Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
September 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

There is nothing either fundamentally good, nor anything fundamentally evil; everything is relative, relative to our point of view. This point once established, it is extremely possible that something, perfectly indifferent in itself, may be indeed distasteful in your eyes, but may be most delicious in mine; and immediately I find it pleasing, immediately I find it amusing, regardless of our inability to agree in assigning a character to it, should I not be a fool to deprive myself of it merely because you condemn it?
-- Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom

Criterion has taken a stab at releasing this movie before. In the late 1990s a single-disc edition came out, but it was quickly withdrawn from circulation due to legal problems. That disc became the most sought-after discontinued DVD in history; it is rumored that it was going for as much as $1000.

The movie itself has been the subject of ongoing controversy since it was first released. It has garnered descriptive comments ranging from "genius" down to "disgusting." Some consider it a brilliant work, while others condemn it as a self-absorbed piece of trash. Film critic Leonard Maltin, in his Movie Guide, calls it a bomb, while other critics have given it five stars. With that kind of controversy, Salo is a film that one must see to form an opinion. Criterion has now made that possible with a new two-disc edition that contains a wealth of extras that try to analyze and clarify the meaning of the film.

Salo is based on the Marquis de Sade’s writings from prison, The 120 Days of Sodom. Pasolini updated it and set it in the fascist state of Salo, circa 1944, at the end of the Second World War. Four powerful men (a duke, a magistrate, a bishop, and the President) have sadistic sexual tastes. They select, from a large pool, 18 teenagers, nine women and nine men, whom they take to a secluded villa. There they will, each night, be nude in a concert hall-like room, where different prostitutes will tell them stories that will get their juices going. Then they will participate in whatever sexual acts the four men deem fitting for the evening.

The movie is divided (after Dante’s Inferno) into four parts, translated into English as "The Antechamber of Hell," "The Circle of Obsessions," "The Circle of Shit," and "The Circle of Blood." The overall tone is distanced and cold. Though many would call this pornography because of all the nudity and depraved acts, there is absolutely no joy in it, and the camera is most generally distanced so that there is no feeling of excitement or titillation. Male and female frontal nudity is the norm. All of the young people are without clothes 95 percent of the time. Feces (actually chocolate pudding) is consumed with relish, and anal sex is vividly simulated. Oddly enough, the spoken dialogue, once you get over the visuals, seems somewhat campy in its choice of words.

Also campy is the set up for the storytelling. The prostitutes are dressed to the nines in elegant gowns and descend a stairway into the room as if they were embarking on a Busby Berkeley musical. A piano player is situated in the right-hand corner of the room (and the frame) playing either old popular music or Chopin. This music continues as the particular prostitute of the moment launches into her raunchy tale with gusto. It all adds up to something horribly bizarre, but also undeniably brilliant.

To me, the movie is about power -- that power takes on a life of its own and has no conscience. Pasolini was about bashing the commercialism of his age (what would he say about ours?). He believed that it had rendered real freedom impossible and that we were just impassive chattel before its onslaught.

Criterion could have issued a quickie of this film and made a bundle, but they have gone the usual Criterion route to secure and transfer the best print available and surround it with extras that make the experience similar to a college-level film course. The colors are rich, the detail ample, and the contrast perfect. The mono soundtrack is robust if not always refined, and the electronic subtitles are easy to read. All of this care gives one the ability to make a fair assessment of the film’s value.

There are quite a few featurettes and interviews with actors and technical people who participated in the film. These offer intelligent remarks that add to the understanding of the movie and get one thinking about what it means. There are some really good, thoughtful essays in the booklet that accompanies the two discs.

A word of warning: I have been perhaps gentle in describing the visuals in this movie, omitting some of the torture of the fourth section, which includes a tongue being cut out and an eye being gouged. This movie is simply not for the opinionated or easily offended. If you have an open mind, however, and can concentrate on the way it is filmed, you might be surprised. Say that Pasolini had been given an assignment to film de Sade’s writings. Then you might consider his solution quite brilliant.

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