It is impossible for me to tell you if you will enjoy watching Salo, because it is a film made for anyone able to stomach it, and while most probably can, they won't want to. Salo is, as many readers will know, often hailed as the most disgusting film ever made. That is, in my opinion, not true. Salo is disgusting, yes, extraordinarily so, but its graphic violence is not unheard of. Most horror fans will have seen more gruesome imagery than is in Salo. The reason why Salo is purportedly disgusting is not merely because of what its about, its because of how it goes about it. This is not a shock-exploitation film. It is a film that shows us sexual, physical, and mental abuse in a realistic fashion. No buckets of blood, no intestines, just violence. This is done to prove a point, which is, I think, to show just how inhumane we can be as a species. Marquis De Sade's novel on which the movie is based was made to do the same.
We are often very much out of touch with what members of our species are doing to one another. People who claim that Salo's level of violence is unrealistic have never heard of places like Abu Ghraib or Guantanomo Bay. People will say the movie shows political officials abusing children just to make a hackneyed political statement, and while I believe the director Pasolini did intend for their conduct to be metaphorical, I don't think that was the point of the movie. In an age of patriotism, religion, pride, zealousness, colonialism, and other such facades that we create for ourselves to convince us that we are still the good guys, Pasolini reveals that we are, in fact, not.
Salo was made almost forty years ago, but I cannot see a time where it will not be relevant. Until we can, as a species, unite and end these pointless wars and conflicts and battles, we will always see the kind of violence that Pasolini exhibits here. He was an angry filmmaker, and his aggression shows in a film that, without it, may have lost its way. It takes an angry, aggressive, brutish individual to remind us that we are no better, if not worse, than animals. We torture, murder, maim, abuse one another and think nothing of it. Those who don't do it directly do it indirectly, and feel content to sit on the sidelines. The movie in fact indicts the viewer for being, in essence, a voyeur into the torture of other human beings. And it couldn't be more right.
Many people say that certain films have to be seen to truly appreciate cinema. I am not sure if I believe that, but if it is true, Salo is one of those movies. A movie driven by an idea and a competent filmmaker, Salo is not really a film in the traditional sense. It's a piece of art, an intangible object which we can witness but never truly grasp.
I implore you to watch it, but be prepared to have your soul sodomized beforehand.
We are often very much out of touch with what members of our species are doing to one another. People who claim that Salo's level of violence is unrealistic have never heard of places like Abu Ghraib or Guantanomo Bay. People will say the movie shows political officials abusing children just to make a hackneyed political statement, and while I believe the director Pasolini did intend for their conduct to be metaphorical, I don't think that was the point of the movie. In an age of patriotism, religion, pride, zealousness, colonialism, and other such facades that we create for ourselves to convince us that we are still the good guys, Pasolini reveals that we are, in fact, not.
Salo was made almost forty years ago, but I cannot see a time where it will not be relevant. Until we can, as a species, unite and end these pointless wars and conflicts and battles, we will always see the kind of violence that Pasolini exhibits here. He was an angry filmmaker, and his aggression shows in a film that, without it, may have lost its way. It takes an angry, aggressive, brutish individual to remind us that we are no better, if not worse, than animals. We torture, murder, maim, abuse one another and think nothing of it. Those who don't do it directly do it indirectly, and feel content to sit on the sidelines. The movie in fact indicts the viewer for being, in essence, a voyeur into the torture of other human beings. And it couldn't be more right.
Many people say that certain films have to be seen to truly appreciate cinema. I am not sure if I believe that, but if it is true, Salo is one of those movies. A movie driven by an idea and a competent filmmaker, Salo is not really a film in the traditional sense. It's a piece of art, an intangible object which we can witness but never truly grasp.
I implore you to watch it, but be prepared to have your soul sodomized beforehand.