- Caligula (Uncut Edition)

This film is not for the easily embarrassed as it is the original unedited version of the film. The content is, as expected, not for younger viewers but it is a must own for any cinema fan.

This is one of those notorious films that I grew up hearing about but never seeing fully. I’ve caught parts from time to time, but I’ve always been excited to see. Streaming is non-existent, so I bought this DVD. The reviews are spot on, this movie is awful. There is a film here, the story of Caligula is ripe for dramatization. Unfortunately what happened here was the interference of Bob Guccione making the final product a glorified pornographic film. What could have been a historical epic turns out to have a very loose in not completely lost narrative structure that makes the film hard to follow. Is there artistic merit? I think there is. The production design team tries their best, but many of the sets are so obvious that you’re taken out of the film. The cinematography is atrocious at times, I understand that is is the by-product of a bad edit job by Guccione himself. Let’s not forget that there are some exceptionally talented actors here: John Gielgud, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole and of course, Malcolm McDowell. It’s really incredible to imagine a film like this exists, and that’s what is so exciting, at least for me. If you bought this for erotic purposes, I’ll say that you’re already on the internet and can find much better and more effective products elsewhere. For someone who’s interested in experiencing the film and believe me, it is an experience, then you can probably do worse. By the end of the film I was bored and just waiting for Caligula’s brutal end.

dvd quality

Nothing to say yet about it

Interesting movie

Movie 5 of 1979 and 65 overall in my journey through films of my lifetime. Truly exploitive. There was a deep obsession with nudity as if this was somehow going to make this good. From the history of the producers I'd say they believe in the power of nudity to sell. It's too bad because the lesson that could have been taught by "Caligula" could have been a good one. It's one the producers could have learned actually. For example the movie "Auto Focus," the story of Bob Crane's personal pornographic life and his sex addiction. We see him increasingly unable to separate his sexual life from his public life. Lines of privacy and decency began to blur for him as his private life began to catch up in different ways within his family and career. The application to "Caligula" could have been similar but on an even greater scale. Unfortunately we just got nudity and gratuitous sex. It's always a shame to see good potential wasted but what's new. Wasted potential in the cast here. It was excellent and I'm surprised many of them chose to participate in this project. A compliment I'd like to pay is how the film abstracts Rome. It's almost like a play. Several scenes have a dreamy quality to them and this was a good solution to budgetary restraints not to mention that they were visually interesting. If one wanted to do this today one could use the style of "Sin City" and I believe it would translate nicely. I'm not certain they even meant for this to happen and it wouldn't surprise me if many just thought the film looked cheap, especially due to the costumes. Regardless of intent the net effect for me was that I found it to be more visually interesting. The second biggest crime is the boredom and pointless nature of the film. I suppose one could take away the theme of "absolute power corrupts absolutely" but that's hardly interesting as we have many contemporary examples. Pros -cast -interesting atmosphere Cons -boring -pointless

This was financed and co-written by Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse, so temper your expectations with that nugget of info. Lots of nudity and sex (simulated and real -- it is a porno). But if you can get past that, there is a story and the acting is good. It is filmed as if they are putting on a large stage production and they have three cameras recording the action. The film stars some serious movie heavyweights: Malcolm McDowell in the title role, alongside Teresa Ann Savoy, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, John Steiner and John Gielgud. Bob G ponied up the cash for A list talent. And they don't disappoint. This came out when I was a kid, so of course I never saw it. But curiosity got the best of me and I purchased the DVD (it is not available for rental anywhere I could find). I would say it is worth the purchase price just to have seen what is really a piece of art history, no matter how derided it has been over the decades. I would have given it four stars, but (the pornography aside) the production does have a cheap feel to it. But not every movie can be the Godfather. A solid 3.5 stars.

Interesting

I don't know how you'd rate this movie it's disgusting it's pornographic it's everything under the sun but it is a good watch

Malcolm macdowells portrait of the mad emperor was simply out of this world.

Guter Film, hätte nie gedacht, dass Peter O`Toole bei so etwas mitmacht.

ええ買いもんした！！

un bon film