Caligula (Unrated Twentieth Anniversary Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Caligula (Unrated Twentieth Anniversary Edition)
Movie Review: The Guiltiest Of Movie Pleasures
Summary: 5 Stars
I feel slightly embarrassed to tell people how much I love this film, you should see the looks I get! But this film is the guiltiest pleasure there is. Is it porn? No, it isn't. When you have that urge to view porn, Caligula is not the first film you rent......too much plot. It has many hardcore sex scenes, but this was all part of an enormous failed experiment: To bring porn scenes to legitimate film. It didn't work, this film is a disaster. But because of this, the film is very entertaining. The first time you see it you won't believe what you're watching. You'll be asking yourself, "How?", "Why?", etc. Regardless if you love it or hate it, you'll sit through the entire two and and half hours of it just out of morbid curiosity and bewilderment. The same impulse that makes you slow down as you drive past an accident on the highway. I'm not quite sure what Gore Vidal was thinking here; Wouldn't you think that if you got Bob Guccione and Tinto Brass involved in your film that it would be overflowing with sleaze? Gore can't be that dumb! In the documentary it's hilarious to watch him talk about the historical and philosophical importance of the movie. I bet he feels like a total schmuck and totally ashamed now when he thinks back on that. I'd love to ask him about it. The film tries to be accurate and take itself seriously as a drama, but lets cut through ... here; Guccione was merely using this as a way to push his sleaze into the mainstream and become an "innovative genius" in the public's eye. The sex scenes are very sleazy and disgusting because they're usually sandwiched between(or during) scenes of graphic violence, making them devoid of any kind of erotic value. I love showing or lending this movie to unsuspecting friends, coworkers, family, just to get their reaction. There will never be another movie like Caligula....ever. See it once and remember it for the rest of your days. A warning though: Don't watch on a first date, she won't be impressed.Movie Review: Porno or poor movie, absolutely unique among movies
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is a masterpiece in that it accomplishes what it set out to do: to depict decadent, pagan Rome circa 37 AD. I cringed throughout the FIRST VIEWING, unsure what to expect, fearing revulsion in each scene. The SECOND VIEWING was better, I knew what to expect: a simple plot about unchecked power with gratuitous violence and sex. Guccione may have overstated the sex and violence but that is what you get from pagan cultures. The THIRD VIEWING reveals the movie as art: as pornographic and dangerous as ancient Rome at its worst with interesting props and sets. Maybe Guccione wanted to contrast sexual cultures of ancient Rome with his magazine culture of today: to prove that he himself and/or current exploitation of women isn't so bad after all--only sexually explicit. Generally, sex of any kind still has a bad reputation. This movie only needs be a reasonably accurate historical account (ostensibly derived from museum artifacts commonly found around the world) to maintain historical relevance. Many will hate this sort of reality, but not every movie has to "sublimate" reality according to family movie standards to please puritanical hypocrites. Face it: only a world as lost as Caligula's could crucify Christ. (Notice how persecution against the spiritually pure was greatest then?) Yes (?) Nevertheless, this movie entertains by being so over-the-top that exquisite sound and editing are not necessary. Again, this was the real Rome. Finally, if you are an adult who desires full knowledge of the depth of human depravity, then Vidal, Guccione, et al. should be praised for accomplishing such an important (by virtue of its controversy) historical film. I recommend this film to everyone to either love or hate. I love it!Movie Review: ~This is definitely not BEN HUR~
Summary: 5 Stars
Like a naive idiot, I thought this movie would be some great historical epic like BEN HUR or SPARTICUS. Boy, was I surprised!For any other naive idiots out there: THIS IS NOT BEN HUR!!!
I had to give it 5 stars because it out does itself in it's genre -- but be sure you know what that genre is (pure porn) before you have the family over to watch it for Easter dinner. As far as cinematography, symbolism, poetry, and all the other elements to great movie storytelling, I'd have to give it 0. None of that is in there. Historical accuracy? Another 0. Did everything from incest to bestiality (anybody notice the horse in his bed) really go on in ancient Rome (especially concerning the real Caligula)? Absolutely! But this is a very surreal and I'd have to say "campy" version. As a history buff, I have a tendency to believe the infamous orgies were much more similar to our frat parties and spring breaks (run-amok, of course) of today. That's kind of what I expected in this movie. I didn't expect to be vomitus. The 5 stars would have to go for Malcolm McDowell, too. He was great! Aside from the porn, the one thing I think the filmmakers were very successful with was in conveying Caligula's madness.
If I had to compare this with another movie that might fit into this category, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER, I'd give that 5 stars and this 0 for filmmaking, but if sex is what you want, there is no other like CALIGULA!!! (If you liked the morbidness of this film, you might also try TITUS with Anthony Hopkins.)
P.S. Did all the phallic statues (which I thought was quite a bit overdone) in this movie remind anyone else of CLOCKWORK ORANGE?
Movie Review: Caligula -- still hot and controversial
Summary: 5 Stars
Caligula is a truly hot film! I saw it years ago on VHS and then in a theatrical release about four years ago.
This is not a truly historical film, nor yet is it strictly speaking a sex film or "porno". Much of the film is based on actual history, but it is not pure history. I would tend to label it as a spectacle. There is plenty of nudity, to be sure. There is some explicit sex. It is by all accounts oddball. There is drama and some history thrown in, but don't expect a true to life blow by blow account of the life of Caligula.
When you see it, you are not going to see a real life portrayal of ancient Rome. It is more like a fantasy based on ancient Roman themes. If you are looking for stricly historical film about Emperor Caligula, then the series "I Claudius" would be more of a better treatment.
Watching the film is like watching a dream -- like one is entering the mind of the mad man. It is often highly erotic filled with the rich texture of nude human flesh and sexuality and at other times horrifically violent, cruel, and disturbing. Some scenes, including a mutilation scene are hard to take, but this does not detract from the overall richness. It is not your ordinary breed of film. (Another similar film with plenty of nudity but without sex is "Prospero's Books".)
If you like unusual films with a lot of nudity, sex, exotic scenery and a bit of drama and history thrown in, then Caligula is for you. But if you are put off by nudity, explicit sex, violence and the unusual, then you will hate it.
Movie Review: A Movie with an Attitude!!
Summary: 5 Stars
There was no movie before or after that will come close to Caligula. This movie has balls! It went were no other movie has dared to go before..It tells the story of the emperor Caligula with all its depraved details,with an excellent tongue-in-cheek performance by the great and still largely underrated Malcolm Mc Dowell. Caligula was not only a genuine and very dangerous psycho! but a lunatic with a lot of power and a libido to match, and Malcolm Mc Dowell portrays this beautifully. Yet what makes Caligula a one off cinematic occurance is the sheer nerve of producer and Penthouse maestro Bob Guccione, by including hardcore porn in the film, as the legend goes after the mainstream actors and technicians went to bed!!And this combination adds a unique flavor to the film, it shows the decadence and depravity of romans, without being disgusting just maybe shocking and real: in your face, porn.Many people have attacked the film as a piece of garbage,and the film became infamous for the wrong reasons, for I believe the filming, acting (Mc Dowell, O'Toole andf Mirren) and direction are above average. Watch Caligula as a unique experience in cinema, and even if you think it is a bad film, it is one of these films that are so bad they're actually good..very good in fact.
but a Warning!!!! the DVD quality is very poor, similar if not worse than the VHS version..yet included is the making of documentary which is as interesting to watch as the film itself!
go on indulge yourself in a bit of roman decadence, in the safety of your own home!!