Rating: 
Summary: A master work
Review: I think Salo is a master work. Sure, it is stagnant and slow in the European tradition of film making, but that is not a citicism of the film itself, merely how we in the US read the language of film.Yes, there are disgusting moments in this film, but I consider those moments as horror the must be witnessed - an object lesson. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Before all this DECADENCE saps our will......
Review: Very funny farce lampooning the Italian middle classes. DeSade has had a lasting influence on contemporay western culture so what was his philosophy? If I understand him correctly, he proposes that if God had meant us to hold back from our base desires, why did he create two classes, one weak, the other strong? Yes, we understand that there is no ultimate happiness to be gained in oppressing others but if we choose to do so then we should take the consequences and not invoke spurious concepts of God. The ultimate divine gift from nature was the enjoyment in the suffering of others. The trouble is only DeSade wrote 'The 120 Days Of Sodom' and spent 27 years in prison suggesting that the natural order was not working, which was perhaps his point as his work scuriously lampoons the authorities that were stifling his free will thus perhaps making him attractive to the radicals and intelligentsia of the sixties and seventies. Pasolini saw DeSade as a 'revolutionary', an idea unfavourable to some feminists who disliked the elevating of a grubby serial sex offender purely because he happened to write novels too. Pasolini's stated aims over 'Salo' seem more allegorical, the detail of the updating not as important as symbols, the non-specific type of which can be experienced through the madness of a dream, in his words, to get at a greater truth. This belief in the efficacies of dreams, Freud and the unconscious has arguably less currency today although I admit I did experience this 'truth', although one should caution oneself against chimera's. Pasolini's 'naughty Fido's' symbolising the packaged rubbish we eat today through industrial capitalism is debatable though, I would have thought more money means more choice in what you put in your mouth but perhaps I'm niave. But he's on better ground with the humans as commodities angle and had he lived he would have drawn a wry smile over the banning of his work while television companies produce reality shows revolving around sexual voyeurism and humiliation. Although enormously brave and a work of uncompromising integrity, one wonders whether it was wise of Pasolini to put his young cast in spiritual danger through portraying the work of the likes of DeSade who ruthlessly exploited people's uncertainties over the existence of God for his own sleazy ends. One also wonders about Pasolini's curious remark that he didn't consider himself a moralist which smacks of a get out clause. Although there is no proof that the film was instrumental in Pasolini's death, S&M is not something to be entered into lightly for aesthetic reasons or as a tourist. It bites.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a laugh
Review: Hey if you want a good laugh,watch this film, it's like watching Funniest Homes Videos, I mean it. You will enjoy it so much, I garentee. You will laugh so hard, it will feel like your stomach is falling apart. This is a film for the whole family, including small kids. I played it at my daughetrs 5th-b-day party, it was funny,lol! Bye
Rating:
Summary: Best 'enjoyed', as the cover implies, as a black comedy.
Review: 'Salo', Pasolini's solemn tableau allegorising the last days of Italian fascism, is, on first viewing, a depressing, numbing experience, a film belonging to that small band of uncomfortable works - e.g. Swift's 'A Modest Proposal', Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket', Chris Morris' 'Brass eye' - that seek to replicate the mindset they attack, in this case fascism and its post-war legacy, without any critical distance. In other words, Pasolini doesn't offer the viewer any position in the film with which to engage with it, to assert his or her own values. this puts immense weight on the viewer's responses outside the film, which might explain why so many people dislike it (there are films far more violent and disturbing than the rather chastely shot 'Salo', but they have comforting get-out clauses). 'Salo' is actually a film that thrives on paradox - a relentlessly intellectual film about the debasement of bodies; a portrait of Western cultural decadence whose main reference points are Western cultural artefacts; a story about authority figures who outlaw religion that reworks the Gospel Passion and Dante's Inferno, and is structured around religious rites, liturgies, costumes etc. 'Salo' is also a much funnier film that its 'shocking' reputation suggests.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a favorite, but unforgettable.
Review: It's ironic that someone like Pasolini, a communist and humanist of the first order, would produce a film so disgusting and disturbing, and which was so vile in its statement about the human condition. Maybe he became so overwhelmed by the subject matter that he grew more interested in portraying atrocities than in any message that he had intended at the beginning of the film. I've only seen it once, but it refuses to leave me, years later. It does have the traditional slower pacing common in foreign films, but if you "enjoy" films that disturb you, you should track this one down.
Rating:
Summary: Good movie, but not enough
Review: After reading the book of the Marquis the sade, the 120 days of Sodom, and heard about that this movie was based upon it, i try to get it anywhere. I finally got it at ..., and as i was watching it, i couldnt help but feel dissapointed, just for the fact that the narrative its very long in terms of trying to explain the perversions, rather usuccesfully, and very little to the pervertions itselves. I consider the movie to be mediocre, but nevertheles has its merit just on the fact that Passolinni had the guts to did it. If you are looking for something really perverse, read the book.
Rating:
Summary: the ultimate snuff movie?
Review: How DID he do it? Remember the poster - banned in L.A.? The boy and girl wearing dog collars - spiked, and on their knees, leashed? Then THE screening[s]. Spouse and I took a foreign friend - wouldn't talk to me for about a week after seeing "THAT". Funny, sad movie - bravo Pasolini for having the courage to make this monsterpiece of depravity. It would be interesting to see this movie again: - Watching the audience watching this movie. A catharsis in extremis! Nothing else compares - perhaps "In the Realm of the Senses"? Where is the new talent? [AND "why" is this not currently available?]
Rating:
Summary: gets boring, but original
Review: My main gripe with this picture is not with the coprophagy scenes or the rape or torture, it is with the entertainment level. There are some memorable moments(ok, loads of them) but they kind of repeat themselves, but i suppose that is what the film is about, the incessant torture of it all. The 4 evil guys are played with gusto, these guys are the most perverted guys on film i've ever seen, even more perverted than divine or raymond and connie marble from 'pink flamingos'. My favourite parts are the start when they round up the victims and guards, the anticipation of what's to come. I thought the victims should have at least tried to resist more or come up with an escape plan or something. It's a violent film which i do not recommend to children or women
Rating:
Summary: Sick, twisted, and quite humorous.
Review: This film is the sickest one I have ever seen, and I love it! Based upon Marquis de Sade's "120 Days of Sodom," this film deals with the grotesque acts of what was described in the novel, but instead of the 18th century, it is taking place during WW2 with young teenagers. The film itself is extremely graphic and will leave people with weak stomachs running for the toilet. Personally, I loved it. Due to censors these days, people do not get to see the full affect of many stories because everyone is worried about weak-minded children. This film chose to ignore that case and present it full force. Thank you, Pasolini!
Rating:
Summary: A brutal, intellectual, "atmosfearical" film
Review: This film is disturbing on many levels, only one of which is the "gore"/"torture", which frankly is minimal and mostly implied. It is the intellectualism underlying the all-pervasive perversion and sense of no hope which gives the film its terror, together with the real-life subsequent murder of Pasolini shortly after the film's completion. One buying tip - the British Film Institute has released a completely uncut print on DVD, together with extras, which can be obtained from Amazon.co.uk at http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005954M/qid=987457227/sr=1-2/202-4897521-1657461. Despite Salo being out of print in the US, therefore, don't let that stop you buying this masterwork of genuine, intellectual terror.
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