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Criterion Collection: Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom | 
| Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Actors: Laura Betti, Paolo Bonacelli, Caterina Boratto, Giorgio Cataldi, Franco Merli
Studio: Criterion
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 44.99
Buy New: CDN$ 29.99
You Save: CDN$ 15.00 (33%)
New (4) from CDN$ 29.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 330
Format: Dolby, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.9
UPC: 715515031028
EAN: 0715515031028
ASIN: B0019X3ZZY
Theatrical Release Date: 1975
Release Date: August 26, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 4 weeks
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Uncomfortable but Still Worth Watching July 5, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a version of the Marquis de Sade's story, The 120 Days of Sodom, a story about four powerful men who enslave two dozen teenagers and torture them repeatedly. Unlike the book the film is set in the Salo Republic, the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy, in the year 1944. Pier Paolo Pasolini directs his final film. The four powerful men in the story are referred to as the Duke, the Magistrate, the President and the Bishop. To kick things off they marry each other's daughters and then begin to have young males and females kidnapped (18 in all, 9 of each gender). They also have four older prostitutes join in and this whole multitude marches over to some palace. Mind you, the time period means that the Nazi occupied Salo Republic is on its last legs and on the cusp of being crippled by the Allied forces. So the setting gives us sort of an end of days feeling right from the get-go. The content and commentary certainly continue with that subject matter throughout.
The film is set up in four stages, the first being the ante-inferno, which refers to those who are not quite condemned to hell but also not allowed into heaven either. The film's setting is meant to feel like a brief moment in purgatory with its isolated party of characters doing unspeakable things before judgment, and then it all must end. The second stage is the circle of manias, or obsession, where we see the sexual humiliation of the film manifest itself further. The third stage is the circle of excrement, which is where we see the characters consume feces. Pasolini has used this as a metaphor broadly for the perverse level of consumption depicted in the film overall, and directly as a commentary on mass-produced foods and consumerism. The fourth stage is the circle of blood, this is where those who do not partake in this bizarre corruption are brutally murdered in various ways. The stages bring us further and further downward into degeneracy, which Pasolini has applied strongly as a denunciation against capitalism and fascism.
If you found any interest in the above commentary, then I assume Salo may be just the film for you, but I assure you that the film is definitely not for everyone. It is up front with its content. It's controversial for many different reasons, but primarily it is the visual content that turns people away. Yes, it's not as violent as Saw and the nudity is not quite as pretty as it is in some movies, but Salo is anything other than an exploitation film. One may even argue that it is the exact opposite of exploitation. Perhaps it is Salo's censure of exploitation that makes it truly disturbing as a modern social commentary.
 NOT a snuff film, stupid June 22, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a warning to the last reviewer: IMDb states the excrement in the banquet sequence was chocolate and orange marmalade. So there you go idiots. If you want snuff, look up Guinea Pig.
 if you like true snuff films June 6, 2005
0 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is a real life snuff film. If you watch it you're just as disgusting as the maker.
Let the madness end... June 26, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The conspiracy theories, the bootlegs, the ceremonial passing around of 'sealed' copies (gonna watch it, son?) on eBay for obscene amounts of money...well, finally, according to people I know who know the people at Criterion, the big bad boy of the DVD universe will be re-released in the near future (December, perhaps). Maybe now we can put the capper on this business of reselling these plastic things without any real regard for their quality or content. The film was very poorly transferred and is, frankly, a well-fashioned curio at best. A little sanity, please.
 Aristotle June 15, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm giving this movie the highest rating because it made me understand the definition of the word CAPTHARSIS (the process of releasing strong emotions-pity and fear-through a particular activity or experience, such as writing or theatre, which helps you to understand those emotions)
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