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Title:	Salo: Criterion (1975)
Studio Line:	The Criterion Collection/Home Vision A loose adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini's uncut, uncensored Salo is perhaps the most disturbing and disgusting film ever made. It is also one of the most important, offering a blistering critique of fascism and idealism that suggests moral redemption may be nothing but a myth.
Director:	Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast:	Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti.
DVD:	Widescreen 1.85:1; audio Italian Digital Mono; subtitles English; single sided - single layered; 29 chapters; rated NR; 112 min.; $29.95; street date 8/12/98; Out-of-Print.
Supplements:	None.
Purchase:	DVD | 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writing - Marquis Sade

Picture/Sound/Extras: F/D/F I have thought heavily on how to review this film. It is an extremely obscene film and mentioning most of the subject matter in it would not really be family friendly. It is safe to say this is an absolutely horrible film in every sense of the word "horrible". It's highly pretentious, full of itself and down right disgusting. Which was the point by director Pier Paolo Pasolini. He was quoted as saying to want to make this an "indigestible film". He succeeded at that. I watched it once with the intention of never doing so again until I decided to review the DVD for this site. I've seen many movies in my life, some have bothered me in the first viewing but I managed to get over it in the second viewing (Se7en comes quick to mind but I liked that one). Salo has the opposite effect. I felt much worse (sick to the stomach) in my second viewing, probably because I knew the outcome. Quick glance of plot: The movie is based on the Marquis De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom and has been somewhat updated. It takes place during the tail end of WWII in Italy. It begins with a group of Fascists (aware that they really have no future I'm sure) gathered around a table writing up a book of rules. They then have soldiers go out and gather up young children, both male and female, pick the best of the bunch (so to speak) and then take them up to a lone castle up in the hills where they then fulfill their sadistic wants. And I will stop there. I will say some of the most gruesome and most horrible events take place that will have many people sick to the stomachs. While yes, the movie is just utterly "gross", that's not the reason why it is so bad. Pasolini wants to make an "indigestible" film and does so but that's all he appears to be concerned about. And it's very obvious in many aspects. He tries to throw off the viewer by making it look like the movie is actually about something. And it comes very close at times. The movie takes Fascism and Sadism and tries to show them as one in the same. This has diverted many people who have seen this film but it's all show. He does not once succeed in showing the two ideals going hand in hand. These people may be Fascists but here they're only displayed as Sadists. In other words, these are Sadists who just happen to members of a Fascist party. That's all. Nothing deeper is there. To be honest, I have looked up many reviews of this film because after viewing it I had to see what other people thought of it. Some liked it. Some hated it. But I think for all the wrong reasons. People who liked it bought into its so-called message and both people who hated it and liked it were distracted by the gruesome situations and brutal violence. Pasolini did a brilliant job in distracting people obviously. I can imagine he had a good laugh over this one. The thing is, people are so caught up in the horrible scenes that they forget to look at it as just a movie, which is all it is. A disgusting one, but it's just a film still. Besides the Fascism/Sadism comparison the movie fails on many other levels. It's biggest flaw I think: characters! Other than the four Fascists and the wives all the characters are underdone (the Fascists are overdone). The children for example are all being dehumanized. They are being put through some of the most excruciating treatment I have ever seen and I'm surprised they don't end up killing themselves. Molested, tortured, watching friends getting killed. These things (amongst others) would I think, after a long amount of time cause a few of them to "lose it". So, what stopped them? How did they make it through there? These children are 2-dimensional characters, just there to be picked on. A little more depth into the dehumanizing effect and we would have had a better movie with a little more of a point. The Fascists are evil but their strange desires are never explained. If it was explained to us a little better why they are the way they are and why this stuff seems to turn their crank, yet again, a movie with more of a point. And I'm sorry, but those wives are too overdone for me. Its script is also very painful. When something non-gruesome is going on on-screen, I would catch myself laughing because the dialogue is so horrible. I mean this is just too bad! It's supposed to be raunchy and disgusting but the choice of words used are wrong and give a funny effect instead of a serious, disturbing one. It is an Italian movie so maybe it sounded better in Italian, but the English subtitles don't help. I am probably making this out to be the worst movie ever made. No, not so. Close but no cigar. The fact is, for a movie to be considered the worst, it obviously has to fail on all accounts. This film has a very good production value, which actually bothers me more than helps and its ending offers probably the only "artistic" touch. The fact is, those gruesome effects are quite good. I actually looked through books and websites to make sure these things weren't real because of how convincing they were. Apparently it's all fake. The acting in some cases is also quite good. Some of the Fascists as I stated are overdone, but this is in writing. The actors seem to down them a bit to more believable levels. Some of the children, stuck in 2-dimensional roles offer what they can and actually make them more human. And as I said, there is an artistic touch added, but most people will not like it. In the end, we have the finale. The Fascists appear to be done with the children but now will "punish" those that broke the rules. This scene is quite graphic. But we end up seeing it through the point of view from the Fascists. This is quite disturbing, as we now have to look at what they look. Yep, you actually become the Fascists. We view the tortures through binoculars, sound off (except for the music in the background) and can't believe we are watching this. Not many people (including me) liked this effect but I will give the movie a few more points because I did something I would call more artistic. He makes you feel guilty for just watching this thing. While I have obviously very bad feelings for the film, I wouldn't call it the worst. But I can't say that for this DVD. Not only is this the worst DVD released by Criterion, it is also flat out the worst DVD I have yet seen. It may not be the worst DVD out there, but I can say it comes close. Many will say my dislike in the film has influenced me on my harsh judgment of the DVD, but I can guarantee you that is not the case as I will explain. The DVD: The movie is presented on a single sided, single layered disc. This is apparently (although I can't actually be sure) about the first time the full-uncensored version has been available on video. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not enhanced for widescreen TVs. And can we say "utter crap"? Yes. Yes we can. The picture suffers from every flaw a DVDs video can suffer from. The picture presents a lot of grain. While not present throughout the whole thing, it's there for the majority. Dirt and scratches are present, as well as a split in one scene, going right down the center. I know these can be removed (view The Seventh Seal and The Third Man if you think I lie). The print used is also very faded and all the colours are subdued because of this. Yes, the movie is a dark movie but scenes outside are all off the colour spectrum. These scenes are too dark and it's not because they were meant to look like this. It's because someone never bothered to do anything about this. Black levels are more bluish-grayish so real dark scenes cannot be seen at all (which may be a good thing). The picture is soft and out of focus so all details are lost. My opinion is no one ever bothered to master this at all. It's so incredibly bad I could not believe my eyes! Does anyone remember one of the formats before videocassette? The RCA Video Disc? The ones of you grinning do know what I'm talking about. For those that don't know I'll give a quick minimal lesson. It's basically a movie presented on a record. Yes, it looks like a record crossed with a laserdisc. I still have a machine that works (kept alive by the spare parts from other machines) and I decided to do a comparison. I took a Video Disc for Goldfinger and popped it in. I compared and shall I say Goldfinger won by a landslide! It was quite a sad moment. Those of you who have seen a Video Discs picture will be able to guess as to how bad this DVD's picture is. While the Video Disc is more fuzzy (given) and has a little more grain (some of which are from scratches on the disc) that was a hell of a lot brighter, clearer and in overall better shape than this DVD could ever dream to be. Some will think my "F" is harsh but it's well deserved. There is nowhere else I can go. Scarface (a movie I really like) deserves a "D-" in picture on it's DVD and to put this up there with it would be an insult to Scareface. And since I don't believe in "E" grades (you fail or pass at a certain level) an "F" is deservedly given. A little better but not by much is the mono mix presented here. I can be lenient on mono mixes because they really don't have a chance to ever sound like a 5.1 mix like Twister, but this is still a pretty poor mono track. The only thing that saves this from an "F" grade is the fact that the music sounds pretty good. The rest is all garbage. The movie is presented in Italian and no I don't speak it. But I like to hear it still mainly for the emotion presented by the actor. The track is very flat. The audio is heavily distorted and very quiet. The more I turned up the volume, the worse it sounded. As well, about 60-70% of the time, the lips are out of sync with the dialogue. If the movie was dubbed into English, fine! But these are Italian actors speaking Italian and the audio track does not go with the film at all. And what do we get for supplements? Nothing!! We get colour bars but that doesn't count! We also get a booklet but I've never seen one so sparse in my life. While I guess the booklet would award a "D-" grade at least, something damned the disc. It's subtitles. Since I can't fit them under Video or Audio, they will go under Extras and this is how the movie gets that dreaded "F": the subtitles suck! More depth? They're misspelled. They're missing words. Lines from other people are blended in with someone else's. They're disorganized and scattered all over the place in the center of the screen. This is a surprisingly lazy effort. And since this disc is the only way I've seen the film, it may have affected my judgment on the films dialogue somewhat. Pretty bad. The disc is another Criterion has discontinued and I believe that next to The 400 Blows had the shortest lifespan in their DVD catalogue. If you see it on an auction or maybe on an on-line store, don't get it. That's all I can say. Even if you like the movie it's not worth it. You'd be better off buying the tape. It's a lazy effort that shows no signs of being worked on for DVD. The only reason I own it is because I collect Criterion discs and I just had to get number 17 for my collection, that's all. So if you also collect them, just be wary about it. Just keep it in the package and maybe you'll be able to sell it for more in the future. Menu: DVD Movie Guide | Archive | Top