Warning: This review is disgusting. The movie is disgusting and disturbing and there is absolutely no way that I can discuss the film without going into some detail. Do not read any further if you get queasy easily or if you are uninterested in this film. You have been warned.
On to the review!
Salo is a true testament of 'you can't do this anymore.' Like Cannibal Holocaust, Salo is a European film that tries to tell a story while simultaneously testing the audience's ability to keep their gorge down.
The official title of the film is Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. It's based on the book 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade, a man whose writings were so graphic and 'morally wrong' when published that the word sadism is derived from his name.
Though I have not read the book, the movie seems to have taken it and just changed the location. Now it is WWII Italy and 16 boys and girls have been taken from their families and locked inside a Chateau with a half dozen abso-fucking-lutely shit crazy psychotic hedonists. The youths are given two choices: Become sex slaves and do what they are told, or die. Yes, this is most definitely not a heartwarming family drama.
From there the movie performs a lazy circle down the drain of depravity. The movie can be broken down into four Acts. The first Act involves the collecting of our 16 teens and twenty something's, and each successive Act centers around some form of sick sexual addiction, each more disgusting than the last.
There are three rich men enjoying themselves in the Chateau, with a fourth man as the disciplinarian of the sex slaves. There are also three women who set up each act by telling stories of their own youth. The rest of the cast are a handful of armed guards, a few other adults who simply play witness, a lady who plays the piano and a tiny group of actual servants.
Initially, the movie is just uncomfortable. The first lady tells stories of sex and urination, including a story that took place when she was 7 and involved a professor. During and in-between these bouts of storytelling we are subject to a lot of male and female nudity, 'training' of the sex slaves and lots and lots of rape and masturbation. This movie does not play it straight, if you know what I mean. Everybody is fucking everybody. Guys masturbate guys and girls play with girls. At one point a guy starts fucking a sex slave and then another guest starts eating that guy's ass. Yes, I wrote that. No, it wasn't the most disturbing part of the scene.
Act 3 made me gag a bit. (Yeah, it wasn't until I was over an hour into the film that I actually gagged, but I've been challenging myself with revolting cinema for awhile now. Actually being affected at all is a testament to how disturbing this film is.) The title? The Circle of Shit.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, fecalphilia. Mmm....disgusting! When a 6 foot tall bearded man takes a shit on the floor and makes a naked blonde girl eat it with a fork, you know you're in for just a wee bit of 'fucking gross.' I can't stand shit. It is to be flushed and never acknowledged. It is not to be kept in a giant tub for bathtime later on, and it is certainly not something I want to see an entire dining room full of people eating as if it's the tastiest shit ever. (Pun intended.)
The final act is the Circle of Blood. Can you figure out what's going on there? If you thought torture, then congratulations, you're right!
I really don't want to get into it except to say that after seeing five naked women soaking in a wooden tub of feces, I almost welcomed the torture because it was something you see often enough in American horror films as to seem LESS disgusting. Maybe this says things about America, but I don't care, no more shit.
Unfortunately, they really weren't fucking around in this film. There is serious, disturbing torture going on here, and I'm impressed yet again with how realistic a 40 year old film managed to make torture look. I wonder how long it took the one girl's scalp to grow back? Scalps do grow back, right?
So if you want to test yourself with a truly disturbing movie, then yes, you should watch Salo. It is incredibly depraved and it's less a movie than a two hour test of willpower. I don't feel like I learned anything other than to never trust an Italian filmmaker, but if you like staring at lots and lots of breasts, asses and uncircumcised cocks, then who knows? You may actually get something out of this movie, you sick, sick little bastard.
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