Salo, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom (1975)
Year: 1975
Country: Italy
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Criterion Spine Number: 17
Reviewed: April 2014
Country: Italy
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Criterion Spine Number: 17
Reviewed: April 2014
I like to think myself as a fairly innocent person. I’m a virgin who gets really awkward and giggly whenever I talk about anything remotely sexual. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that. It’s just that sometimes I find myself watching a film like Salo and I realise that I am probably far more corrupted than I would like to admit. This is a difficult film to watch and even harder to talk about because it is so disturbing and degrading and disgusting. By talking about, I have to think about what it’s trying to do which means the images (which were already fairly strongly imprinted) will never leave my head. Of all the films I’ve heard of, only Cannibal Holocaust could equal the level of I don’t really I want to see that movie. I’d heard of it’s degrading portrayals of men and women and that people had to excrement and all this disgusting stuff. Basically, it didn’t sound like a fun movie. However, then I decided to do this Criterion marathon and its number 17. I really was just going to skip it and wait until I was ready and older, but then I saw a copy at the library and it almost seemed like a sign, so I borrowed it, and put it off for ages. However, in the week before I eventually sat down to watch it, the works of de Sade began to become more prominent in my worldview. We were studying Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and I learnt that she was a fan of de Sade’s, arguing that his works had a potentially feminist element. This seemed somewhat curious to me and I wondered how. Again, the signs that now I was ready. Earlier this year, I’d sat down to Pasolini’s The Gospel According To Saint Matthew and had loved it and through the Morrisey/Dallesandro trilogy, I was becoming more comfortable with the idea of challenging adult films. All of the signs said I was ready, so I sat down to watch it. Unusually, I chose to do so during the day, because I didn’t want those thoughts in my head as I was trying to get to sleep. So, what did I think? Well… I don’t know. It’s incredibly confronting with scenes of sexual violence and perversions frequent and they’re not challenged particularly well. The controllers of the ‘game’ are sadistic, evil and without mercy or pity (the President is constantly smiling) and are unpunished by film’s end. Instead, the teenagers are killed in the most horrific and violent ways (there’s a scalping, an eye is popped out, nipples and penises are burned and it’s just not pleasant) after being put through some of the worst scenes of torture ever thought up. One scene features a girl forced to eat nails, another sees them treated like dogs, another sees a young couple being married before they are both raped. The hardest scene of the film, to watch, I found was when a girl is forced to eat a man’s shit with a spoon because she’s grieving for her mother. I was crying and feeling the need to vomit and it was hard to watch and really challenging. It’s an orgy of depravity and perversity. The whole film is challenging to one’s sensibilities. Basically, if you have a good view of humanity and wish for it to remain that way, do not watch this film. Humanity as its worst here and its heartbreaking and incredibly depressing. All of the taboos that society says are awful are featured in this film, and part of me thinks that they would be acceptable (well, the defecating and urination ones) if these people were willing to go along with it. Instead, they are forced. We watch as these children are broken and we pray that they are killed just so they can get the hell out of there. It is far from a pleasant film and it’s incredibly, incredibly disturbing. It stays in your mind in the most insidious of ways and yes, while it may have certain thematic importance (looking at facism, voyerurism, a society obsessed by pornography and degradation), this is almost what makes it hardest to watch because we aren’t given anything to grab on. None of the people here are characters, they’re just flesh to be used and abused. Watching them cry because they just know that there is no escape is not easy to watch. And it’s not an easy film. There is no happy ending, there is no freedom, there is no clear message, there is confronting and difficult scenes to watch. But it is a film designed to challenge and on that front it succeeds. I really don’t know what to say about this film. It’s an incredibly successful and well-made film, but it’s repulsive and hateful and not pleasant. This is a film I hope never to see again, because I watched through tears and retching and trying not to look. So, yes, I suppose I was ready to view this film. I’m not as much of a mess now as I was when I watched Beauty (another film which features violent rape) and I don’t regret watching it. It was a necessary film to watch, but it’s a bitter pill and I can see why this is banned in so many countries. Part of me wishes it was banned here. A challenging, difficult and important film.
Best Scene: The teenagers are treated like dogs (not a best scene, because
the best scene is the one I liked and there is none here, but this is one of the
more accomplished and confronting)
Overall Verdict: 9
the best scene is the one I liked and there is none here, but this is one of the
more accomplished and confronting)
Overall Verdict: 9