Great write up. One nitpick: Mussolini/fascism is hyper-right, not hyper-left.

i don't get it. what's the point of making films like these? where is the entertainment?

@ Munz, you show your ignorance…Mussolini, like Hitler was hyper-left not right. Learn your history.

This film is a masterpiece showing the nightmare it was to exist in facist Italy. This film also makes many allusions to other problems that pasolini thoguht existed in the world. This scene for example is his sentiments with commercialized food industries such as McDonalds. He thought that large food networks that would have a dictatorship on the food industry would fill the world with "shitty" food. The Criterion for this DVD is amazing and you should ingest (no pun intended) every bit of info you can from it. The meanings behind this and many other scenes from this poet are included. As for comment #2: It's fine if you don't get it, it doesn't make you "retarded" but to look down upon with the inflectio your comment denotes is sad and elitist. The point is expression against a system that this man saw destroy his beautiful nation. Pasolini also made a trilogy of life (Decameron, Cantenbury Tales, & Arabian Nights) if "Happy" is the only style of film you enjoy. I love that entire trilogy and this was to be his trilogy of Death. He was murdered by a french prostitute for making this film and if you think that the film isn't a deep and entertaining experience…I don't know what to do with you. GREAT JOB RENN!

This film could also be titled: "Learn how to say 'eat' in Italian" Or simply "MANGA!!! the 120 days of AWWHHHHGGRRGGHH!!!!! *nails*"

Actually, fascism doesn't really fall on either side of the arbitrary naming system. Hitler and Mussolini were both hyper conservative nationalists with radical socialist tendencies. That may seem contradictory seeing as how gray doesn't exist in the American political conversation anymore, but things generally don't fit in nice little boxes.

No, Adam. Learn your history. If we were to try to put Mussolini into a box, he would be extreme right, not left. Communism is considered left, and facism is considered right. Before you correct someone, it's best to do a little research.

However, you can't really call him either left or right, as his form of facism was not "pure" in an undergraduate political science sense.

Adam, you are the ignorant one. Contrary to what conservative pundits love to spout, the Italian and German Fascist movements were neither left nor right, but a combination of ideals of both. They took decidedly anti-labor and anti-socialist stances, eliminated most high bracket taxes, and privatized many public entities. However, they also established govermnent run banks and made massive infrastucture improvements on the public dime. By modern standards, their policies were both left and right (though if you ran a tally sheet, Glenn Beck's got alot more in common with Mussolini than Obama does…)

I had the displeasure of seeing this film for the first time a few weeks ago. Unfortunately if did so during dinner. I nearly puked during this scene. (and, yes, fascism is very far right. By definition: corporate rule and extreme nationalism. The very far left is the opposite, i.e. anti-corporate and anarchy/anti-government.)

Everyone who praises The Gospel According to St. Matthew should see this film. God bless Pasolini.

"Watched this during dinner". LOL, but says everything really. Score 1, Passolini.

Might be a little hard to watch, considering they eat bowel movements. Is there not a better way to demonstrate "Mussolini's reign, and hyper-leftist rule in general"? Or does it take something drastic like this to do so?

I tend to think of the political formulation as left/right/left/right. While not completely familiar with the workings of fascist Italy…the trend is a sort of government oroboros (the snake eating its tail). It starts when a government is too much/or not enough for a group of people. The government body is usually to the left in the sense that they pay for things like pensions and health care. However, when a national crisis comes along, those on the right (not speaking so much of Republican conservatives, but what passes for a conservative in those societies) tend to press for power using an argument of return to normalicy/traditional values along with creating a group of people to blame. That is right wing nationalism. However, when right wing nationalism takes root, a funny thing happens: the people in power suddenly try to placate the ruled and subjected by providing healthcare and unemployment help, etc., regulating previously unregulated fields. become more leftist in the caretaking duties. This leads to a government knowing what's best for its people….thus fascism. In other words, Democrats know they are fascists but its okay because they mean well and Republicans lie to themselves, not wanting to admit their fascist qualities by praying at the alter of dogma and family values. So um….don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu.

Wow…might need to see this. Re: the poop was made from chocolate and marmalade, I worked on a film once that called for fake poop and I had to figure out how to make it. I used brownie mix and enough water to make it pliable and then just rolled out a couple of poopies. lol to quote Devito "Shit is funny."

shit film. really really shit. don't bother with it

Actually, a great film, and one I'll never watch again. Very disturbing, from the subject matter to the ideas behind it. And made even worse by the calm, matter-of-fact directing.
But seriously, Mousillini was hyper-right, and called him hyper-left is pure ignorance or a simple mistake (or you read too much Goldberg, which is a whole other problem).

I was beginning to lose interest in Chud after Devin left, but now that I see that the other writers have no knowledge of politics and probably never bothered studying History, I think I'm gone for good.

Mussolini: ""We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century."

"Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but the class struggle."

The Orwellian way in which some Conservatives are trying to re-write history and claim fascism as a left-wing movement (and thereby using it smear the present day Left) is quite frightening.

Watched this with 2 sisters in college both of them threw up, one multiple times. I didn't see what the big deal was since I wasn't all that much affected. The film is terrible. There are more disturbing films that show less. Someone told me the Night Porter was more disturbing so I watched it. I did not find it to be disturbing, but it was a pretty cool movie unlike Salo.

Quite possibly my most hated film, partly for these scenes. That I watched it once is a shame in my life that will never go away.

"Growing up in Bologna and Friuli, Pasolini was introduced to many leftist examples in mass culture from an early age. He began writing at age seven, heavily under the influence of French poet Arthur Rimbaud. His writing quickly began to incorporate certain aspects of his personal life, mainly dealing with constant familial struggles and moving from city to city."

..that's the info I was pulling from about Pasolini. I was writing an article about poop, didn't put a ton of effort considering into how the hyper-sensitive might interpret it politically.

Chill the fuck out with the matter-of-fact declarative bullshit folks. No war should be fought in the comments of a shit-feast celebration.

FIRST VALIDATION ATTEMPT

That doesn't make any sense, Renn. You said the movie was "a loose metaphor for…hyper-leftist rule in general", but now you're saying you based that on some cut-and-pasted passage about how the director had left-wing influences at the age of seven. So which is it? A director who had childhood leftist leanings, or metaphor for "hyper-leftist" rule? Those are two completely different subjects. Also, chill the fuck out with the passive aggressive retorts. You made a mistake. It makes you look naive. Trying to wriggle out of it by saying it doesn't matter if you make a mistake because it's just a story about poop makes you – and CHUD – look shallow and half-assed. If someone posted a news story that said Metropolis was a pro-Nazi celebration of industrial society, they'd still be wrong, even if they did so in a story about dog dicks. And the final jab about the verification system – well done, it worked first time for you. It doesn't for a lot of other people, hasn't done for almost a year, and nobody at CHUD seems to give a fuck. Again: half-assed. EIGHTH VERIFICATION ATTEMPT, for the record.

"Fascism (pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzÉ™m/) is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2][3][4] Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy.[5][6] Fascism was originally founded by Italian national syndicalists in World War I who combined left-wing and right-wing political views, but it gravitated to the political right in the early 1920s.[7][8] Scholars generally consider fascism to be on the far right of the conventional left-right political spectrum." wiki is never wrong.

Without being snarky, Renn, the problem here is that your article attempts to justify Salo's trangressive approach by calling it a political metaphor–so accurately summarizing the film's political stance IS pretty important. But why comment on a film's political overtones if you're not entirely aware of their meaning? It doesn't make you ignorant or stupid to not know this stuff, but trying to write about it may make you look so. Also? Salo is based on a book by the infamous and grotesque Marquis de Sade, a juicy tidbit that would've made much more sense and wouldn't brought the comment wrath.

For those on the right trying to paint fascism as an extreme left ideology: better to stick to the simple stuff…communism is hyper-left, Stalin was a communist, and the worst dictator in modern history. Comparing Obama to fascists just doesn't make any sort of sense, when you've got a great paper tiger in Stalin.

Oh, and Passolini's early leftist influences caused him to become a leftist–pretty cut & dry, and definitely anti-Mussolini who, yes, was a fascist and fascists are extreme right, meaning extremely conservative.

Also: oh God, do I miss Devin.

Love the insight by Tequila Mockingbird. Reminded me of one of the final scenes in the documentary "Yes Men" where the notion of recycling food is introduced to a group of college students. This one's on my Netflix list.