Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

• Starting off June with a bang! I’ve wanted to watch this for quite a while, despite the graphic nature of the film. I love bold films, and I love bold directors, and this is certainly bold in those two senses (both positively and negatively). I never could get lucky and find this streaming anywhere, so I gave in and bought it through Criterion. A bold purchase! I’d say it was worth it, because this was a disturbing but educational watch. It deals with themes such as consumerism, fascism, and more. It’s not an exploitative film, as everything shown was done to accentuate the different themes and function almost as a political satire. However, it’s extremely hard to sit through, obviously because of the content. The use of nudity and different forms of torture (psychological, emotional, sexual) made me very uncomfortable, as it should everyone. That’s what many people might think would be exploitative about this, but I would disagree. The reason the themes hit so hard is because of the way they’re driven home by the use of that torture. The audience feels what the eighteen victims feel. It’s not torture p*rn. I will defend this film. All that being said, the acting wasn’t great, and again, I was very uncomfortable, so I didn’t necessarily enjoy everything. Nor do I think I would watch this again, at least by myself. I think it would be interesting to watch it again through someone else’s eyes and see their thoughts and reactions. But anyways, overall, I think the film serves its point, but it goes about it in a very overwhelming way, especially in the last act. I would probably recommend it to most horror art fans. But you’ll be disturbed.