Salo or The 120 Days Of Sodom (1976/Criterion Collection Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: B+ Film: A-
It is one
of the most censored, criticized, ignored, shocking, vulgar, gross, bold,
groundbreaking, stunning, relentless, bleak, sickening, wild, astounding and
graphic films ever made, but it is also a masterwork whose creator was highly
likely assassinated for making and today, it would instantly get an NC-17 and
be passed on by most movie theaters and cineplexes. So what it is about Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo or The 120 Days Of Sodom (1976)
that continues to be so controversial to this day when we have had endless
torture porn films, gross-out comedies, endless blood and gore even in films
and on TV shows that would not have had it years ago?
The
difference is that 99% of those productions (including now often tired Horror
genre works) are pointless, repetitious, more show than go, about nothing and
unoriginal as unoriginal can get. Salo is as relevant as ever, is an
extremely political film and remains the ultimate criticism of fascism and
extreme consumerism that has ever been filmed and ever will. He went all the way to say what he had to
say and his enemies were not happy, especially since he had addressed the issue
before in films like Porcile and Theorem, but what was implicit in those
films is out here full force in front of the camera all the way, though the
film starts like many others.
Set in
the title town in the Italy
of 1944, Hitler has helped Mussolini take over a big piece of Italy to do
what they will with it. Many atrocities
followed and this tale combined the title work of De Sade with Dante’s Inferno to expose the total
annihilation that Italian Fascism and all fascism represents and though some
have stated that this is aimed at all absolute fascist power run rampant,
Pasolini particularly aimed at Italian Fascism alive and well in his country
and apparently paid the ultimate price.
Four men
lead a group of soldiers and other participants in kidnapping a group of young
boys and girls (14 – 18 years old) and take them to an elaborate house (one
writer suggested it was the home of a wealthy Jewish person or family, all of
whom had been long sent to a concentration camp (or camps) or killed on the
spot) and all of the young prisoners happens to be members of the communist
opposition or their children.
After
announcing bizarre ground rules they must conform to, it turns out they are to
be systematically manipulated, taunted, stripped of their personal selves
figuratively and literally, humiliated, abused, tortured and much worse
including sexual assault, human waste consumption and other forms of
degradation and torture that is systematic, sinister and absolute. This never falls into self-satire, is
increasingly dense and by the end, makes the ultimate statement of the truth
about fascism and how it succeeds in destroying people and in turn, the
world. However, even with some dated
effects, this is one of the most brutal films ever made and extremely difficult
to watch, even after repeated viewings and even if you see it with many years
in between. This is very intense, in
part because it is so honest.
It is
also effective (especially in the cyber age) since these events are not being
recorded, these victims are in total isolation, but it Is not just a mere
horror show but very sick, dangerous, deranged people with power who still know
100% of what they do and not just love it but wallow in it (you have to see it
to believe it) making them out to be what you have often heard the most famous
of all insults when fascist are insulted: fascist pigs. If this film does not back that statement,
nothing does.
The cast
and likely much of the crew did not know what was going on from day to day, denied
the full script, so the actual shock and surprise the actors have from scene to
scene is as authentic as it looks and I give the actors credit for being able
to get through this film without quitting.
Though it is at least as difficult as I am warning, it is also as
important a film and it is amazing a major studio like the original United
Artists picked this up for distribution.
For all the landmark horror films with a theme of annihilation
(including original versions of Night Of
The Living Dead, Last House On The
Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Raw Meat, I Spit On Your Grave, et al), Salo’s
horror is more potent because it is more realistic, more potent and the
nightmare here is not just a nightmare, but a fascist nightmare that is more
palpable than those films that almost all have had inferior remakes. Salo
could never be remade because it is the most personal film of them all and goes
even further than any of those films did, which is a remarkable thing to say,
but that is the case.
While the
theme of annihilation in those films come from other people who live on the
same plane as their victims, the predators here have even more power, are more
perverse and their evil still lives, especially because it is tied to evil in
real life that is even now underestimated and ignored. Germany may have outlawed fascism and Nazis
when they continued after losing WWII, but Italy did not and even today the
party is alive and well and not just in that country. But the film even goes beyond politics, it
goes to the very nature of how we allow ourselves to be destroyed by our worse
decisions and own agreement to allow destructive power to survive and even
thrive in extreme circumstances, fascist, Stalinist or otherwise.
Of
course, Pasolini was a communist, Marxist, Catholic and homosexual, the latter
of which he did not emphasize, but his camera eye’s undeniable lingering on
(semi-) nude young male bodies easily implies that. This combination was too much for Italian
Fascists of 1976 (or any period) to handle (they apparently helped start rumors
it was gruesome pornography so no one would see it) and he was found dead (run
over by his car after other things had happened) at the hands of a young rent
boy, though it is now believed (as many suspected then) that he did not act
alone. Some of this is addressed in the
supplements, though sadly, the documentary Who Killed Pasolini? was not
included in this release.
A few
years ago, a man who had seen the film asked me what the point was after
explaining that he was shocked by the film, but did not understand the
point. That he did not understand was
more disturbing to me that the content of the film, meaning the point has not
just been lost to so few people having seen the film but to a sense of history
lost. That also means the worst possible
history repeating itself. I explained
the history aspect and how this film was the ultimate critique of that
fascism. The man thanked me for the
clarification (surprised I understood the film; maybe it was just too shocking
on first viewing, even now, to catch the point the first time) and now had an
idea of what Pasolini intended.
And that
is part of the film’s limits. Besides
being so extreme, it is a period piece, like it or not. Even a great, realistic, authentic one (the
paintings on the alls apparently are all banned works of some kind) can have it
limits, but I bring up this story to disprove the myth that this is just gross,
sexual (the appeal of anything sexual being extremely distorted), pornographic
and sickening but a film that had to go out of its way as much as any to make
an ultimate point. It is a complex work
with an uncompromising point of view and its maker would have lived longer
otherwise had it been less than that. I
can think of few other films of any kind with such conviction and you don’t
have to share Pasolini’s ideologies to agree with some or most of what he is
saying. That is why Salo is an important film very serious film people should see at
least once, no matter how difficult.
The ironic
thing about all the earlier bad transfers of Salo is that they tended to give the film the authenticity of a
lost documentary, forbidden film or a record as if recorded by the Nazis to
self-celebrate their mutilation and eventually genocide of those they
hated. When older Criterion DVD copies
of the film reached $300+ per copy on the secondary market, giving an ironic
new value to the film, most people who wished they had it did not know the film
or what it was about and more than a few of those who watched it actually
understood it. The DVD simply recycled
Criterion’s older 12” LaserDisc transfer of the film. Copies worldwide since have all been weak in
various forms.
This new 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer comes from a brand new 35mm internegative
of the film that far outperforms all previous editions. Besides the fact that the estate of Pasolini
did not want this to become the old film he would be known for, it needed this
restoration and now comes alive with vivid new horror and realism that Pasolini
intended. It was lensed by no less than
the ingenious Director of Photography Tonino Delli Colli, A.I.C., known for
great work including the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns. His work here is no less impressive and
except for some noticeable second-generation footage, this looks amazing for
its age and considering the history of the film and its censorship. Also, Production Designer Dante Ferretti’s
work is all the more amazing when you can see his full intent.
As for
sound, the original Italian soundtrack is here in PCM 1.0 Mono sound and sounds
as good as it ever is going to considering it was recorded after filming (as
was typical of all Italian films until very recently post-WWII) and is sourced
from a 35mm magnetic print track and includes a score supervised by no less
than Ennio Morricone. Though I was
hoping a French language soundtrack would be included since Pasolini found it
to be valuable, we do get an English Dolby Digital 1.0 lossy Mono track that is
weaker and not as effective, though its there for those having difficulty with
the film.
Extras
include an elaborate slip case with its Blu-ray held by a DigiPak and a very
think (thicker than usual even for them) nicely illustrated booklet on the film
including informative text and no less than seven essays on the film, while the
Blu-ray itself adds an English-language trailer, separate on-camera interviews
with Ferretti and film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin and three featurettes: Salo: Yesterday & Today (33 minutes)
including vintage Pasolini interviews, Fade
To Black (23 minutes) with interviews by other directors on the film
including Bernardo Bertolucci, John Maybury & Catherine Breillat (film
scholar David Forgacs also participates) and The End Of “Salo” (40 minutes) about the making of the film
including rare stills and script pages.
My only complaint is that they focus too much on the conclusion and not
the whole film, so only see them after watching.
This is a
film for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY, but a vital classic that people are still trying to censor. That is why you should make it a must-see
film, with severe caution.
- Nicholas Sheffo
