MovieChat Forums > Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1976) Discussion > Metaphor for evils of the government?

Metaphor for evils of the government?


Also, do you agree with the review of one user, around 2008 or so, who wrote that "everyone who "loves" (or for that matter sees ANY positive value, however flawed) the government should watch this movie and realize how WRONG they ALL are in general" or do you think that not ALL governments are on the SAME level of EVIL, and certainly NOT on the majorly perverse, power hungry, incredibly selfish, utterly insane, willing to torture and murder in the most inhuman ways as possible for personal gain etc, levels as portrayed in this movie - Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)?

And that is also not even taking into account the TIME and PERIOD of settings, or do we believe that today, world, humanity and governments have not changed for the positive, all that much then, and that we haven't evolved so far as past the levels of Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s?

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I don't deny and even agree that politics and governments for the most part have many flaws including very major ones that can not only affect how we live and how healthy and well sustained we are, but also if we were to die due to some conflict or civil war or an invasion that may end up killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. I also do know that in life, including our modern times of the last 20 years or so, we in humanity are very polarized by it all, and lots of politicians have fans and devotees despite the fact that many of them don't even attempt to hide their dark sides and shady aspects of their careers, including the existence of certain wars that at times can be seen easily without even all THAT much scrutiny and with even a modicum of common sense who is responsible for them and what kind of carnage and damage they cause, including at times the order of DIRECT executions of many, many innocent people.

But then does that mean that essentially ALL governments and politics are evil just like that or even EQUALLY evil and that people who, if not completely "love" them, at least don't mind them, or find redeeming value in them, or don't always/often see them for the evil that they are etc, are necessarily 100% wrong and need to be told off on the order of "Look at how wrong you are" etc and made to feel "ashamed" and whatnot and that we in humanity should quiet simply now work towards overthrowing or removing governments and politics and replacing them with the kind of establishments that would in FACT not even be REMOTELY capable of any wrong, bad and evil deeds and doings, and that all wars would be avoided, there would be no dictatorships, no possibility of any "unconstitutional" and "injust" wars (even if they may SEE them as "just" and see no other way, as opposed to say, just de-facto looking to start wars entirely for their OWN selfish gains, greed and self-justification, and not for any "humanitarian" reasons etc of removing dangero

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... dangerous dictators" and doing it all in the name of "freedom" etc.

And on a lesser side, it wouldn't create so much divisions in society, angry and outraged knee jerk reactions, conflicts on the internet, things would be easier to see and understand for ALL of us equally, there would be more trust between leaders and the public etc.

But would or could ANY of that even be REMOTELY possible, with how things are including in politics, at the moment in humanity?

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*fascist government

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Well, yes, the government in this movie *was* fascist but then Pasolini claimed in interviews, before he died (rumours suggest he was killed for this movie, albeit unconfirmed), that this movie wasn't "about" fascism per say, and at least one user in reviews claimed that almost ALL governments are like that, not just the one(s) during fascism in 30s and 40s Nazi Germany, and that people who feel in any way positively about the governments should watch this movie and that it will (rightly) change their minds for the better, or at least, it *should*.

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