SALO (OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM): THE CRITERION COLLECTION - DVD review

This is a review of the 2008 re-issue of Criterion's "Salo." It retains the same spine number (#17) as the initial Criterion DVD from 1998.


So… "Salo."

Or "The 120 Days of Sodom."

Or "The movie where they all eat shit."

Pier Paolo Pasolini's final film has a reputation that overshadows that of any other "art" film.

When the film was screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood several years ago, the program warned that the film would be too difficult for many viewers to watch. The warning was repeated just in case people didn't take it seriously. Not everyone has the constitution to make it all the way through "Salo."

For many "Salo" has turned into a cult film or perhaps a rite of passage as if proving that you can watch it means you have passed the ultimate film test. Perversely enough, "Salo" has been the most highly sought-after out-of-print Criterion disc, sometimes fetching $200 on EBay. There was even a notorious fake of Criterion's "Salo" with the wrong color ring on the inside of the disc that savvy collectors knew to avoid.

The reality of "Salo," by which I mean the reality of the act of actually watching "Salo" more or less matches its advance publicity. It is a film in which a group of beautiful young men and women are kidnapped, brought to a secluded manor, stripped naked, humiliated, forced to eat shit, and tortured to death. Sorry for the "spoiler" – you need to know.

There is not even a glimmer of redemption in "Salo." Nobody is going to save these kids. The mansion where it is set is truly a place where victims must heed the advice: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." Which is not a coincidence since the film is based on the Marquis de Sade's sado-fantasy "The 120 Days of Sodom" which, in turn, is structured loosely on Dante's "Divine Comedy."

Pasolini consciously subverts all viewer expectations of sympathy in story-telling. In one early scene, a beautiful young girl is paraded naked before the four perverts (The Duke, The Bishop. The Magistrate, and The President) who rule this society. Her captor tells the story, intended for laughs, of how they pushed the girl's mother into the river where she drowned. The girl falls to the ground sobbing. The four men, previously unmoved by the sight of a naked young woman, all stand, clearly aroused by her pain. Her honest expression of sorrow will only bring her more suffering.

Pasolini's stated intention was to create a record of the true evil of fascist Italy. Salo was the name of the town where Musolini briefly set up his puppet fascist government after he was ousted from power and fled to the protection of Hitler. Kubrick once noted that the fatal flaw with "Schindler's List" was transforming the story of the Holocaust into a heroic narrative with a happy ending. Though Pasolini's film is not about the Holocaust, he certainly avoids this trap. For him, this was the only way, through Sade's sick fantasy, of capturing a record of this evil legacy, one without heroism, one without redemption, one without a happy ending.

The outspoken left-wing director also had a critique of neo-capitalism on his mind, one aimed at then-contemporary Italian society as well as at 40's fascist Italy. Human bodies become the ultimate commodity here, to be owned, abused and destroyed by their "owners" like any other piece of property that can be purchased. This critique is a bit less obvious than the fascist theme, but is the one most often written about by critics, presumably because it makes it easier to defend the film as worthwhile or even as a so-called "masterpiece."

Sometimes, content trumps form as well as ideology. Perhaps I am too myopic or simply too faint of heart, but I do not see any reason to defend such a loathsome film as great art. The only convincing argument I've heard is that "Salo" matters simply because it exists. Fair enough. But should it exist? For me, two hours of watching young people subjected to the most grotesque forms of psychological and physical torture is too overwhelming, so damned "loud" that it drowns out any other message the film might have. It's hard to think about Marxist ideology while watching someone's nipples cut off.

In an odd way, "Salo" can be seen as an early blueprint for the true backbone of the Internet. The film that has been famous for its "shit feast" for the past three decades may be somewhat tame in the "2 Girls, 1 Cup" era. The true horror of the film, however, is the dispassionate ritualistic way in which the various humiliations are conducted. The captors compose a clear set of rules of the "game" at the beginning and methodically follow them. Though they get their rocks off from time to time, they don't appear to derive any particular pleasure from the proceedings. The torture and murder is simply the product of a clinical program, an inevitable outcome from the rules just like Tic-Tac-Toe always leads to a tie if played correctly. In this sense, the parallel to the fascist state is clearest ("I was only following orders") but, for my taste, was conveyed much more poignantly by the cold recitation of facts and figures in Alain Resnais' "Night and Fog."

"Salo" is a beautiful film if you can look past anything that's happening on screen, but the same can be said of many other films that are not nearly as nauseating. The décor and the decay is a marvel of set design and Tonino Delli Colli's photography is exquisite. I suppose that only makes the film's horrors that much more horrifying.

You've either been completely repulsed by this description of "Salo" or your curiosity is piqued. Proceed at your own risk. It's not a film you're going to forget.

Video

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is excellent, though not absolutely spotless as many Criterions are: some minor signs of debris are visible at times. The image quality is razor sharp. I do not have the original release of the film but considering the quality of most of Criterion's releases from the 1990s, I have no doubt this is a significant improvement.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. The film is offered both in the original Italian and an English-dubbed version, though I have no idea why anyone would want the dub. Optional English subtitles support the Italian audio.

Extras

The original Criterion release of "Salo" had no extras. This 2-disc set makes up for it.

Disc One presents the digitally restored film in both the original Italian and an English-dubbed version.

Disc Two has several documentaries and interviews.

"Salo: Today and Yesterday" (33 min), produced in 2002, features interviews with Pasolini as well as cast and crew, and shows footage of him shooting the film's final scene.

"Fade to Black" (23 min) is a 2001 documentary short directed by Nigel Algar. Algar interviews directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, and John Maybury, as well as professor David Forgacs. Professional empty provocateuse Breillat is in usual form, claiming that "Salo" is "beautiful" and "not shocking" and blah blah blah.

"The End of ‘Salo'" (40 min) is described as a documentary about the film's ending but this is only a small part of the feature. This is the most interesting extra on the disc, particularly for the on-set photographs which show some of the scenes that didn't make the final cut, including an electrocution of one the young women.

The collection wraps up with interviews with production designer Dante Ferretti (12 min) and Criterion's new go-to guy Jean-Pierre Gorin (26 min.)

The insert booklet is one of the heftier ones Criterion has produced and contains several essays that I won't list here. The best inclusion is an on-set diary.

Film Value

If you found Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" (in either form) to be challenging viewing, then "Salo" may be way out of your league. Haneke listed "Salo" as one of the ten greatest films of all-time in the 2003 Sight and Sound poll, but his act of cinematic transgression positively pales next to Pasolini's.

I understand why "Salo" was made. I respect it, but that doesn't mean I have to appreciate it. Strip away the ideological justifications, and all you're left with is a beautifully shot, meticulously crafted snuff film. For me, the end doesn't justify the means.

"Salo" is undoubtedly an important film if for no other reason than the fact that it was made. Even more so, that it was made by such an accomplished director. It's unfortunate that this film marks the end of Pasolini's career: shortly after the film wrapped production, he was murdered under mysterious circumstances that remain unresolved today.

As a re-issue, this version of "Salo" has just about everything you could want except for the 25-second sequence that occurs around the 40-minute mark of the film. It's a minor scene in which one character reads from a poem just before a grim parody of a wedding is performed. The scene is not found in most prints of the film.