I was loving Fey doing this till I heard that SNL may be planning to have Palin on to make fun of Fey.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/zwecker/1203739,CST-FTR-fey05.article

Why? To be fair?

Look, satire isn't fair. And the thought of this is as depressing as when SNL did propaganda for the Gulf War, or when Dana Carvey became Bush 41's best friend.

I guess I'm saying that if they have Jerry Lundegaard in drag on...then they didn't mean it, and in fact it only makes all that's been done so far promotion for both Palin and Fey.

But then, nobody is better at turning satire into just another form of marketing than SNL. BOB ROBERTS nailed that one pretty well. (and if they let Palin come on in that manner, BOB ROBERTS will turn out to be prescient)

Sure is getting 'em great ratings, though, huh?

...which it shares with a number of other extreme, controversial and disturbing films of the 70s, like THE DEVILS or STRAW DOGS as just two examples, is that SALO doesn't care whether you like it or not.

Only David Lynch and Todd Solondz(whose films, I'll admit, make even me uneasy, such as the final scene of the molester and his son in HAPPINESS) seem to share this quality anymore. Peter Greenaway had been when he did THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER, or the unavailable BABY OF MACON(which is, for all its pluses, ponderous as hell), but then decided that plot was for losers and, it seems, vaporized altogether in some aesthetic mist at some point. It's odd when looking at THE COOK now to realize that in fact Greenaway meant it only as about the nice colors and compositions.

And David Lynch has turned it--strange to say--into a bit of a shtick, even if it becomes an increasingly incomprehensible one. And Solondz' scope is too small to accomplish more than medium shocks. But both know they have an audience and play to it. Pasolini, who was also a famous poet, at least in Europe(kind of like what happened to Julian Schnabel, only Pasolini was good at both) and Marxist activist, didn't give much of a shit about connecting to his audience. His concerns were very personal and it strengthens his work.

On his death, put WHOEVER SAYS THE TRUTH SHALL DIE in your Netflix queue. When you watch SALO and realize that the statement he was making, which was partly against his neo-fascist political enemies in Italy(there are references that would have been known in Italy: not for nothing is it overtly structured on the framework of Dante's INFERNO, which was a revenge work along with everything else it was), and that this movie might partly have been what made him a horrible smear on the road(I'm being very literal here)...well, I don't know about you, but I admire his courage. You just don't see it that often anymore. A time when art could still be truly dangerous.

Well, elaborate, as I've never heard of it!

Not at all the same thing as Pink Flamingos. Firstly, in that it was actual shit; in SALO it was actually very rich chocolate. Secondly, Waters' idea of what's shocking is pretty juvenile(I've always hated PF, and always preferred Waters' essays to his films) and really mostly on the level of Mel Brooks if he went in for shock humor. What's happening in SALO is on a very, very different level. Beyond shock, in a way.

Waters has become cuddly, almost, over time. SALO will NEVER be cuddly.

And to those who say they prefer something happier, well, then watch it and don't watch this. That's like coming into a discussion of Mexican food and saying you can't eat it because it's too spicy. Well, that's fine, but just because you don't care for that doesn't mean spicy food should be eaten by no one.

To quote Miss Jean Brodie, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like."

But if you sat through HOSTEL(which is garbage--torture as entertainment) and balk at this, then you may want to evaluate your own sadistic instincts. This film reminds you that you hav humanity left in that it expects you to wince, while HOSTEL considers you a pussy if you do. Consider that.

I think to truly understand this film, it should be seen alongside THE DAMNED and 1900.