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from Jim's Real Detroit Column SALO |
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Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) is one of the most deeply disturbing films in the history of cinema. And, though it is most often requested by video renters bent on viewing everything available that registers high on the disgust-o-meter, Salo is a movie that stimulates thought and intelligent discussion at the same time that it horrifies. The film is so respected that it has been a part of the esteemed Criterion Collection not once, but twice--the first time as a laserdisc and then as a DVD. While not known to collectors who have stuck exclusively with the VHS format, the Criterion Collection is generally considered unsurpassed when it comes to their selection of esoteric films and the stunning video quality of the finished product (of course the one exception would be the decision to include that giant Aerosmith music video, Armageddon, in their library). Both the DVD and laserdisc of Salo are now out of print and always command high bids on Internet auction sites. Pasolini loosely based his tale the Marquis de Sade’s appalling The 120 Days of Sodom, and then set the film in WWII fascist northern Italy. Sixteen children are kidnapped by the Duc de Blangis and his depraved contingent (including an Archbishop) and removed to a secluded and stately countryside villa. Immediately the children are stripped and forced to begin obedience training, where even the mere mention of God is punishable by death. For the next 120 days, the children move through various circles of degradation and subjected to torture, rape (both heterosexual and homosexual), mutilation, and death.Like many other controversial films, including Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, Salo is most often criticized or dismissed outright by those who have not actually seen it (it’s interesting to note that Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew is considered by many to be the most eloquent telling of the life of Christ). The film’s original release was postponed when the Italian government pressed obscenity charges against Pasolini; it was finally made available in 1975, the same year that the director was murdered by a young thug, who repeatedly ran over Pasolini with his own Alfa Romeo. Although Salo has been censored and even outright banned all over the globe, the film is a criticism of fascism that should be seen, thought about, and talked about, although most will never want to see it again. What makes the film even more horrifying is that these unspeakable abuses are all being done to children. But as terrible as it is to watch (there are parts where even the most hardened will gag), Salo is not exploitive, nor should its violence be called over the top. Pasolini’s use of graphic images serve to remind us of the recurring dangers of fascism in the real world and the moral decay and corruption inherent in limitless power. Still, the majority of Salo’s viewers will be those looking for shocks, and taken out of context, this film delivers like no other.
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