For some reason known only to themselves, our Office for the Classification of Film and Literature pulled the classification for Salo a few years ago - meaning it is now effectively banned here.
I’m amazed that it’s being screened on TV anywhere.
While I agree with the “strong stomachs” warning, it is a truly excellent movie.
I’ve only seen the edited version, which should only be seen while wearing a seatbelt because the cuts in it will give you serious whiplash.
But I thought that it was the best depiction of pure decadence that I’ve ever seen in a movie. As bean_shadow said, the costumes and set design were truly brilliant. They created a world within the larger Roman world that was devoted to itself, an insane reality made possible by the wishes of an all-powerful autocrat. It was as perfect an illustration of the corruption of power as ever put on film.
If only the foreground of the movie - the plotting, dialog and acting - matched what was implied by the background, this would have been a masterpiece. Who knows, maybe that’s what Vidal, who was capable of it, had intended in his original script. But what actually reached theaters had nothing of that brilliance.
That was pretty much my take on it too, Tiburon. A friend of mine (who owns it on VHS) lent it to me, and I’m glad I saw it so that I know what all the fuss is about… not much. I wasn’t overly grossed out by it or overly turned-on by it. Both the sex and the violence seemed flat and pointless. Unless that was the point. Maybe. shrug
The only thing that bugged me about it badly was the scene at the end where the child is killed along with Caligula and her mother. Pretty brutal.
The film, overall, is hardly the work of art its makers seem to think it is. It may have some points of accuracy (which are more attributable to Vidal and his good research than anything), but that doesn’t make it a great film. Far from it, actually.