Why ‘Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom’ Doesn’t Work
Last night, we saw Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. This was via Gaspar Noe’s recommendation (a filmmaker we love and admire here on OurMovieLife) and we were rather excited to watch ‘the most gruesome film of all time’.
Unfortunately, our boy Gaspar played us on this one. While Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has an interesting premise and is definitely unlike anything we’ve seen before, we’ll go against the general consensus here and discuss why this is not a good film.
We want humans.
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has one very simple, but unfortunately also very big, problem. And it is: none of the characters are actually characters.
To be completely frank, every single person in this gruesome film is in fact not an actual person. None of them are given any complex or even vaguely defining qualities. A possible analysis perhaps stands on a pseudo-intellectual internal level, but that neither here, not there.
This takes a lot away from the film.
The premise of Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is to depict the true horrors that these characters have gone through. We, as viewers, and people, have the innate ability to care about other people — so it becomes very difficult to feel the horrors of Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom when one can’t relate to these horrors at all. Why? They are not implicated on actual people, but rather bland moving bodies through space.
In reality, the de-characterization of literally everyone in this film kills its plot and impact, too. Because, as horrible as this sounds, it’s very difficult to care about what these silhouettes are going through. And the core of the problem is exactly that — they are silhouettes. So on top of bland characterization, we lose the impact and emotional punch that Salò is going for.
Irreversible, by Gaspar Noe, is a great example of this done right. We care about the characters because we know who they are and we’re attached to them. And so, when truly terrible things happen to them, we feel that and sympathize with them and suffer with them. Whereas in Salò, we know nothing — and so it’s difficult to care.
People are complex.
While watching Salò, a Stephen King quote occurred to mind. This isn’t an exact quotation, but it went something like this:
The problem with most writing nowadays is that writers refuse to accept the complex nature of the human mind. They refuse to believe that a serial killer might sometimes help an old lady cross the street.
And this couldn’t relate more to Salò. The antagonists are bland and wildly one-dimensional. Humans are not like that. Humans are complex. The beauty of cinema is exploring that complication and developing it. It would be much more interesting to see a caring father and husband be a serial killer than someone who has been abusing people their whole life be a serial killer.
The complexity is non-existent in Salò. And so, once again, we don’t buy it; we don’t buy it because that’s not what people are. And if that’s not what people are, then the whole premise of horror and suffering goes to waste because we simply stop caring.
There is genius to Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. The nature of the film could work extremely well — if only characterization and depth were added. But the core problem of Salò is exactly that — a lack of depth. It’s a nice attempt at presenting suffering, but unfortunately, due to its one-sided and black-and-white perspective, it fails miserably.
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— Pouty Boy