Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle

Four fascist libertines round up 9 teenages boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental and sexual torture.

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70% liked it

8,942 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

21 critics

NC-17, 1 hr. 55 min.

Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Release Date: January 1, 1979

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DVD Release Date: August 11, 1998

Stats: 1,283 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,283)


  • October 2, 2009
    Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film is a masterpiece! It?s disgusting, depraved, shocking and cruel. It is not entertainment, its art. Many people get confused by this, Having watched it I can't say I enjoyed it, I will probably never watch it ever again but I thought it was brillian...( read more)t. Not many other films have this effect. Pasolini put De Sade's disgusting novel to good use to voice his hatred of fascism and our capitalistic and materialistic society that was destroying the Italy he so loved. It fair to say he wasn't a happy chappy, his hate, anger and repulsion is laid bare in Salo, a necessary Evil of sorts. Watch once, if you think you've got the stomach but please read up on it before you do!
  • August 19, 2009
    Without a doubt the most disturbing film I?ve ever attempted to watch. I tend to watch most films through, just to give it the benefit of the doubt, but had to switch this off, because of it?s uncomfortable imagery.

    I knew this was a controversial film and of course that was ...( read more)one of my main reasons for watching it, I?m not one to shy away from controversial subjects, but this was a huge step too far for me. I don?t know how old the young Actor?s and Actresses were in this film, but they did look like children it still left me feeling very uncomfortable.

    I thought the controversy surrounding this film was to do with the subject matter, but more disturbing was what the Actors/Actresses had to do in the film.

    Curiosity does leave me wondering what happened next, but I just didn?t want to continue watching to find out, it felt all too voyeuristic to me.
  • August 1, 2009
    The most disgusting film I've ever seen. Makes Pink Flamingos look like a Disney Movie.
  • July 21, 2009
    An indictment against modern society and consumerism....set to the controversial de Sade opus. Considered the most disgusting film ever made, it was reissued last year by the Criterion Collection and has some really good and enlightening extras, including interviews with Pasolini...( read more) himself, members of the cast and crew and others...
  • June 16, 2009
    Not as fucked up as I thought it would be, though the power abuse and the act of making a human to become a mere object is quite strong in the movie, worth the watch!
  • November 17, 2009
    I honestly don't know how to rate this. It is the most sinister piece of film I've ever seen. It made me physically sick, which is something that has never happened to me before when watching a movie. As a film, it is outstanding. It makes you question the very essence of human n...( read more)ature and how people could be drawn to think and feel such horrible things, yet take no shame or disgrace in them. What I find most captivating about this movie is the decision to make the captured children not all that innocent. They are flawed and selfish, that's what makes their torture all the more realistic. The true kicker to me though, is the motivation. There is none. These fascist Italian elites take these children simply to see something be destroyed.
  • November 13, 2009
    "We Fascists are the only true anarchists, naturally, once we're masters of the state. In fact, the one true anarchy is that of power."

    SALÒ O LE 120 GIORNATE DI SODOMA (1975)


    Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
    Country: Italy / Franc...( read more)e
    Genre: Drama / Horror / War
    Length: 116 minutes

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    In the process of finding the correct first sentence to begin with a proper review of Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma, I failed miserably. In fact, I have already written it... it's somewhat hilarious. Words cannot and will not suffice for properly describing the artful subjectivity and political power of this extraordinary piece of art. Open-minded masses, supporter of all artistic expressions and, specifically, Pasolini fans cannot avoid the great personal amazement, pride and joy towards a director that never hesitated to express his anarchic, totalitarian and Marxist ideas through his religious and political manifestos, his daring and controversial magnum opuses, his visionary and influential masterworks. Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma is definitely one of the most audacious films ever conceived by the hands, the mind and the guts of an auteur. On a personal note, I have always classified and identified the decade of the 70's as the most influential era, cinematically speaking, for expressing ideas in expressionistic ways. Directors like Dusan Makavejev (W.R. - Misterije Organizma [1971], Sweet Movie [1974]) and Nagisa Ôshima (Ai no Corrida [1976], Ai no Borei [1978]) sought for the most shocking and graphically scandalous ways to depict socially accepted ideas that the totalitarian control and the limited liberty of expression did not allow to be portrayed nor propagated. Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma is arguably Pasolini's best film, the brave motion picture that caused him to be persecuted and presumably assassinated under mysterious circumstances.

    The film is set in the Fascist, Nazi-controlled northern part of Italy during the Second World War where four libertines round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them to a palace near Marzabotto to subject them to 120 beautiful days of all forms of physical, mental and sexual torture. It is loosely based on the stories of Dante and Marquis De Sade. After the four months have passed, the brutal execution of the youths is organized so that the fascist libertines can witness the spectacle from a voyeuristic point of view. It is officially one of the most controversial films of all time.

    Pasolini's approach to the Fascism in Italy results in a "nauseating, depraved, pornographic, disturbing, senseless and mentally sick" film. It actually has been catalogued and classified under those retarded, immature and narrow-minded adjectives. It is a very natural psychological consequence that an audience that was not still prepared for such a graphic testament, not to mention a film depicting the horrors of war in the most explicit way, reacted with those arguments as their strongest defense. Soul injuries had not healed yet, and people still belonged to a particular political party. Most of its controversy rose from the fact that it was mostly considered as a political act rather than an important filmmaking sample of historical accuracy and political correctness. Was that an intentional and, therefore, correct film characteristic thanks to the ideals of Pasolini? Yes and no. The same thing happens with the films of directors like Makavejev and Ôshima. It is set on historical times depicting real events. However, the melodrama resulting from the magic of cinema may sometimes result in the dramatization and sometimes intentional tergiversation of events that, although they may reflect a particular period of the history of humanity, do not have a complete accuracy. It is a commonly used technique to enlighten and strengthen the ideas that a film wants to transmit. Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma is not meant to be taken seriously, historically speaking, especially when Pasolini declared himself as an artist. He did not name himself as an historian or a religious filmmaker. He was an atheist, yet the inspirational effect of Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (1964) disseminated through the masses counted with a poignant success.

    Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma contains one of the most explicit portrayals of sex, violence, psychological torture, mercilessly insulting racism and a wide range of paraphilias that include sexual masochism, sexual sadism, transvestic fetishism, urophilia and cropophilia within mainstream films. These physical and sexual perversions will eventually cause several reactions from a varied audience, but as film elements they ultimately function as a motor for the film's political and anarchic audacity. The film is basically divided into three parts: the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. The Circle of Manias consists in the submission of the youths to several forms of psychological abuse. The film is meant to mirror democratic societies and totalitarian governments that mentally construct a narrow-minded concept regarding the nation's control they suppose they own. They disguise their mediocrity and dictatorship-like habits with a seemingly organized governmental system. Licentiousness predetermines the catastrophic behavior of organized Fascism in the film, disguising their lack of sanity with formally planned events, such as the portrayals of social events with occasional, forcedly applied gender dysphoria and with the massive dinners accompanied by piano with Signora Maggi and other two middle-aged demented women telling arousing stories of their past. The concept of discipline is distorted; comedy is a decaying word; humor is no longer a clear dictionary word. The Circle of Shit gathers the victims in a feast of excrement consumption and rape. Once more, the possible symbolic context implied is how governments and democracies literally try to cover up their lies and the corruption caused talking shit and raping the trust and the democratic process through their rules and principles. This may sound like an offensive statement, but its honest substance behind it does not deviate from an utter truth. Finally, the Circle of Blood consists in the physical torture and execution of the already degraded souls, in case any consciousness and self-esteem remain. This is shown from a voyeuristic perspective, strengthening a horrifying and claustrophobic feeling to it, like if we were not capable of understanding the unbearable pain the victims are going through, consequently becoming a more disturbing and haunting sequence.

    As any masterpiece clearly states, enjoyment, beauty and art are the most humanly subjective terms one should encounter throughout the process of deep analysis. This is one of the most beautiful films ever made. It is brilliantly filmed and visually beautiful, overshadowing with its grandiose cinematic gorgeousness the perverted brutality shown from the beginning of the film to its comical ending. The cinematography scratches the visual realm of perfection, like a mutant philosophy. The editing has a mysterious tone to it. You never know what will the next take will look like, yet it has no mercy at fading away with each shot; it immediately shows it, letting our eyes and mind (perhaps even the stomach) to react however it is supposed to react. The music has a mystical brilliance. It has the capacity of hypnotizing the viewer to an extent of confusing the emotions and distorting them. The images talk by themselves, and the beauty of the human body is so glorified that one feels in Paradise with Satan raping angels.

    Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma is one of the best films ever made. The original ambition it achieved to obtain has established a landmark, a landmark that has lasted for generations. Glorifying human dignity and letting it be raped, sexually abused, raped and depraved to an unbelievably glorious extent because of totalitarian governments that still form part of the actuality culture, the main purpose(s) of the film are immediately justified and even strengthened because of the persecution and assassination of Pasolini and because of the censorship the film inevitably has been subject to. More than a political act, it is a marvelous magnum opus way ahead of its time that even modern cinemas would surely refuse to release. A criticism very few authoritative and democratic countries will fully accept, Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma belongs to arguably the most daring category of cinema ever created.

    100/100
  • November 5, 2009
    I hate to like this because it made me sick. I had to see it though. Not for everyone.
  • November 5, 2009
    A sick movie, but with some interessting point of views and examination of the darkest parts of the human mind. Although the repetitive 'sex' and violence is unnessicary and makes the movie boring to watch, it only adds up to the shock effect.
  • October 28, 2009
    sounds too nasty for me

Comments


  • OldBullLee
    September 3, 2008
    Finally available on an affordable DVD, as well as from Netflix. Huzzah!
  • soufira
    February 23, 2008
    I recommend strongly not to see it. It has no benefit to see how savage human can be. you van't see it completely.
  • jonow83
    October 9, 2006
    Hey Tybo, the show is banned in otns of places including Australia. I have a downloaded copy with me but there isn't subtitles (not like you need them to understand what's going on). If you like, i cna burn a copy and mail it to you :)
  • Tybo
    September 27, 2006
    Am looking for this film, but is apparently banned here in Australia and anywhere else outside the US and UK. If anyone knows if this is true, or where I can rent, hire or even buy this film. Let me know.
  • morphine
    June 5, 2006
    don't you wish the torture scenes could be more creative?

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