigh Whannell , and "Saw II's" writer/director,Darren Lynn Bousman .The film focuses on the resurfaced
Jigsaw Killer , the antagonist of the previous films, who works with his unstable apprentice Amanda to finish his final tests before he dies. The film contains additionalback-story about the two antagonists.The film has been dedicated to
Gregg Hoffman , producer of the first two movies. Hoffman died on December 4, 2005, shortly after the officialLions Gate Entertainment announcement of "Saw III".Plot
This film begins immediately after the end of "Saw II", with
Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg ) escaping the bathroom he was left in by breaking his foot to slip out of his ankle chain (although his first thought was to amputate it after seeing the severed foot of Dr. Lawrence Gordon). Later flashbacks depict his vicious fight withAmanda Young (Shawnee Smith ), who eventually overcomes him and leaves him for dead. Before she leaves, Matthews shouts several angry parting comments, calling Amanda a "junkie bitch" and telling her she is nothing compared to Jigsaw, causing her evident distress. What she does next is not revealed at this time. Other flashbacks show that Amanda had been working with John Kramer, theJigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell ), prior to the events of the first film, and had been the one who actually carried out the abduction of Adam under Jigsaw's orders. After the events of the first film, it is revealed, she had suffocated Adam in amercy killing .The film's present is set six months after Matthews' capture; he has been missing this entire time. Detective Allison Kerry (
Dina Meyer ), Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent ) and Forensic Hoffman (Costas Mandylor ) are investigating the corpse of Jigsaw's latest victim Troy (J. Larose ), intrigued by the fact that his trap was inescapable (a break in Jigsaw's M.O.). When Kerry returns home, she is kidnapped and finds herself in a trap of her own. When the escape method given fails and Amanda arrives, Kerry realizes this trap is also inescapable and is killed.Meanwhile, a dying Jigsaw orders the abduction of two more victims: a skilled but depressed doctor named Lynn Denlon (
Bahar Soomekh ) and Jeff Reinhart (Angus Macfadyen ), a father obsessed with revenge against the driver that killed his son. A collar holding five loaded shotgun shell mounts, wirelessly connected to Jigsaw's heart monitor, is placed around Lynn’s throat by Amanda. The game is simple - keep John alive until Jeff completes his tests. If he dies or she tries to leave the area, aflatline indicator on the monitor will instantly arm and fire the collar device. Jeff is led through an abandoned meat packing plant where he is given the choice of rescuing three prime targets of revenge from a variety of lethal traps. His initial hesitancy in each case ultimately dooms each one; even though he does save the lenient Judge Halden (Barry Flatman), his attempt to save his son’s killer Timothy Young (Mpho Koaho) leads to the deaths of both Timothy and Halden. After Jeff completes his tests, he continues forward to finally meet the maker of his torment.Lynn succeeds in keeping John alive, but during the course of an improvised brain surgery, he semi-consciously professes his love for a woman named Jill during a dream. Amanda believes his words are directed toward Lynn. After the operation, Lynn and John talk privately and it is revealed that Lynn's ordeal has given her a new appreciation of her life and family.
Now disillusioned with John's attempts to change his victims' perspective, Amanda admits to him that she set up the inescapable traps for Troy and Kerry. She refuses to release Lynn, despite John's pleading, and instead shoots her in the back. Lynn falls into Jeff's arms as he enters the room, whereupon he shoots and fatally wounds Amanda using a gun he has picked up in the warehouse. As Amanda bleeds to death, John tells her that she has failed the test he set up for her: "Your will is being tested--your will to keep someone alive." These words, spoken as if meant for Lynn, were instead directed toward Amanda, who had not known until this point that Jeff and Lynn were married.
John now offers Jeff the chance to forgive him or take revenge, since he is responsible for Jeff's torment throughout this game. If Jeff forgives, John will call an ambulance to save Lynn. As Jeff says, "I forgive you," he picks up a circular saw and slashes John's throat, causing Lynn's collar to detonate and kill her as the door to the room closes and locks. A micro-cassette recorder in John's hand delivers the message that he himself was the final test of forgiveness; by killing him, Jeff has failed. In addition, John is the only person who knows where Jeff's daughter Corbett is hidden, and Jeff will have to play another game in order to find her before her air supply runs out. He is left screaming in despair as a montage of all the traps in the film series to date flashes by. The movie ends with a shot of John's corpse lying on the bed and Lynn's head blown off.
Cast
*The full cast list can be found at [http://lionsgatepublicity.com/epk/saw3/index.php the Lionsgate website] , under "Production Notes."
Production
According to the director's audio track on the DVD release, almost all the transitions from one place to another (such as from Kerry's trap to Chris' place, and Jigsaw's lair to Jeff's crate) were not made using digital effects. The transitions were shot on the spot. So when the camera moves from Troy's crime scene to Kerry being in the bathtub,
Dina Meyer had to run, take off all her clothes, and jump into the tub. If you look closely, you can still see the water moving from when she got in.According to
Leigh Whannell , Adam had a lot more scenes in the original film. One of which was the scene between Adam and Amanda, included on the "Saw III" DVD bonus features.According to producer Daniel J. Heffner, the film was toned down 7 times to obtain the "R" rating. According to director Darren Lynn Bousman, the
MPAA ratings board was less concerned with the film's graphic violence because television shows like CSI have expanded the scope of what is acceptable viewing with their graphic depictions of crime scenes and autopsies. Bousman says the MPAA is more concerned with emotional torture that disturbs the audience. [ [http://hollywoodgothique.bravejournal.com/entry/26607 Hollywood Gothique: SAW IV - Darren Lynn Bousman Interview] ]Promotion
A scene from "Saw III " was going to be shown when the action / thriller film "Crank" opened in theaters on September 1. However, the MPAA did not allow it, due to the scene's large amount of gore. For similar reasons, an early teaser trailer for the movie was removed from the official "Saw III " site. The next trailer released featured flashbacks of Jigsaw attaching the "reverse bear trap" to Amanda and applying his makeup for posing as the corpse in the bathroom from "Saw". The ads played up "Saw"'s yearly release dates with the tagline, "If it's Halloween, it must be "Saw"
Around 1,000 special posters were made and sold for $20 each in support of Saw III. The posters were made with a small amount of Tobin Bell's blood (mixed with the printing ink). One such poster was also signed by the entire cast and crew of "Saw III", and was auctioned off. All the proceeds from the auctioned poster were donated to the
Red Cross . [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489270/trivia IMDB Trivia Page] ]At Spike TV's Scream Awards on October 10, 2006,
Tobin Bell andShawnee Smith appeared on stage with directorDarren Lynn Bousman . Smith pinned Bousman to a chair, saying "Payback's a bitch," while Bell staged sawing off the top of Bousman's head. Smith then found a blood-saturated piece of film on his brain. This led to a "World Premiere" trailer featuring the plight of Troy in the .In a promotional video featured on
MySpace (with similar versions made forYouTube andBreak.com ), Billy, Jigsaw's puppet, addresses the viewer in the same fashion as in the videos in the film. He states, "Hello. Are you watching me on MySpace? Good. I'd like to play a game with you. Up until now you've...just sat there as a voyeur, watching other people in their videos without care about who that person is. Well, what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Let's find out. Right now you are being watched. If you forget for one second that you're being watched, you will lose. Your only way out is to understand these numbers: 1, 0, 2, 7, 0, 6. Find the meaning and you will live. Just remember; knowledge changes everything." [ [http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1284086378 Video Clip] ] The numbers represent the release date of the film, October 27, 2006.The original cut of the movie ran for over two hours, and several scenes have been confirmed to have been cut out, including a scene shown being filmed on... depicted an extended scene of Kerry and Rigg examining Troy's trap, where Kerry reveals to Rigg she has had nightmares about Eric, and she blames herself for what happened to him.
There was also reference in an interview with Bousman of a scene that was not shown Jigsaw questioning if he was correct in his goal: "He begins to question because he's near the very end, maybe this wasn't right. Maybe none of this really worked. Maybe he is a murderer. Maybe he is a killer... For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry. Imagine your entire life's work. You're on your deathbed. You know there's nothing else you can do and here's how you'll be remembered: as a killer, as a murderer. Not as someone who helped people. Not as someone who changed lives. Someone who took away lives. The one thing he didn't want to be and, as he's on his deathbed, he's realizing this." [cite web|url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/741/741449p2.html|title=IGN: Interview: Darren Lynn Bousman|accessdate=2007-10-26|publisher=
IGN ] The audio commentary also notes thatLeigh Whannell 's character of Adam had more screen time, including a scene in which he passes by Amanda at the entrance of his apartment that was also included on the DVD. [cite video | year = 2007 | title = Saw III | medium = DVD | publisher = Lions Gate Entertainment]Reception
At screenings in the
United Kingdom three people were reported to have fainted at separate cinemas, resulting in ambulances needing to be called.cite web| publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6101704.stm |title=Film fans faint at Saw III show |accessdate=2006-10-31]Rotten Tomatoes.com gave the film a 27% rating, qualifying it as "Rotten."
Box office
Playing in 3,167 theaters "Saw III" grossed a total of $33,610,391 on its opening weekend.cite web| publisher= Box Office Mojo| url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=saw3.htm |title= Saw III | accessdate=2006-10-29] With a production budget of $9.98 million, the film was already considered a box office success. "Saw III" ended up grossing $80,238,724 domestically and $150,907,724 worldwide. As of May 2008, the film has made $164,874,275.cite web| publisher= Box Office Mojo| url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=saw3.htm |title= Saw III | accessdate=2006-10-29]
oundtrack
DVD releases
The DVD was released on January 23, 2007 in two versions, both of which have the same bonus features:
*R-rated (108 min.) Full Screen
*Unrated (113 min.) Anamorphic Widescreen, Full Screen
*Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 tracks
*Three Commentary Tracks:
**1. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Writer Leigh Whannell and Executive Producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine.
**2. Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg.
**3. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Editor Kevin Greutert and Director of Photography David A. Armstrong.
*Deleted scenes, including the fight scene between Amanda and Lynn, and the extra scene with Adam and Amanda.
*"The Traps of Saw III"
*"The Details of Death: The Props of Saw III"
*"Darren's Diary: Anatomy of a Director"
*TrailersAlso confirmed are two exclusive featurettes to the
Blu-ray Disc release of Saw III, which includes a feature on the writing of Saw III, and an "Amanda: Evolution of a Killer" featurette. These featurettes were also included on an exclusive 2-disc edition, sold at Target stores in the U.S. andFuture Shop stores inCanada . They contain the Unrated Widescreen Edition on Disc 1.Unrated Edition
The Unrated DVD, released on January 23, 2007, features a 113-minute cut of the film that includes more gore. On the commentary track, Bousman notes that this is not his original, two-hour-plus cut of the film, and that is why he released the Director's cut in October 2007.
The Unrated version of "Saw III" differs from the theatrical in many ways. The first noticeable difference is that the opening scene is more violent. The shots of Eric's heel being broken are much closer, and more detail is shown. When Kerry is discussing Eric with Rigg, the scene is slightly extended, showing her commenting on how she can't sleep because of his disappearance. When Kerry's trap triggers, a frontal shot is shown of her ribs being torn from her torso, leaving her organs exposed. Flashes showcase her innards dropping to the floor. The next noticeable difference is during Danica's . A few extra shots show Jeff slamming the door, trying to get out. During , Tim's limbs are shown much more, showcasing his skin tearing as the bone shatters out of his skin. The flashback fight scene between Amanda and Eric is also extended. Amanda is shown hearing Eric's cries for his son, and seems distressed. While maneuvering in the corridor, Eric sneaks up on her and the fight resumes from there. The last and most major difference is the film's ending. In the theatrical, once the montage of the victims passes by, Lynn's corpse is shown quickly, before cutting to Jeff screaming, then on Jigsaw's corpse, and finally cutting to black. In the unrated, during the montage the music slightly overlaps, skipping a couple of seconds forward, and then showing Lynn's mutilated head, zooming in on the gory details, and then slowly fading out to white.
The original theater version was also missing a soundtrack that was meant to play during the scene with Timothy Young in .
Director's Cut
A Director's Cut of "Saw III" was released on October 23, 2007 to coincide with the theatrical release of "Saw IV" on October 26. Extras on the 2-disc set include:
*Three new audio commentaries:
**1. Writer Leigh Whannell
**2. Director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor J. LaRose (who portrayed "Troy")
**3. Actors Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith (who portrayed "Jigsaw" and "Amanda" respectivly)
*"Jigsaw's Plan"... A trivia game.
*"Filmmaker Favs"... Texts about the favorite scenes/lines/details as chosen by the production crew and certain cast members.
*"Looking Tortured"... Featurette explaining how to replicate certain make-up effects from the three movies.
*"Choose the Death"... Commentary on 10 different traps (Primarilly from "Saw II" and "Saw III")
*Music video: "Killer Inside- Messed Up World Remix" (Hydrovibe featuring Shawnee Smith)
*A clip of the first trap in "Saw IV"This version of "Saw III" is the definitive one that Darren Lynn Bousman had originally intended (prior to being forced to edit the film seven times by the MPAA to achieve the R rating for the theatrical release), with a total running time of 121 minutes. A deleted scene reincorporated into this version of the film depicts a brutal catfight between Amanda (
Shawnee Smith ) and Lynn (Bahar Soomekh ). In another added scene, Amanda appears to be having nightmares about kidnapping Adam before she finally decides to give him a mercy killing. This scene also reveals Jigsaw knew Amanda killed Adam. Also included is the original ending, which shows Jeff stumbling over to Lynn's corpse, playing Jigsaw's tape, then screaming before the credits begin. This tape is very much the same as the theatrical and unrated tape, except with some added lines, such as Jeff must "Pay the price for holding onto all that anger".References
External links
* [http://www.saw3.com/ Official "Saw III" Site]
* [http://www.officialsaw.com/ Official SAW Website & Fan Club]
*Ymovies title|id=1809278202|title=Saw III
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489270/ "Saw III"] at theInternet Movie Database
*Box Office Leaders USA
before = The Prestige
date= October 29
year = 2006
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