#and it's just representative of how unbothered he is by brutality and making others suffer

[weirdgirlification]

twin peaks, salò, and the human capacity for evil

i wanted to elaborate on how i think twin peaks and salò have similar things to say about the nature of evil and how it exists in society.

warning for discussion of csa, rape, incest, torture, murder

part one: fathers and daughters 

both twin peaks and salò portray evil as something that often comes from those one is closest to, the people who have power over others who are meant to be “protecting” them but in reality are being enabled to do the opposite. there’s a specific focus on the father-daughter relationship and the idea of patriarchal incest, which more broadly represents the idea of men in high places (fathers) abusing the more vulnerable members of society (women, young people) because it’s so easy for them to get away with without others noticing.

twin peaks centers around the murder of laura by her father leland, who had been sexually abusing her for years previously. it also has audrey and ben and their interaction at one eyed jack’s, where he tries to have sex with her not knowing he's his daughter. laura’s working at one eyed jack’s as a result of the abuse she’s suffered at leland’s hands serves as a sort of exchange in which she is given from one man to another. this calls to mind the beginning of salò, in which the fascist libertines marry each other’s daughters, participating in a similar act of exchange, though all four men go on to torture, abuse, and kill all four women. blood makes no difference here the way it did with ben horne, who was horrified to find out it had been audrey at one eyed jack’s. 

this abuse specifically happens to girls from “good” families, with ben being a wealthy businessman with a great deal of power in the town and leland being an upper middle class attorney. similarly, the daughters in salò all have fathers that hold positions of power, who remain unnamed throughout the film and are defined entirely by their titles. this suggests that no one is immune to such evil, that even those with seemingly comfortable lives, those lucky enough born into high places in society, can become victims. 

part two: masking techniques 

there’s often a tendency to portray evil as scary and menacing and serious, and both twin peaks and salò subvert this in similar ways, with some of the worst acts committed being juxtaposed with an unnatural lightness, a joke or a song. 

leland palmer in particular is often associated with music, singing and playing records and dancing with laura’s picture in a scene so absurd it begins to become funny rather than sad. windom earle, the villain in the second half of season 2, loves to play games with his victims, and clearly sees cruelty as a source of entertainment. similarly, the libertines in salò enjoy making jokes. after the first occurrence of rape at dinner, they begin to sing. the torture is clearly being done for their amusement, and there’s a ridiculousness to it that would make it funny if it wasn’t so serious. 

after leland kills maddy, he puts her body in the trunk of his car and begins to cheerfully drive around town humming “surrey with the fringe on top” from oklahoma! (i have a LOT i could say about this particular song choice, but i’ll leave it for another post). perhaps it’s the spirit of bob possessing him, but he is entirely unbothered by the murder he’s committed. to the audience, the singing feels wrong. how can he just go on like that?

similarly, salò ends with a musical moment closely following a scene of death. two teenage boys, accomplices in what has occurred, have just seen the victims be brutally murdered outside. seemingly unbothered, they put on a record, dance together, and indulge in casual conversation. there comes a point when evil has gotten deep enough inside someone that they feel no guilt. this is just like any other day. they can put on a song and enjoy it, forget what they’ve done entirely. 

part three: the spread of evil

during one of the dinner conversations in salò, the magistrate says “there’s nothing more contagious than evil.” as the film continues, this is proven true. the storytellers are a notable example, as these women were victims initially, brought into prostitution as children, but in their adulthood they have become enablers and perpetrators of violence, perhaps influenced by the evil that took place around them. similarly, one of the victims is later chosen to join the guards, and we see him dance in the final scene, showing no sympathy for those whose plight he once shared, having fully accepted the evil around him. 

in twin peaks, we see this contagious nature of evil portrayed through bob. leland speaks of being tormented by bob as a child, suggesting that he may have been a victim himself before he began to rape and abuse his daughter. bob wants to take control of laura as well, and she spends the majority of fire walk with me trying to avoid this fate. season two ends with bob finding a new host in dale cooper, a man who, until that point, had been one of the most unquestionably good characters in the show. his transformation suggests that the capacity for evil exists within all people, and no one is truly immune to its spread.  

part four: death as resistance 

if all people can become evil when exposed to it enough, what way is there to resist it other than death? in both works, death is the only form of true resistance the victims have against the abuse they face.

laura's death at the end of fire walk with me is a tragedy, but it is also a choice. her refusal to submit to bob, to allow herself to become the evil that has tormented her for her entire life, is the reason behind her death. if she can't resist him, she'll die, and exit to world in which he holds power, freeing herself. in the end, laura sees the angel, showing that she has finally escaped the world of evil and that by resisting in the only way she could, she has proven herself good.

salò's primary act of resistance also ends in death. a sequence at the beginning of the third act shows the victims turning on each other, revealing the forbidden things others have been doing in hopes of saving themselves. this ends with the reveal that ezio, one of the guards, has been having an affair with the maid. rather than attempt to justify his actions or expose someone else, he raises his fist in a socialist salute before being killed. this is the only moment in salò during which we see anything truly bother the fascists in power, and his resulting death is simple and fast rather than drawn out and torturous.

when faced with evil, if one is not willing to refuse completely, even risking death, the result is more drawn out suffering, or the potential of succumbing to it. because in both cases, evil does not come from any one person but rather from the world which condones it, ignores it, allows it to spread.