Movie Substrate · Film
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1976)
★ 6.3 · 2,286 ratings on TMDB
The final vision of a controversial filmmaker.
Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.
DirectorPier Paolo Pasolini
The emergence reading
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E12 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing power, authority, violence, dehumanization, corruption.
zero-distanceITpowerauthorityviolencedehumanizationcorruption
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
The Suicide Squad (2021)E8/E12 · rare rung · authority, corruption
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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012)E8/E12 · rare rung · authority, power
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Vice (2018)E12 · rare rung · authority, corruption
Maleficent (2014)E8/E12 · rare rung · authority, powerSame subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Ultraviolet (2006)E4/E11 · rare rung · authority, power
Dogma (1999)E9/E10/E14 · rare rung · authority, power
Damsel (2024)E6/E9/E10 · rare rung · authority, power
The Odyssey (2026)E6/E9/E10 · rare rung · authority, power
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)E11/E14 · rare rung · power, violence
The Big Short (2015)E10/E13 · rare rung · corruption, power
