Cheap Salo - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Pier Paolo Pasolini) Price

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Customer Reviews of Salo - Criterion Collection

feel good date movie of the year!!!
Some people are saying that this film has a message, they are correct, it says " I want to disturb you." The two mentions of political and social beliefs are there for fluff. She wolf of the ss had more social commentary. that being said, it was worth the money i paid just to laugh at a friend as I skipped 1/3 of the movie (the circle of merde part,) because he was about to vomit. Dont expect a gripping story against marxism, but prepare your self to say what the "f@@k" and laugh at the way over the top characters.

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a cautionary tale
This film forms an interesting counterpoint to Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice." Like Visconti, Pier Paolo Pasolini was a communist, a homosexual, and a master of the visual flamboyance that has become a hallmark of Italian cinema in everything from giallo (Dario Argento, Mario Bava) to "spaghetti" westerns (particularly Sergio Leone, Italy's greatest director). <
>But where "Death in Venice" comes perilously close to NAMBLA propaganda, "Salo" has a completely different agenda. "Salo" is a cautionary tale, a warning about the perilous course western civilization seems to have embarked on as early as the eighteenth century (the age of de Sade), and a course we seem powerless to avert. If Armageddon is right around the corner, we can't say we haven't been warned. <
>The movie critic for my hometown paper called "Salo" unwatchable. Perhaps the fact that I was able to watch this movie almost without flinching shows how desensitized violence in the media is making me. Of course that's the point of the movie. Although based on a novel by the Marquis de Sade, the setting is Nazi-occupied Italy during World War II and the characters are all decadent aristocrats who have become so deadened by the atrocities they've helped perpetrate that the only way they can still feel is by inflicting pain on others. Their aim is to break their victims down, make them as desensitized and dehumanized as their tormentors. <
>In deference perhaps to Nazi eugenics theory, all the young men and women chosen for their experiment are near-perfect beauties. (Indeed, one lucky girl is rejected for having bad teeth). If the boys seem genuinely innocent, the girls were all apparently played by German and Italian porno starlets: they're all quite beautiful, but they all have that used-up look like they're used to this sort of treatment. Ironically, the more beautiful the girl the more cruel the torture. <
>The amazing thing about this movie is that no matter how hard they try, the Fascist captors never succeed completely in dehumanizing either their accomplices, their victims, or even themselves. The chief fascist forms an apparently genuine romantic connection with one of his male victims, who seems to reciprocate. Two of the girls form a tender lesbian relationship. One of the young guards forms an attachment to a black servant girl, for which both pay with their lives. And finally, one of the hideous old courtesans kept around to entertain the malefactors throws herself from the balcony after witnessing the final execution of the victims. <
>This is not to say that "Salo" represents the "triumph of the human spirit." This is not "Schindler's List." What it does say is that in spite of the capacity of evil in every one of us, there is also a capacity for good, and no matter how brutalized or dehumanized we become there's always a small spark of humanity within. There's a hope--a small, fragile hope, but hope nonetheless. <
>The ending of this film is stunning. While the remaining victims are tortured and executed outside, the fascist officials watch safely from their rooms while listening to a broadcast of the poetry of Ezra Pound (an American poet who openly collaborated with the fascists) followed by the haunting music of Carl Orff--what better music for a scene like that? <
>But then one of the young guards changes the channel to some swing music and asks his (male) partner to dance. While they dance he asks him what his girl friend's name is. <
>This movie speaks volumes about the human condition. Angels or devils--we can be either, or both, but the choice is still ours.

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Salo 2007 Re-issue by Criterion (FINALLY)
Theres really not much to say if you have read the title, It is true and official.....(look up the official Criterion Blog if my word doesn't seem reliable)for the people who dropped 600.00 or more on this title may not want to believe it which I completely understand...but then again who really drops over 600.00 on a dvd. The day this gem does comes into existence I can finally go on ebay and watch the value of this dvd diminish overnight... Anyway this should not be a shocker...for Die-hard Criterion fans; we have noticed this trend from Criterion for the past three years. They have been dipping into their old titles and revamping them with the utmost effort to ensure pristine quality and astonishing HD transfers, These include: "The Wages of Fear", "Brazil", "M", "Playtime", "Amarcord", "Grey Gardens", and soon to be coming, "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro". Re-releasing Salo in a Beautiful HD transfer should not come as a shocker since it is the most sought out dvd in the world, not too mention Criterion only produced 2,000 copies back in 1998. At any rate, The Criterion Collection is working with the HD transfer right now, as far as supplements are concerned, that information remains to be announced in the near future, however, at least we know that this valuable gem is recieving the correct and proper treatment. For such a limited release and controversial movie I am almost 100% positive if not 110% sure that Criterion will not dissapoint us as usual. All of their re-issues so far have been superior in ever aspect, transfers, supplements, and essays you name it. Salo in general, was a bare bones release; no trailer, no commentaries, nothing..just the movie. Criterion will go all out with this release..imagine...a double disc...with a 70 page booklet would be nice...but we will have to wait in 2007 won't we....