11. Salo (1975)
Banned: Italy, Finland, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Norway Pier Paolo Pasolinis final transgressive masterpiece, Salo will forever be known as that film in which people eat pooh. And poop eating is guaranteed to attract the attention of the censors and their pointy scissors. Pasolini was murdered shortly after the making of Salo and there are tons of fascinating conspiracy theories surrounding his death. He was certainly very ambitious in attempting to translate the source material the Marquis de Sades 120 Days of Sodom, onto the big screen. And an adaption of the Marquis de Sades book was bound to be extremely controversial indeed. Basically four corrupt and depraved Italian libertines hole up in a castle in Salo, the last remaining fascist stronghold in Italy near the end of the World War Two and the dying days of Mussolinis regime. They abduct a bunch of young teenagers and assemble perverts galore to entertain them. The abducted children are tortured, raped, murdered in an increasingly brutal fashion. And yes, the libertines enjoy making the children eat pooh. The scenes near the end of the film, make the viewer feel like they are watching some snuff they are that nasty and voyeuristic. Salo is fairly authentic to The 120 Days of Sodom, except for the non-depiction of de Sades more elaborate, inventive and horrific tortures which are detailed in the book. But the philosophies of the main characters usually the justification and exaltation of libertinism are faithful to de Sades vision. There was no question that Salo was going to run into censorship problems and subsequent banning around the world. It is not only extremely perverted, it features a strong political message of corruption and abuse of power. This subversiveness is another reason why the film ran into censorship difficulties worldwide.