One of the most controversial films ever made, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom has been re-issued by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray. So sought after was Criterion’s long out-of-print 1998 DVD release of the film, collector’s were paying up to five hundred dollars for a genuine copy. Now this disturbing critique of the corrupting properties of unchecked power is readily available in high definition. Whether you choose to witness the various atrocities portrayed in the film, vividly displayed in Criterion’s first rate transfer, depends largely on your tolerance for disgusting imagery.
Pasolini’s film was based on The 120 Days of Sodom, an incomplete novel written in 1785 by the Marquis de Sade. Pasolini set his adaption in the Salò Republic (officially the Italian Social Republic), which was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by Mussolini during the final years of World War II. In the first act of the film, four powerful Italian dignitaries round up teenaged males and females and take them to a compound. Within the compound, the four men are accompanied by four women as they use the teenagers for whatever sadistic purposes they see fit. Young guards stand by throughout the compound, ensuring the young captives cannot escape. A strict atheistic agenda is imposed by the four dignitaries; even the mere mention of religion is punishable by death.
The controversy that has surrounded Salò (and resulted in its banning in numerous countries since its 1976 release) stems from the sexual degradation and torture that the dignitaries and their henchwomen subject the captive teenagers to. This covers a wide range of behavior, ranging from relatively simple forced sex acts to merciless murder. Perhaps most gag-inducing for many viewers is the banquet of human feces served to captives and captors alike midway through (with the latter quite enjoying the feast). Suffice it to say that this is a movie intended for a mature audience. The visuals, disturbing as they are, wouldn’t be so unnerving if not depicted in such a straight-faced, matter of fact manner. The dry, laconic (and sometimes gleeful) way in which the captors carry out their various tortures is why the film goes beyond mere shock value.
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