Jigsaw (figure)
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John Kramer is a fictional serial killer and the central character in the Saw series of films . Because of the notorious habit of cutting puzzle pieces out of the skin of the victims of his varied tortures , the police and the media give him the name Jigsaw ( English for 'puzzle' or 'fretsaw') or Jigsaw Killer . Thanks to eight films (2004-2017) he developed into one of the most famous characters in the younger horror film . Some social and film scholars interpret Jigsaw as a metaphor for America's “ war on terror ” during the Bush-Cheney administration , while others do not accept this view and see the excessive violence of the film series as an end in itself (“ torture porn ”).
biography
John Kramer is a successful civil engineer and happily married. Together with lawyer and partner Art Blank, he leads the Urban Renewal Group , a real estate company committed to helping those in need. His wife Jill Tuck runs a rehab under the motto Cherish Your Life (treasures your life) . When Jill, seven months pregnant, miscarries in a patient robbery, Kramer falls into severe depression . After he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor , he tried to kill himself by driving his car over a cliff. As if by a miracle, he survived almost unscathed and then made the decision to use his methods to convince other people of the value of life from now on.
From then on, Kramer involved his victims in perfidious "games", as he himself calls it, in order to test their will to live. The first victim is the man who is addicted to heroin who is responsible for the death of his unborn son. After killing several people in self-constructed traps and making a name for himself as Jigsaw , he becomes aware of a copycat who turns out to be Police Detective Mark Hoffman. Kramer recruits Hoffman, who is on his case, by blackmailing him , and with his help develops most of his traps. Drug addict Amanda Young, a patient at Jill's rehab, is tested by Jigsaw by having to free her head from an inverted bear trap. She survived and found a kind of mentor in John Kramer . Apparently convinced of his ideology, she also becomes his assistant. After Jigsaw, whose health is badly damaged, escapes the police, Amanda hides and takes care of him in the basement of a meat factory built by his company. As his condition worsens, with the help of his accomplices, he subjects more and more people to the fatal tests. Shortly after a life-prolonging brain operation, he is lying in a hospital bed and is killed with a circular saw by one of his test subjects . Amanda falls victim to a gunshot wound. The body of the 52-year-old is found by FBI special agent Peter Strahm and later autopsied by forensic doctors . They find a cassette in the serial killer's stomach on which Jigsaw announces a continuation of his work.
After Jigsaw's death, Hoffman initially continued his crimes, but despite his investigative role, he himself increasingly became the target of the authorities. Jill, who knew about her ex-husband's activities all along, obeyed his ex-husband's will and subjects Hoffman to a test. This survives seriously injured and kills Jill. His attempt to leave the city fails when he is stopped by three masked men. One of them turns out to be Jigsaw's secret third assistant and former oncologist Dr. Gordon who eventually locks Hoffman up and leaves him to his fate.
Characteristic
Motive and approach
After his unsuccessful suicide attempt , John Kramer realizes that he attached too little value to his own life. He sees himself “cured” from this disdain and decides to “heal” other people in the same way. To do this, he constructs elaborate mechanical traps with time switches in his company's buildings. The victims that Jigsaw kidnaps with the help of his henchmen are given a sedative and usually wake up suddenly in seemingly hopeless situations. The victims or test subjects learn the “rules of the game” and the reasons for their arrest via audio cassette or video message. The rules presented by Kramer's expressionless, distorted voice must be followed to pass. Most of the time, physical violence that the victim inflicts on himself has to be endured. If a person loses their “game”, the consequences are invariably fatal. The tormentor himself is not present either as a spectator or as a player, but rather acts as a referee. Jigsaw believes that there is no way to help people and believes that everyone must help themselves:
"The torture scenarios (" games ") in the Saw movies are conceived by their creator as jolts necessary to arouse people irresponsibly sleepwakling through their lives (...) in the expectation of torture, the victims are exposed not to the possibility of death, or not only to the possibility of death, but to an ecstatic transformative, self-altering moment which opens up a revitalized, more intense engagement with life. "
“The torture scenarios (“ games ”) in the Saw films are designed by their creator to wake up people who sleepwalk through life (…) in anticipation of torture, the victims are exposed not only to the possibility of death, but to an ecstatic transformation , a self-changing moment that opens up a revitalized, more intense approach to life. "
Jigsaw's victims are often careerist people from business and finance, but also neglecting fathers, unfaithful husbands, drug addicts and neo-Nazis , whom he blames for undesirable social developments. Although the target people include people from his own past, he strictly rejects revenge as a motive, as emerges from a conversation with Detective Mark Hoffman. A crucial point in his argumentation as well as in the reception of the character is that Jigsaw does not see himself as a murderer , a quality that he shares with the Marquis de Sade . He claims that he gives his victims the choice of whether to live or die:
“Feelings of revenge can change a person. You can discover someone within you who you would never have suspected there. But unlike you, I've never murdered. I give people a chance (...) You can exercise justice, but at the same time give people the chance to appreciate life (...) Killing is something disgusting and inhuman in my eyes. There is a better, much more efficient way (…) You see, I'm talking about a second way. If a test person survives my method, he or she is immediately rehabilitated. "
The point of Jigsaw's radical interventions is controversial. Jacob Huntley believes their ultimate goal is a better functioning society. His philosophical underpinning of this utopia is close to Hegel's idea of " morality ". However, despite all the authenticity of a just society, a “blurred self-help thinking” pervades the serial killer method.
Appearance and symbolism
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A number of characteristic optical features are associated with the Jigsaw figure, which is primarily used by merchandising . While John Kramer usually dresses inconspicuously casual before his transformation to Jigsaw, he shows himself as a serial killer in a black robe with a red hem and hood , which is possibly intended to be a deliberate reminder of an inquisitor . To conceal their identity, Jigsaw and accomplices wear pig masks with long, black synthetic hair when kidnapping their victims. The birth date for Kramer's son Gideon was planned for the Chinese year of the pig . In addition, according to Kramer, pigs are extremely compassionate animals. Such a mask can also be seen on official posters for Saw IV and Jigsaw .
The hallmarks of the film series are the traps, which Kramer uses his knowledge as a civil engineer to construct. Jacob Huntley attests them an “industrial aesthetic” and speaks of torture in connection with “conceptual violence” , which is intended to educate but not to teach. Reflective punishments are particularly common. For example, in Saw VI, two investment bankers who are compared to predators are instructed to sacrifice a pound of meat. The killer himself has a personal and emotional distance from his victims that gives him authority .
To convey the "rules of the game" and his intentions, Jigsaw uses a self-designed doll named Billy, which was originally intended as a toy for his son. The name Billy is not mentioned in any of the films, but is mentioned in interviews with screenwriters James Wan and Leigh Whannell . Billy wears a three-piece suit with a red bow tie and has the mechanical skills to move his eyes and lower jaw. It is very reminiscent of a ventriloquist's dummy or marionette and has red spirals on both cheeks as a special feature. Billy usually appears captured on video and rides a tricycle . The famous and often parodied quotes with which Jigsaw accompanies the beginning and - if the outcome is negative - the end of a "game" resound from his mouth:
- Jigsaw
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If a person loses and dies, Kramer cuts a piece of the puzzle out of the skin with a knife, from which his pseudonym can be traced. According to an essay by James Aston and John Walliss, his pessimistic ethical vision is based on a form of social Darwinism , insinuating that people have lost their instinct for survival - Darwin's "struggle for existence". This weakness is symbolically cut out of their skin.
Assistants
Aston and Walliss name three possibilities for the further fate of Jigsaw's victims. Those who do not die a violent death or survive severely traumatized consequently become sadistic henchmen of the serial killer.
One of John Kramer's first assistants is Police Detective Mark Hoffman. Hoffman is an unapproachable loner whose closest social contact is his younger sister. When she is brutally murdered one day, he seeks revenge and kills her killer in a construction based on the Jigsaw Killer, which is already known to the police. Kramer kidnaps the detective and confronts him with the fact that his traps are not just killing machines, but offer the possibility of survival. Fearing that Jigsaw might betray him, Hoffman becomes his assistant and assists him in kidnapping the victims and setting up the traps. After Kramer's death, however, he no longer attached any importance to his idea and increasingly gave the impression that he had taken pleasure in killing.
Kramer and Hoffman kidnap the drug addict Amanda Young, whom Kramer knows in connection with his ex-wife's rehab clinic. After surviving her "test", Amanda falls under the charm of the serial killer and competes with Hoffman for his favor. In contrast to Hoffman, she shows herself convinced and self-sacrificing, but also misunderstands the ideology of her mentor and insists on punishing the victims. So she builds traps from which it is impossible to escape. Jigsaw realizes this obsession and subjects Amanda to a second test that eventually ends with her death.
At the end of Saw 3D - Perfection, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, one of the first victims of Jigsaws (see Saw ), as another assistant who plays an important role, especially in the case of medical preparations in the case design. The question of Gordon's motivation remains unanswered. His ex-wife Jill Tuck, who also knows about Hoffman and Amanda, is also privy to Kramer's activities. In the end, she learns from a photo from her ex-husband's estate that she should "test" Hoffman. Due to a deep, mutual distrust, she decides instead to kill the detective.
Another accomplice and successor in Jigsaw turns out to be the coroner and Iraq war veteran Logan Nelson. Because Nelson Kramer's X-ray image, previously employed in a hospital, accidentally mixed up with that of another patient and thus prevented a possibly life-saving, earlier diagnosis, the killer chooses him for one of his "games". During the test with four other victims, Nelson is unconscious and Kramer decides to save him. The traumatized then becomes Jigsaw's first assistant before Hoffman. Ten years after his mentor's death, Nelson continues his actions for personal reasons and kills the corrupt police officer Halloran who was covering his wife's murderer.
Emergence
Leigh Whannell , the screenwriter of Saw , Saw II and III and one of the main characters in the first film, is believed to be the creator of Jigsaw. After James Wan had set the plot with the beginning and end of the first film, Whannell filled the gap with a perpetrator and motif. The Australian named personal experiences as inspiration for the complex character: According to his own statements, he worked in an unpleasant job when he was 24 and suffered from migraines every day . While waiting for an MRI scan, he imagined a diagnosis of a fatal brain tumor and thought about how to deal with the news that he could only live a year or two. By creating a character who literally imposed this personal time limit on his victims, the character of John Kramer aka Jigsaw was born.
Wan, director and co-screenwriter of the first Saw film, invented the no less iconic Billy doll, the first prototype of which he modeled out of paper mache . Billy was featured in the 2003 short film Saw 0.5 and was the godfather of the main character of Dead Silence , another joint film with Whannell.
Appearances
Movies
Although John Kramer alias Jigsaw is the most distinctive and undoubtedly most important character in the film series, his screen time is limited, especially in the later films. He is played throughout by the American actor Tobin Bell . The German voice actor is Bodo Wolf .
| No. | year | Original title | Jigsaw performer | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2004 | Saw | Tobin Bell | James Wan |
| 2 | 2005 | Saw II | Darren Lynn Bousman | |
| 3 | 2006 | Saw III | ||
| 4th | 2007 | Saw IV | ||
| 5 | 2008 | Saw V | David Hackl | |
| 6th | 2009 | Saw VI | Kevin Greutert | |
| 7th | 2010 | Saw 3D | ||
| 8th | 2017 | Jigsaw | Peter and Michael Spierig |
Other media
- 2005: Saw: Rebirth ( unauthorized comic)
- 2009: Saw: The Video Game (video game with Tobin Bell as speaker)
- 2010: Saw II: Flesh & Blood (video game with Tobin Bell as speaker)
reception
Critical reception
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Even before the film series temporarily ended in 2010, Jigsaw achieved the status of a horror icon. Seton Hall University film historian Christopher Sharrett sees the character of the "omniscient villain" as the incarnation of Dr. Mabuse as well as in the tradition of Ming the Cruel, adversary of Flash Gordon . Likewise, his pronounced social disintegration is comparable to that of the perpetrator in David Fincher's Seven . While Jigsaw's motif forms the central enigma of the series, the reveal of his identity at the end of the first film is considered one of the most effective twists in the horror genre.
Some critics interpret Jigsaw as an antihero rather than a classic villain . Darren Lynn Bousman , director of Saw II , III and IV , himself emphasized in 2006 that it was difficult to categorize Jigsaw and said that one could best compare the character with a vigilante . Votes against this dilution are problematic and argue that Jigsaw's “lessons” and his justifications for them are an unconvincing alibi for the true focus of the films - an “amoral spectacle of senseless suffering”. Christopher Sharrett sees it as conceit of the makers to portray Jigsaw more as a moralist than a serial killer. The main aim of the film series is to show a male audience in adolescence painfully detailed depictions of various forms of torture. The morality conveyed in the film series is hollow and should only provide an intellectual pretext for it. Roger Ebert judged similarly in his review of the first film, in which he described the killer as a “remedy”, the motivations of which were brought in out of sheer “courtesy” in the end. Jacob Huntley, however, considers dismissing the Saw films as “ Torture Porn ” as unjustified, especially since Jigsaw shows no desire to kill, a characteristic that distinguishes him from other horror characters like Freddy Krueger .
Tobin Bell's portrayal of the pathological character is usually received much more positively than the films themselves. In 2009, Joe Neumaier named the way in which Bell incorporated threat and melancholy into even the most common dialogue in the Daily News , one of the reasons why fans of the series still went to the cinemas. For his performance in the films Saw II , III (together with Shawnee Smith as Amanda) and IV Bell was each nominated for a Scream Award in the category "Most Vile Villain". In 2006 and 2007 he also received a nomination for the MTV Movie Award for "Best Villain".
Scientific interpretation
Due to its enormous popularity and the cult of the Saw films, the figure of Jigsaw also occupies the social science discourse. According to Christopher Sharrett criticized Saw the capitalist society mindlessly from a very conservative from position. The liberal middle-class man John Kramer changed through his "rebirth" to a fundamentalist conservative and reactionary . Jigsaw's vigilantism stands as a "perfect emblem for the current right-wing ideology ".
"Jigsaw, the disgruntled, middle-class white male professional, fits in a long tradition of male characters fed up with democratic institutions, determined to set their own rules."
"Jigsaw, the disgruntled white middle-class professional, fits into a long tradition of male characters who are tired of democratic institutions and determined to make their own rules."
Douglas Kellner, a representative of the Frankfurt School , compared Jigsaw and what it stands for in 2010 to the US administration under George W. Bush . The "sick and perverted ex-machina killer" Jigsaw could be read as a metaphor for Vice President Dick Cheney , for whose " war on terror " the government was right at all means. Jigsaw's access to "obscene violence" to his victims is symbolic of America's anti-terror program and foreign policy in the post- 9 / 11 era, which, like the serial killer's agenda, failed. Evangelos Tziallas agrees with this interpretation and sees in the "sadistic-conservative Panopticon " Jigsaws also a metaphor for the Bush era, whereby in connection with the explicit brutality he mainly refers to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal . Jigsaw is judge, jury and executor in one person. On the other hand, the character could just as easily stand for terrorist radicalization itself, as Dean Lockwood notes. The idea of redemption or rehabilitation through violence that Jigsaw undoubtedly pursues is an American myth in general . However, the increasingly pessimistic or nihilistic application in the Saw films compromises the idea of rehabilitative violence.
In a more general way, Jigsaw can stand for a "symbolic masculinity crisis". This manifests itself in the weakness of being unable to protect his unborn son and in his suicide attempt. Also, most of the serial killer's victims are men. Jigsaw used his "rigid morality" and the male individualism of a vigilante to restore a male agenda and authority to the directionless society. The upholding of this right and conservative masculinity is criticized with the help of characters such as Jigsaw's successors and his own doomed body as "excessive, paralyzing and destructive". The portrayal of Kramer as a weak father figure could also be viewed as a criticism of the administration of George W. Bush. The pessimistic family image of the Saw films in combination with bleeding bodies would stand as a symbol for the success and futility of torture.
In a religious context, Jigsaw is often seen as an allegory of a godlike figure. Apparently regardless of the boundaries of time and space, it spreads and is presented as omnipresent and unstoppable. His “tests” suggest a comparison with the Christian - Jewish God and recall the trials of Abraham and Job . Still, unlike The Abominable Dr. Phibes abolishes divinity because it is contrary to a free will advocated by him . However, he has the gift of divine prediction, since he always seems to know how his victims would decide. Brian H. Collins sees in Jigsaw at least one religious guru who, in the diction of Jean-Paul Sartre, diagnoses the world with " evil intent ". According to Christopher Sharrett, the character at times resembles a “ New Age therapist” because of her obsession with “healing” people from certain fixations .
literature
- James Aston & John Walliss (Eds.): To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror. McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2013, 208 pp., ISBN 978-0-7864-7089-1 . (English), in particular
- James Aston & John Walliss: “I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them ”: Ethical Guidance and the Turn Toward Cultural Pessimism. Pp. 13-29.
- Fernando G. Pagnoni Berns & Amy M. Davis: From Jigsaw to Phibes: God, Free Will and Foreknowledge in Conflict. Pp. 73-85.
- Brian H. Collins: A Voice and Something More: Jigsaw as Acousmêtre and Existential Guru. Pp. 86-104.
- Jacob Huntley: The Jigsaw Assemblage. Pp. 123-138.
- Dean Lockwood: Work Is Hell: Life in the Mannequin Factory. Pp. 139-156.
- Jake (Jacob) Huntley: "I Want to Play a Game": How to See Saw. In: The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Stories 3 (2007), pp. 54-63 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Christopher Sharrett: The Problem of Saw : “Torture Porn” and the Conservatism of Contemporary Horror Films. In: Cineaste , Winter 2009, pp. 32–37. Preview .
- ↑ James Aston & John Walliss (Eds.): To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC / London 2013, 208 pp., ISBN 978-0-7864-7089-1 (English).
- ^ A b Douglas Kellner: Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics and the Bush-Cheney Era. Wiley-Blackwell , Oxford 2010, pp. 7-8. Quoted in: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 13-29 (English).
- ↑ a b c Patrick Melton , Marcus Dunstan & Thomas H. Fenton: Saw IV screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell , Lionsgate 2007 (English).
- ^ A b Leigh Whannell & Darren Lynn Bousman : Saw II screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell, Lionsgate 2005 (English).
- ↑ a b Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan: Saw V screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell , Lionsgate 2008 (English).
- ↑ James Wan & Leigh Whannell : Saw screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell, Lionsgate 2004 (English).
- ↑ a b c Leigh Whannell : Saw III screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell, Lionsgate 2006 (English).
- ↑ a b c Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan: Saw VI screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell , Lionsgate 2009 (English).
- ↑ a b Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan: Saw 3D screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell , Lionsgate 2010 (English).
- ↑ a b Jake Huntley: "I Want to Play a Game": How to See Saw. In: The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Stories 3 (2007), pp. 54-63 (English).
- ↑ Dean Lockwood: All Stripped Down: The Spectacle of 'Torture Porn'. Popular Communication 7-1 (2009), pp. 40-48. Abstract (English).
- ↑ a b c d e f g James Aston & John Walliss: “I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them ”: Ethical Guidance and the Turn Toward Cultural Pessimism. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 13-29 (English).
- ^ A b c d Jacob Huntley: The Jigsaw Assemblage. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 123-138 (English).
- ↑ Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan: Dialogexzerpt (German dubbed) from Saw V . Lionsgate 2008.
- ↑ a b c d Dean Lockwood: Work Is Hell: Life in the Mannequin Factory. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 139-156 (English).
- ↑ Josh Stolberg & Peter Goldfinger: Jigsaw screenplay, based on Saw by James Wan & Leigh Whannell , Lionsgate 2017 (English).
- ↑ Scott Tobias: Interview - Saw creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan. The AV Club, October 29, 2010, accessed October 31, 2017 .
- ↑ James Wan in: Saw DVD Extras. Lionsgate 2005.
- ↑ Tobin Bell. German synchronous index , accessed on October 22, 2018 .
- ^ Saw Rebirth (2005). IMDb , accessed on October 22, 2018 .
- ↑ Saw's Jigsaw Killer Returns. The Escapist, February 6, 2009, accessed October 22, 2018 .
- ^ Saw II: Flesh & Blood - Cut to the chase. The Register, October 29, 2010, accessed October 22, 2018 .
- ↑ Interview: Darren Lynn Bousman. IGN , October 24, 2006, accessed October 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Roger Ebert : Saw Review. October 28, 2004, accessed October 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Joe Neumaier: Halloween movie round-up: Fresh blood at the cinema lifts the lid on a haunting Halloween. Daily News , October 30, 2009, accessed October 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelos Tziallas: Torture porn and surveillance culture. Jump Cut , 2009, accessed October 29, 2017 .
- ^ Richard Slotkin: Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier. In: University of Oklahoma Press 1973, pp. 1600-1860. Quoted in: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 13-29 (English).
- ↑ a b Ben McCann: Body Horror. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 30-44 (English).
- ↑ Fernando G. Pagnoni Berns & Amy M. Davis: From Jigsaw to Phibes: God, Free Will and Foreknowledge in Conflict. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 73-85 (English).
- ^ Brian H. Collins: A Voice and Something More: Jigsaw as Acousmêtre and Existential Guru. In: To See the Saw Movies. Essays on Torture Porn and post-9/11 Horror. Pp. 86-104 (English).
