Salo - 120 Days of Sadom / SalA² o le 120 giornate di Sodoma by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Language: Italian. Subtitles: English.A loose adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò is perhaps the most disturbing and disgusting film ever made. It is also one of the most important, offering a blistering critique of fascism and idealism that suggests moral redemption may be nothing but a myth. Criterion presents Salò in its uncut, uncensored version. Product Description

Salo

Finally watched the notorious 'Salo'. I was suprised. I read reviews about how no one under 25 or even 30 should even think about seeing this film because it will change your life. This is known to be one of the most disturbing dangerous films of all time. It was sick but I think the effect has worn off somewhat over the years... Either that or i've seen too many disturbing films already.

The plot of Salo's simple. It's about a group of power hungry fascist leaders who take these teens as their prisoners. They are basically sentenced to die. Some parts were hard to take seriously such as the lady giving her speeches- that was cheesy. The only part that got to me was the last scene when the leaders are looking through the binoculars at their captives fate. I think the effect may have worn off a little over the years. I give it 3 stars because it shows what fascist people with too much power are capable of...The darkside of humanity. November 17, 2007

would you like some poop with that?

Its hard to imagine what people were expecting when this movie had its initial release, or what they thought when the final reel ended. Its a tough movie to watch- even today. Anybody unfamiliar with De Sade should be warned- this is not erotica, there are no sex scenes in this movie to deliberately arouse the viewer, no characters, save for the victims, with whom we, as viewers or indeed voyeurs, can empathise in anyway. The directors brief introduction(Or introductory brief) is pretty helpful. This is a movie about persecution, about power and corruption. Even though it presents the merest glimpse into the volumous, unfinished novel upon which it is very closely based, its still almost too much. There is very little to enjoy about this movie in the normal kind of way and at its conclusion one is relieved that it is over but its begs the question - is it art? Certainly there is enough suffering to lend it that status - in the same manner that Picasso's nightmarish Guernica is art - a reminder of what true horror humans are capable of..
For the casual movie goer this probably won't be quite what you're looking for. Its too static and the pace is decidedly and deliberately funereal, there are very few sets and its ending will leave you wondering what the hell just happened?
A word on the disc.
The transfer is good, the sound quality is clear and sharp, the picture itself is good and crisp with little distortion or blurring. The subtitles are very readible although there was one moment when the titling lasted for just over a second and I had to spin back and pause to read them. Theres precious little else on the disc save the aforementioned directors introductory brief read by an actor and another simple filmography. Anyone familiar with Pasolini will probably know that stuff already.
Just having the movie is enough August 7, 2007

Uncomfortable but Still Worth Watching

This is a version of the Marquis de Sade's story, The 120 Days of Sodom, a story about four powerful men who enslave two dozen teenagers and torture them repeatedly. Unlike the book the film is set in the Salò Republic, the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy, in the year 1944. Pier Paolo Pasolini directs his final film. The four powerful men in the story are referred to as the Duke, the Magistrate, the President and the Bishop. To kick things off they marry each other's daughters and then begin to have young males and females kidnapped (18 in all, 9 of each gender). They also have four older prostitutes join in and this whole multitude marches over to some palace. Mind you, the time period means that the Nazi occupied Salò Republic is on its last legs and on the cusp of being crippled by the Allied forces. So the setting gives us sort of an end of days feeling right from the get-go. The content and commentary certainly continue with that subject matter throughout.

The film is set up in four stages, the first being the ante-inferno, which refers to those who are not quite condemned to hell but also not allowed into heaven either. The film's setting is meant to feel like a brief moment in purgatory with its isolated party of characters doing unspeakable things before judgment, and then it all must end. The second stage is the circle of manias, or obsession, where we see the sexual humiliation of the film manifest itself further. The third stage is the circle of excrement, which is where we see the characters consume feces. Pasolini has used this as a metaphor broadly for the perverse level of consumption depicted in the film overall, and directly as a commentary on mass-produced foods and consumerism. The fourth stage is the circle of blood, this is where those who do not partake in this bizarre corruption are brutally murdered in various ways. The stages bring us further and further downward into degeneracy, which Pasolini has applied strongly as a denunciation against capitalism and fascism.

If you found any interest in the above commentary, then I assume Salò may be just the film for you, but I assure you that the film is definitely not for everyone. It is up front with its content. It's controversial for many different reasons, but primarily it is the visual content that turns people away. Yes, it's not as violent as Saw and the nudity is not quite as pretty as it is in some movies, but Salò is anything other than an exploitation film. One may even argue that it is the exact opposite of exploitation. Perhaps it is Salò's censure of exploitation that makes it truly disturbing as a modern social commentary. July 26, 2007

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