Salò o le 120 gionate di Sodoma (Salo)

This Italian film from 1975 takes place during the Nazi era of Italy’s past. The film starts out with some aristocrats signing some sort of document. Turns out they’ve all agreed to marry each other’s daughter to make some sort of unbreakable pact between them all. A group of gentlemen round up a handful of teenage hoodlum boys and talk about deflowering them, though I’m not sure that’s what they mean. Then a group of men round up a group of girls and the girls are forced to strip in front of a panel of guys who are judging her.

The children are taken to a mansion in the countryside where they are forced to “perform” for the men – both boys and girls. Apparently, the “instructors” there are training them all to become whores. The trainees are humiliated and beaten and sexually abused for the pleasure of this group of aristocrats. They are forced to do pretty awful things, including a banquet of excrement. Yeah, really. The woman who plays the storyteller is pretty creepy as are every one of the adult actors in the film – many of them are recanting sexual stories (which apparently are taken from Marquis de Sade and other erotic authors). The big shots decide to have a contest to see which child (girl or boy) has the best ass, and the winner of the contest gets the grand prize of being killed. In fact, the aristocrats get off on watching the children being tortured and murdered in gruesome ways.

Once again, the Italians have succeeded in making me say “WTF? Do these things really happen in Italy?” I have asked this question soooooo many times before, I’m beginning to believe it. This film, despite containing about 90% nudity, is pretty uncomfortable to watch. It’s disgusting and is intended to horrify viewers. If you are into graphic and violent sex movies, this film is for you. If you are not, then I would steer VERY clear of this film. It’s not a pretty film and I’d be surprised if you made it through the first 20 minutes of the film, honestly. Apparently, this film has a few different versions with some very rare scenes cut out. If found with all of the scenes, this DVD is one of the most expensive DVDs known to collectors (thank you IMDB). Still not sure if I’d track it down though. That’s just me.