Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82970 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-11-30
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Colour, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 156 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Tribute to Excess
This 1979 film is reminiscent of Fellini Satyricon (1969) and I Claudius (1974). From the first it takes the monumental doom laden sets and the cast of loonies being 'depraved'. From the second it takes the snarling personal politics of royalty attempting to rule a worldwide empire.

The sets really are superb. Enormous attention to detail and a collection of the world's best set and costume designers make this film a work of art. The actors all put in a fine job, except that O'Toole and McDowell get to overact on more than one occasion, showing the lack of directorial control that bedevils the film.

Forget about historical correctness. Most evidence has been lost (true for most periods in history) and what remains is partial and biased, written by members of the senatorial class whom Caligula attacked. The film is both memorable and convincing, however, which cannot be said about many historical films.

The pornography is a sales device. That is, we are told that Guccione interpolated sex scenes after the film was finished and that this alienated the director, Tinto Brass, who removed his name from the credits. But Tinto is into pornography, and helped organise the final orgy which seems really typical of the free love 70s. The pornography is restricted to one scene, the senatorial brothel, integral to the depiction of Caligula's humiliation of the Senate. Elsewhere it is little more than nudity (and the Romans didn't wear many clothes except on formal occasions) and a couple of flashes of two actresses labia. The brothel scene did have several scenes of fellatio and one insertion, but these scenes were not emphasised; they added to the effect of the scene, and effectively so.

Although the motives of all concerned with the film are reasonably suspect, it did succeed in depicting Roman times, Roman morality and Roman politics in a believable manner. Lack of an integrated directorial style may have caused Caligula to fall short of being a 'great' film, but it is a very interesting failure indeed. And was America in the 70s like this too?

interesting
Lets face it, it would be nicer to see the uncut version right? You can get that on-line from any porn merchant in the U.S, and it's worth a cursorary glance. Sleazmeister director Joe D'Amato (may he rest in piece), made some similarly themed sleaze epics that you can get from some trash merchants on line in the U.S as well. As fo this $15 million dollar Penthouse magazine production,with Malcolm McDowell (as Caligula), Peter O'Toole (Tiberius, the Emporer preceeding Caligula), John Gielgud, Helen Mirren (Caligula's wife), all I can say is, it's a brave, somewhat felliniesque attempt at spicing up history. Not without merit. Gore Vidal had his name removed as writer. McDowell does a nude dance, hugs his sister. I don't know, maybe I've been desensitised. Worth a look, but invest in the versio with balls - so to speak...

A much underrated film
So far as I can tell - and I am an expert on the period - this film describes Rome as it was in the early 1st century. It was a horrible place. Most of the people there would count by our standards as mad. If you don't like extreme portrayals of sex and violence, don't watch this film. Otherwise, be assured, it is a masterpiece.