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Summary: Everyone must see this wonderful film!
Review: One of the few films I've felt sickened by at first viewing; now view it religiously. No contrived Hollywood endings here, my friends. People look at me strange when I proudly proclaim this as my absolute favorait movie, but man... I CAN'T LIE!!!! Lot's of blood and torture, and eating human fecal matter has never been shown with such tenderness. ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!!! END
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting movie - plus how to find the dvd cheap
Review: Salo is an interesting movie if you watch it for what it is. If you're into disturbing movies you'll find that this isn't incredible disturbing, if not then be prepared to see things not generally shown in theaters. Here is a quick summary if you're too lazy to read all the other comments (mind you it's been a bit since I've seen it). Four aristocrats decide to take in some men and women play with them, torture them, and kill them. Suppossed this is based on de Sade's 120 days of sodom. HOW TO BUY RARE (SALO) DVD CHEAP
Don't pay a ridiculus amount of money for this movie. The first version of this movie I found on tape for $5 on ebay. I recently found a $5-10 dollar DVD version on ebay. From my understanding it's legal to sell this movie since it's unavailable here. As an added note if you're into rare movies I suggest finding a good import site say diabolik or xploited cinema (There's plenty others) or again try ebay. Hope this helps.
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Summary: Aristotle
Review: I'm giving this movie the highest rating because it made me understand the definition of the word CAPTHARSIS (the process of releasing strong emotions-pity and fear-through a particular activity or experience, such as writing or theatre, which helps you to understand those emotions)
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Summary: Let the madness end...
Review: The conspiracy theories, the bootlegs, the ceremonial passing around of 'sealed' copies (gonna watch it, son?) on eBay for obscene amounts of money...well, finally, according to people I know who know the people at Criterion, the big bad boy of the DVD universe will be re-released in the near future (December, perhaps). Maybe now we can put the capper on this business of reselling these plastic things without any real regard for their quality or content. The film was very poorly transferred and is, frankly, a well-fashioned curio at best. A little sanity, please.
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Summary: power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Review: Though still banned in my native England, tonight I finally got to see "Salo" after 25 years of hearing its fearful and mis-represented reputation. Reading through the reviews on the IMD and here on the Amazon site, it seems clear that for many it is a "Must See Nasty" - A film whose graphic imagery of torture, rape, coprophilia, sexual perversion and murder become an endurance test to rate alongside "I Spit On Your Grave" or "Last House On The Left". The truth is that on a purely visually graphic level, it's violence and rape is outdone by 1000 other films. But the emotional and mental impact of the film, it's messages and what it tells us of Man's inhumanity is practically unrivalled. It's hard to express the film's strength and message without lapsing into pseudo-psychobabble, and the layers of meaning and allegory contained within it are too various to list, but to try to put it simply, by using the extremity of deSade and the awful truth of Fascism in Europe, Pasolini confronts the beast in us all. Having lived in Italy during the time of Mussolini, Pasolini saw at first hand the distortion and debasemant of humanity under Fascism. DeSade in turn, celbrated the fact that man's capacity for atrocity was what made us human and could free us - two sides of one awful coin. Many of the scenes have an awful stillness, presented as full-frame tableaux, with the four main protagonists watching the degradations: Pasolini flips this back on us sat in a movie theatre watching the film... For anyone seeking to ask questions about whether or not Fascism, nazism or pure evil still has the capacity to re-occur, and particularly for those people who pretend "it could never happen here again", this is the film to confront them with. It is a multi layered, disturbing, often strangely beautiful film and one that any real fan of cinema should see, to fully experience the power of film to provoke, stimulate and force the viewer into confronting real, painful aspects of humanity. Sorry to get arty, but this film has had more impact on me than practically any film I have seen in the past 20 years. A masterpiece, for real. With recent events in Eastern Europe still fresh in the mind, this film and what it has to say about Human Beings is especially relevant.
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Summary: Very uncommon approach to criticize fascism
Review: Pier Paolo Pasolini is a man that I consider as a fascinating director. "Salò: The 120 Days of Sodom" (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) was his last film. His most noticeable works include "Porcile" and "The Gospel According To St.Matthew. Well, I would like to be clearer on this point, and I'll say that the word "noticeable" here is a synonym of "best". On the other hand, though, I would say that Salò is truly his most talked-about film, if you thought I meant that by noticed. The film is good, but I really preferred the two mentionned above, artistically and intellectually speaking. But Salò has its qualities, even though some of us might consider them as flaws. Salò is based on the Marquis de Sade's novel, entitled "Les 120 journees de Sodome". The book (of course, it was written way before the fascist period in Italy!) doesn't talk about fascism, and the main common point between the film and the book is the main concept. The film shows the horrors inflicted to a bunch of young and beautiful people that were selected by four sadistic (what a funny use of the word!) fascists that are only willing to quench their own brutal sexual and violent thirsts. They are taken to a villa where the are submitted to the worst humiliations, which include being raped whenever the four masters feel the desire to have sex, eating feces, and later on being brutally tortured and killed. This film is recognized for being one of the sickest of all times, one of the most disgusting also. Well, the "shocking content" mostly consists of constant nudity of young adults, many rapes, excrement-eating, scalping, tongue mutilation, and eye gouging. There are also pretty nasty stories told by a lady whose role in the villa is to tell sick stories that have for goal to turn on the four masters. I saw movies that were more disgusting than that, sincerely. The context and the cruelty surrounding many acts of violence and humiliation in this film are probably the main reason why it shocked so many people. The sexuality is never explicit (in the way that you never see a penetration graphically), the killings are pretty well done (the scalping especially) but there are very few of them and they are brief. I would say that "Caligula" is way more graphic and shocking than "Salò" (but less effective though). Pasolini's directing is beautiful. He made a mistake in one scene, changing the angle of the camera of less than 30 degrees between two shots. Except for that, he's fascinating...he's obsessed with showing symmetrical images...all the time. This technique somehow communicates the "discipline" and the supposedly high "straightness" of the fascists pretended to have. Also, the camera often has a pretty wide vision, and we don't often really get close to any character. With such coldness, Pasolini was criticized a lot. People didn't know if it was really a statement against fascism or just a good reason to show horrible things...Personnally, knowing a couple of things about Pasolini's life, I didn't doubt one moment about his intentions. Yes, he had socialist tendencies, yes, he was a homosexual (which fascists hated) and yes, he was against fascism, and it is clear when you see the film. People who only watch American films and are used to explicit messages in films will not understand that, but this film plundges us into cruelty we could have really compared to the nazis', and that's how it delivers its message. Maybe too subtle for some, but sometimes, I think it's better this way...just like in most American movies...an example: American History X talks about racism..."Racism is bad" is almost written on the walls...it's very sanctimonious, it's really not subtle...but there are movies where they only show horrible things the way they really are, without really giving a judgement in an explicit way...I think it even works better. I am a bit tired of moralizers, to be honest. The acting is very good. Also, I got the French Limited DVD of this film...that's the best edition, trust me! The audio tracks are in french (which Pasolini considered should have been the original language of this film, because it was the Marquis de Sade's and also the original Italian track. The one in french is amazing, really. There are also lots of extras, this is really a must-have. The actors, especially the four fascists, are extremely cold and creepy...Pasolini did a good job directing them. Overall, the film takes a very neutral approach to the horrors it displays, but that's effective. Sure, this is not a perfect movie, it has pretty slow moments and it is not that well structured, but it achieves its goal, which is to make a statement against fascism.
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Summary: Dont be so worried
Review: After reading alot about this movie on the net and from freinds i bought the Bfi's release of this movie, and to be completely honest, this isnt a film your going to have nightmares about. The concept of the film and the story line is obviously quite grim, but visually, its not that bad, compared to modern films like 7even, Saw etc this is nothing near as disturbing, many of the scenes are zoomed out and very short, i also failed to relate to the victims in this movie, as no time is spent on them and so could not appreciate the suffering they are supposed to suffer, which is think is what makes movies more extreme, along the lines of the way house of 1000 corpses does. The violent ending only shows momentarial glimpses of what is taking place. Aside from so many over exadgerations, this is an excellent movie, directed beutifully, and with a strong deeper meaning. If your looking for something sick and gory, get Saw, Ichi The Killer, Cannibal Holocaust, this movie was obviously strong at the time, but has lost alot of its Shock Value, none the less a great movie
Rating: 
Summary: Did I miss the point?
Review: I would give this zero stars if possible not because it's a good or bad film, but because I feel it's not a film that can or should be rated. A four or five star review seriously makes me wonder about the person who rated it so highly. A one or two star review is being a bit generous. I'm a fairly opened minded person when it comes to movies that push the envelope or cross the line of good taste as long as there's a point to it. Salo seems to have no point at all. It's a bit reminiscent of Caligula in its graphic displays of sexual and violent excesses but even Caligula had a point. Essentially the story is about a group of Nazi aristocrats who kidnap a group of teenaged boys and girls and whisk them off to a secluded mansion. Once there under the watch of gun toting guards, the teenagers are humiliated, physically abused and forced to participate in extreme sexual debauchery. Once the aristocrats have their fill with the teenagers they, in turn, torture, mutilate and murder them. After viewing the film, I was puzzled. I couldn't grasp the point of it all. My guess would be some visual discourse on being jealous of youth and beauty. The aging unattractive Nazi aristocrats revel in making the young attractive teenagers participate in disgusting and ugly acts and finally take sick pleasure in the most extreme acts of mutilation and violence and yes, you get to see it all. I'm amazed that this film was made, that actors would actually want to participate. Salo is loosely based on Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. It's probably a book that was better off left as a book. Salo is an interesting film but certainly not a film worthy of a star rating. It's a disturbing, disgusting and from my perspective an utterly pointless film whose visuals will stick with you for days. Worth a watch if you can stomach it, but in my opinion it lacks any redeeming social or cultural values. Either that or something must have went completely over my head.
Rating:
Summary: Hard movie
Review: This is a very hard to watch movie and is one of my favorites of all time.
I have to say that I disagree with Brian's review about "Salo" because he said that pasolini creates the situations in the movie, and, that's not true, pasolini takes thats situations from sade rather than "create" the situations, is Sade who takes those twisted characters from france's politics at his era.
I give this movie 3/5 stars because is a very disturbing movie very good but very disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: Salo: The Finest Work of the Modernist Era.
Review: Salo, superficially an art house film for hormonal frat boys, is one of the finest works of the modernist era and of the past century. The main virtue and justification of Salo lies in its profound and moving portrayal of the relationship that binds victim and victimizer, and also in the poetic and perceptive description of the Italy of the 1970s.
Pasolini's film will be hated by many, which is a lot to say for a film in the current era of shallow yet entertaining cinema. There will be the usual grumbling about morality in film, yet his credo is that there is freedom and safety in sentences, and language replaces the life. He' s playing the one note he knows.
The film represents an era of saccharine cinema that began in the 1970s. We are force fed fecal matter inside theatres, much like many of the denizens of Salo are. Salo, Mussolini's puppet state in northern Italy at the end of the Second World War, was a fascist, much like today's film studios are fascists who refuse to air films that explore deeper human emotions than humor at flatulation jokes and blue humor.
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