Shocking. Not the first time that this is said about a film. The Italian director Pasolini died only two months after finishing this film. He went for the lowest of the low of human expression. The book “120 Days Of Sodom” of Marquis de Sade is placed in the 1944 “miniature Fascist Republic of Salò” of Mussolini.
Young men and women are kidnapped by soldiers and taken to a remote mansion to fulfill the sexual fantasies of four high-ranked leaders as slaves. The youngsters are systematically humiliated and abused. The details come from the sick mind of De Sade and according to the director aren’t altered (he only made 120 days to 3). The youngsters have to fullfill the needs of the leaders, listen to the stories of one of the older women, act as dogs, eat excrement and are eventually tortured to death. And then I haven’t even mentioned what the leaders do to eachother out of joy.
What Pasolini did very well was that he created an extremely sick atmosphere without much explicit imaginary. According to the box this film is a reaction against “consumerism and passive […] permissiveness”. Shocking indeed and no pleasure to watch. If this was indeed the idea behind the film, Pasolini succeeded. I hate the result (which I supposely should), so this one gets a