Kill or Die

Jigsaw forces individuals to perform gruesome, painful tasks that are specifically designed for them.  The source of pain, whether it be cuts to represent previous self-harm, or family members to represent unappreciated family ties, is unique: as is the means of solving a puzzle.  Dr. Gordon must kill Adam, the other man trapped in the bathroom, or his wife and daughter will be killed. Jigsaw also focuses on time; tasks must be done within a relatively brief period of time, limiting the will to thoroughly think through situations and decide. Rather, victims are forced to act on instinct and often insane, irrational urges.

We talked weeks ago about the idea of gifts: Saw provokes a number of thoughts pertaining to things we take advantage of. He targets people who he believes do not appreciate their blessings. When a gift is given, in this case: life, health, or loved ones, it is the recipient's choice of what to do with it, not Jigsaw's. He rationalizes his cruel punishments because people should appreciate their gifts, maybe so, but he should not be able to decide what other individual's need to be thankful for…yet he finds a way.  Though Jigsaw’s victims can be free to live, their fate is determined: Frankfurt says, “A person’s will is free only if he is free to have the will he wants” (548).   The consequences are so great i.e. taking a life, losing his loved ones, or cutting off his foot, that Dr. Gordon (and others in Jigsaw's "game") has no free will. 

Saw shows ultimatums, dilemmas, and lose-lose situations: though there are choices, there is no free will according to Frankfurt’s description: “a person is free to want what he wants to want” (549).  Jigsaw is "innocent" because he does murder, yet he causes deaths, arguably just as a severe a notion. Jigsaw threatens freedom, and in turn, determines a terrible fate or death. In later films (I've only seen Saw 2 and Saw 6 prior to this), consequences are often so severe that death may be a "better" fate. Finding oneself in one of Jigsaw's puzzles leaves him with minimal free will: yes, he has a choice, but it is difficult, painful, and haunting enough that his fate is determined by Jigsaw. 

The Gift of Life

Today is a gift, that is why it's called the present, or so they say. Often times life is underrated and unappreciated, it is undervalued and misused. In a sick and sadistic way The old man in the movie Saw manages to reignite the desire to live in others. He practices a form of "justice" but not in the way we would expect; not to bring justice to a person or group of people or etc. but to justify life, as if it were a being of its' own who's suffered from the people's ungrateful ideology of it. In every event, the plot is set to where the victim(s) has to make decisions to either live or die, at all cost.

Determinism, in a way, was present in that the options they had were chosen by an external person in control. Yet the victims still had free will to choose between killing or living for themselves or for the survival of their family. The old man brilliantly planned out every angle of it, and although a criminal, couldn't be imprisoned for murder since he actually didn't kill them. He has a mission to "right" those who are wrong, to convey how precious life is, but the methods he uses are demonic and portrays a sadist. The way in which he artistically finds a way to drive them crazy either through emotion or fear is, although rather impressive, cruel and torturous.

From the beginning choices are made, to find an alternative to that which was originally planned for the victims, and the end results are even worse. In the attempt to not kill Adam, Dr. Gordon tries many alternatives, including trying to out-think the sadist old man whom they have no idea is the real mastermind behind it all; but when his family becomes endangered he believes his only choice is to saw through his leg and kill Adam as had been originally commanded.

Both free will and determinism co-exist and become so intertwined that they almost seem as one. They hardly really seem to juxtapose in the movie, but yet they don't quite merge as one either. They have the free will to choose whether or not they will kill one another; but have a limited amount of time and choices to make as their lives (And in the doctor's case, his family's lives) depend on those factors, thus determinism emerges out of the scene. The actions they choose to take will be in their control, but only because the options they had were far out of their control and the outcome would come as a result of both.