Salo (1975) aka Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma

2.5 / 5
Tagline: N/A
Directed By: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written By: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Citti
Actors Include: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle
Genre: Horror, Drama, War
Length: 116 minutes
Banned: Italy, Finland, Australia, West Germany, New Zealand, Norway
Country: Italy/France

Review:
When reading up on disturbing cinema, you most definitely will come across this film. Since I was on a mission to see the most disgusting things possible, I actually paid money for a copy of this film because it was so unavailable. Well...I have now watched this twice. The first time I dismissed it a little easier than I should have, and as such I decided to watch it again to see if my opinion was wrong. Well I still think if you simplify this movie you are left with a steaming pile of repugnant shit, there is a little more to it I suppose. A bunch of young kids are captured in order to be "entertainment" for some rich fucks. From there most of the story is about some elder whore who sits in a chair and tells bawdy tales of her past in great (erm terrible?) detail while arrousing the other rich folks. Then they are encouraged to reinact scenes with these poor kids. The one that I'm sure most will tell you about is graphically watching some girl forced to eat shit...I've seen it in "Pink Flamingos" and although I know in that case Divine is eating real shit and this girl isn't, the fact that the scene is so drawn out and gross actually makes it harder to watch. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the most vomitous moments captured on film. Anyhow if you think you are getting "shit relief" after watching that you are wrong, it's a nonstop topic...and I think that stinks. Anyhow, this is mainly just a disgusting sex torture film, there are a few carefully chosen moments of horror which sorta make this almost tolerable but it's not enough. I'm sure some deviants are going to love this or love the "statement" it's trying to make (it's loosely based on DeSade and Dante's works) but I still find this to be a difficult to sit through repulsive pile of feces. I'm sure if you have a fascination with banned films (like myself) you will need to see this but don't be surprised if you don't like it!