FOR NATO: PIER PALO PASOLINI'S SALO (1975) review ,
by Matt Janovic
Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain. ---The Marquis de SadeSo you say you've seen nearly-every major Italian giallo? You've seen your Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Michele Soavi, and even all of the "classics" of Italian film? You've seen your Leone, Fellini, DeSicca, Bertolucci, Martino, and even most of the "world classics"? By this point, you've probably seen it all, and you think there is no film that will shock you? If you haven't seen Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom," you are flatly wrong. Pasolini didn't even live to see the release of this film. He was "murdered" by a male hustler (or so the official story plays). Who was Pier Paolo Pasolini? Pasolini was the most important postwar intellectual in Italy, period. Like a Renaissance polymath, he was adept at journalism, the novel, poetry, screenwriting, directing motion-pictures, painting and drawing, and more. He also liked teenage boys, was a real scandal, and yet truly was the conscience of postwar Italy until his murder on November 2nd, 1975.
Pasolini's revolutionary philosophy was against fascism and communism, and he had many enemies in the political arena, as well as the religious one at the Vatican. All said, however, it's possible that Pier Pasolini was murdered by a right-wing assassination team under the aegis of "GLADIO," a NATO program of secret armies throughout Western Europe. GLADIO began, ostensibly, as a defense against a hypothetical Soviet invasion of Europe. Overall, GLADIO was more often used to attack legitimate Leftist political parties and groups, and was responsible for breaking the Marseilles dock strikes in the late-1940s as just one example of their handiwork. Their activities in Italy during the Cold War are known to be extensive.
In Italy, the Red Brigade bombings in the 1970s were even instigated-by GLADIO operatives to justify a law-and-order crackdown of the Italian Communist Party who were poised to take power at that time. It's a mystery as to how-much CIA influence this all had. The P-2 conspiracy (oddly, involving the Vatican, the CIA, KGB, and renegade Freemasons!) had yet to break. There were dozens of politically motivated killings in 1970s Italy, and Pasolini's was one-of-many. One has to ponder the Vatican's involvement in his murder, as they were a primary adversary of Pasolini. And so, "Salo" enters this bloody fray. It could not be more controversial, and it's a scream of rage against how little we all really care about or value human life. Pasolini was outraged and disappointed with the human condition, and Italian politics had become bloody chaos, leading director Sergio Leone to remark at the time that, "Italian politics have become ridiculous."
The scenario of Salo is fairly-simple: a group of Italian fascists retreat to a palace in Northern Italy (where there was a great deal of support for Italian fascism and the Monarch) with a group of sixteen captive-boys and girls. It is Mussolini's short-lived Republic of Salo, created for him by the Nazis. Hence, it's a title that any Italian of the 1970s (or today) would recognize. For 120 days, they degrade their victims in almost every imaginable manner. There is homosexual rape, buggery, forcing people to eat excrement, forced heterosexual couplings, sadism of every kind, and finally, death. Just about everything you could imagine occurs, and worse. Of course, it's all based loosely on DeSade's tale and stays pretty close to the text's themes and scenarios. Pasolini "chapters" each section with some of the structure of Dante's "Inferno," which is a real mark of his genius.
To say this film is merely a statement on fascism would be wrong, it is a manifesto on what cruelty rests within all human hearts, especially once one has supped on power. Pasolini understood that, under the right circumstances, we are all capable of these depredations. There's a little Hitler in everyone, and we all the potential to become assassins under the proper conditions. Beyond that, Pasolini is saying that humanity has a dark heart and that nothing is really true. This is where he was at artistically by 1975, though his existential crisis had begun much earlier. Some reviewers have stated that they didn't find the film shocking --they should check- themselves into a clinic somewhere, it is beyond shocking. But it should be remembered that DeSade was only writing about the sexual habits of his kind--the aristocracy before the French Revolution of 1789.
I've noticed that even friends who are into such directors as Takashi Miike, respect the power of this film. Miike has some similarities in style with Pasolini, but goes for a more genre, stylized-look. Even John Waters lists this film as sicker than his worst offenders. It could be argued that Desperate Living (1977) is a spoof of Salo! To say I was shocked by this film would be an understatement. But, besides being pretty-sick, this film looks astonishingly lush. This is another aspect of Pasolini's genius of showing us depredations in such a lovely setting. It transcends the subversive and never fails to shock. The late Tonnino della Colli's photography (who also worked for Fellini and Leone) lends the film a look that could be hung in the Louvre, and it gives the film a greater subversive edge. It should be noted that the film is not "legitimately-available" in the United State for copyright reasons. However, there are very good copies out there even though it's not in-print. I found one that is an exact-duplicate of the original US edition for a decent price, so it is out there to be found...with a little searching.
The Criterion edition is reportedly the most-expensive DVD in the world, going for as much as $1,000.00 USD. Criterion's was the best transfer in 1998, but it appears that there is a new Continental European DVD purported to be definitive. I've got a few Ken Russell DVDs ("Salome's Last Dance") that are worth as much as $300.00 USD, so this is a shocker! It's funny to see used DVDs of the big Hollywood fare at $3.99 USD, while these are in the hundreds! It says a lot about what is lasting and meaningful to people, and it isn't blockbuster movies. A dubious company called "Water Bearer" has sets of Pasolini's other works, but I have it on good word that they are of extremely poor-quality. It would be nice if Criterion did a Pasolini Box that included a new HD transfer of "Salo" with extensive restoration. It is one of the most important films ever made. We all stand accused, even the filmmaker, and that's the point. Be warned: not for children or adults who fear soul-searing, raw existentialism.
NOTE: The "ass-judging-scene" is similar to photos of the "flesh-pyramid" at Abu-Ghraib.
(Revised 10.19.2007)
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