Salo is an endurance test, once seen it is never forgotten -- and seldom revisited.

When I saw the film in college, for an Italian film studies course, the professor warned all participants that the film was brutal and they could chose not to watch it. I remember many of those who showed up for the screening left midway. Some made gagging noises. When the film was over and I was trying to stand without fainting, I kept thinking to myself, "There has to be a good reason why I just watched this, right?" I still don't have an answer.

The back story on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo (aka Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom) is certainly more fascinating than the film itself. A widely read and respected poet and novelist, Pasolini, in his early films, such as 1961's Accatone and 1964's Gospel According to Saint Matthew, chronicled (and championed) the lives of the downtrodden and the revolutionary. He moved from realism to absurdist satire (1966's Hawks and Sparrows) before finding wider popular success with a trilogy of sexy literary adaptations intended by Pasolini as a Trilogy of Life -- Decameron (1971), Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1974). When released, Salo, the first film in his intended, complementary Trilogy of Death, was considered so reprehensible that it was confiscated as obscene and to this day is banned in many countries. Pasolini's gruesome demise (at the hands of a teen hustler) shortly before the release of the film certainly contributed to the media frenzy around the film's content. While Pasolini courted controversy in the past, and had included moments of shocking violence in his earlier films, no one was prepared for the horror of Salo.

A loose adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, Salo transposes the story to the Salo Republic, a region Mussolini created in Northern Italy after he was deposed in Rome. The intent, according to Pasolini was to denounce "the anarchy of power and the inexistence of history." The plot of the film -- like Sade's book -- is quite simple. Four Fascists fearing the coming Allied invasion steal away to a remote villa and proceed to humiliate, rape, torture, and eventually kill nine young men and nine young women. The film is divided into four sections -- Antechamber of Hell, Circle of Obsessions, Circle of Shit, and Circle of Blood. The barbarities enacted on the young people progress just as the section titles suggest towards ever more horrific atrocities. The camera never flinches; the special effects are nauseatingly realistic; the acting entirely convincing.

So, why do people watch this film, and why has it been released (a second time -- the first pressing goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay) by Criterion, one of the U.S.'s premiere DVD companies? First and foremost is the curiosity factor. People hear terms like "sickest movie ever made" or "voted (by Time Out) the most controversial movie in history" and immediately want to see what all the fuss is about. Second are the Pasolini completists and third, European and art house cinema critics and fans who can appreciate the skill involved in crafting Salo. While the movie is well made (shot in a cold, clinical style by DP Tornio Delli Colli) and the message resonates, it is difficult to recommend it. Watching Salo is very much akin to reading Sade's novel: You get the point very quickly and after you've gotten the point it's hard to justify continued attention.

Pasolini reportedly disowned his Trilogy of Love and made Salo as a reaction against the increasing popularity of his films. In some ways it was giving the finger to the "consumerist" world, an attempt to make the most unwatchable film imaginable, what Pasolini described as the "last film." In many ways he succeeded, while Salo certainly is not the last film to contain extremely sadistic violence it is the only one that can truly only be watched once.

Criterion's DVD release includes several documentary features (about the production and interviews) as well as a booklet with essays. The main film is available dubbed in English or the original Italian. Finally, a booklet of essays on Salo is also included with the 2008 reissue of the DVD.

Aka Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma.