Spiral: From the Book of Saw (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2021)

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Pavel
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:41 pm

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2021)

#1 Post by Pavel » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:36 pm

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is sort of weird. In both an expected and unexpected way. The expected one is its way-past-borderline incompetent editing, which creates a clearly unintentional distancing effect in that it obfuscates actions and realizations to the point of near-incomprehensibility. Dev Singh has edited 9 feature films; outside of Spiral: From the Book of Saw* I've heard of exactly zero of them.

The second one, which caught me off-guard, is kind of political. Here is a decidedly pro-police picture — even beyond the inevitable ways in which a film about two cops investigating cop murders would be (officer Zeke reminds us that cops maintain the highest depression and suicide rate) — that tries to address the issue of police reform. It does so in an amusingly centrist way — the villain is intent on killing cops, but #notallcops ("You want me to help you kill cops?" "No, fuck no. Just the bad ones."). In its dipshit way, Spiral tries to be critical of the police ("These cops are not gonna clean up on their own. Well fix the broken department."; "That's what cops do, shoot first, ask questions later."). It tries to acknowledge the issues plaguing the department and submits that there needs to be change. Yet the instigator of said change is the maniac who tortures and kills in elaborate and unambiguously evil ways. Zeke insists he isn't "woke" (in the context of arguing that Forrest Gump shouldn't be called a "retard"), and neither is this movie, though it feigns progressivism in a weird fashion, before claiming "sure, there are bad cops, but most are heroes sacrificing life, limb and mental health in their mission to protect and serve; reform is necessary, but getting rid of the 'few bad apples' in such a way is hardly the answer". Fine, but then what is? Saw-style mutilation and murder is radical and sadistic, passivity is enabling the broken system that led to children growing up without their (innocent) fathers. If the cops are not gonna clean up on their own, who will? Who'll fix these departments? The villains suggests he is the answer, but certainly we're not meant to sit and nod in agreement.
I'm not saying that this dumbass torture porn flick should answer, or even pose, such questions. I'm instead latching onto the only element of interest in the 114th installment of a stale franchise. Here is an example of a film that addresses topical problems, and submits to the leftist notion of "things are not okay, change is necessary", before embracing the conservative idea of the cops as saviors and the bastards among them as a rare occurence. The force that wants to bring change to the police force is presented as vile and immoral. But then who's to bring that change? Zeke enables the behavior of his corrupt colleagues, but he's the hero that wants to kill the man that's not going to take it anymore. Killing a few rotten apples in every department is hardly effective or sustainable, but regardless this is a film in which the villain symbolizes necessary change, and the heroes symbolize clinging to the systems in place even while recognizing their flaws.


* I find it utterly hilarious that From the Book of Saw is not a tagline or whatever the adequate term would be, but literally part of the official title. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story × 1000. Hobbit: From the Book of The Lord of the Rings.
Oh, also I think it's funny how every single "bad apple" chooses mutilation over death, but still dies because they weren't fast enough or something; you can't have it both ways every time, movie!

black&huge
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:35 am

Re: The Films of 2021

#2 Post by black&huge » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:44 pm

While watching Spiral I got the strong sense it was one of those movies where a random script was just dug up and slapped as a SAW movie just to get another entry out to my surprise though it turns out the script was always inteded to be a SAW film. It felt so weird and I know they're trying to branch out into a SAW universe but even the one photo of Jigsaw we see just felt odd too. I wont even say anything felt tacked on because I don't think this movie at all is really believable as a SAW spin off.

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: The Films of 2021

#3 Post by beamish14 » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:57 pm

Pavel wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:36 pm


* I find it utterly hilarious that From the Book of Saw is not a tagline or whatever the adequate term would be, but literally part of the official title. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story × 1000. Hobbit: From the Book of The Lord of the Rings.

Nothing can beat Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Films of 2021

#4 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Jun 06, 2021 7:45 am

Its actually worse as its full title is Precious (Base on Nol by Saf) (Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire) which has to be one of the most unwieldy titles that has to pedantically spell everything out for its audience in such a manner that cannot reflect well on the film!

Despite writing up the Saw series a few times, I have not reached these latest films - Jigsaw and Spiral: From The Book of Saw - as yet because I was more than happy with how Saw VII: The Final Chapter ended things back in 2010! However the high profile cast of this one has sparked my interest a bit, and despite being called "The Final Chapter" (pretty conclusively tying up all of its ongoing convoluted plotlines) Saw VII pretty clearly set itself up for a future Fight Club-style world of spin-offs by taking Jigsaw's original (highly flawed) philosophy and expanding it out beyond just a couple of helpers into transforming him into an unwitting (and conveniently long dead) inspirational self-help guru figure with all of his acolytes now doing copycat crimes. Now that was satire on pseudo-religious cod philosophisers everywhere!

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