IMDb > Caligola (1979)
Caligola
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Overview

User Rating:
4.9/10   13,315 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 1% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writer:
Gore Vidal (earlier screenplay)
more
Contact:
View company contact information for Caligula on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
15 February 1980 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
What would you have done if you had been given absolute power of life and death over everybody else in the whole world? more
Plot:
Details the graphic and shocking, yet undeniably tragic story of Rome's most infamous Caesar, Gaius Germanicus Caligula. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
(9 articles)
The second outing of John Hurt
 (From The Guardian - TV News. 20 November 2009, 4:11 PM, PST)

The second outing of John Hurt
 (From The Guardian - Film News. 20 November 2009, 4:11 PM, PST)

User Comments:
The Ben-Hur of Porn: Gratuitous Sex, Violence, & Weirdness more (244 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Caligula (USA)
Caligula, My Son (UK)
Caligvla (International: English title) (alternative spelling)
Gore Vidal's Caligola (Italy) (working title)
Io, Caligola (Italy) (recut version)
more
Runtime:
156 min | Spain:137 min | USA:102 min (R-rated version) | 210 min (original cut) | Italy:123 min (recut version) | USA:148 min (re-release)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby (re-release: 1999) | Mono (original release)
Certification:
Germany:18 (SPIO/JK) (cut) | USA:R (heavily cut) | USA:Unrated (uncut) | Spain:X | Italy:VM18 | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | New Zealand:R18 | Finland:K-18 (heavily cut) (1981) | Australia:Refused Classification (2005) | Belgium:16 (video rating) | Belgium:KNT (original rating) | Netherlands:16 | West Germany:18 (nf) | USA:NC-17 (original rating) | France:-16 | France:X (DVD release) | Japan:R-18 | UK:18 (uncut version) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2007) | Brazil:18 | Portugal:M/18 (DVD rating) (uncut) | Spain:18 | Australia:(Banned) (original rating) | Australia:R (re-rating, cut) (1981) | Australia:R (Original rating) (uncut) | Australia:X (Video rating) (1984) | Argentina:18 | Canada:(Banned) (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Chile:18 | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | Denmark:16 | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2001) | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:(Banned) (original rating) | Iceland:16 (cut) | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | South Korea:18 (cut) | Sweden:15 | USA:X (self applied MA for "Mature Audiences") | Australia:R (cut) | UK:X (original rating: 1980) (cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The scene where Caligula gets a nervous breakdown during the thunderstorm was written by Malcolm McDowell himself. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: Charea proclaims Claudius emperor after killing Caligula and his family. In reality, it was another Praetorian who proclaimed Claudius as emperor; Charea had been planning to kill Claudius as well to eliminate the entire imperial family. more
Quotes:
[Caligula is sick with the fever]
Attendent: I offer my life if Jupiter will only spare our beloved Emperor!
Caligula: Jupiter accepts your offer.
[Caligula turns to his guards]
Caligula: Execute him.
more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
We Are One more

FAQ

Did Gore Vidal disown the film because Bob Guccione and Tinto Brass added explicit sex and gore to the film?
Is this film historically accurate?
Why does IMDb list the film's title as "Caligola?"
more
165 out of 239 people found the following comment useful.
The Ben-Hur of Porn: Gratuitous Sex, Violence, & Weirdness, 23 April 2005
4/10
Author: gftbiloxi (gftbiloxi@yahoo.com) from Biloxi, Mississippi

Some describe CALIGULIA as "the" most controversial film of its era. While this is debatable, it is certainly one of the most embarrassing: virtually every big name associated with the film made an effort to distance themselves from it. Author Gore Vidal actually sued (with mixed results) to have his name removed from the film, and when the stars saw the film their reactions varied from loudly voiced disgust to strategic silence. What they wanted, of course, was for it to go away.

For a while it looked like it might. CALIGULA was a major box-office and critical flop (producer Guccione had to rent theatres in order to get it screened at all), and although the film was released on VHS to the home market so many censorship issues were raised that it was re-edited, and the edited version was the only one widely available for more than a decade. But now CALIGULIA is on DVD, available in both edited "R" and original "Unrated" versions. And no doubt John Gielgud is glad he didn't live to see it happen.

The only way to describe CALIGULIA is to say it is something like DEEP THROAT meets David Lynch's DUNE by way of Fellini having an off day. Vidal's script fell into the hands of Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, who used Vidal's reputation to bankroll the project and lure the big name stars--and then threw out most of Vidal's script and brought in soft-porn director Tinto Brass. Then, when Guccione felt Brass' work wasn't explicit enough, he and Giancarlo Lui photographed hardcore material on the sly.

Viewers watching the edited version may wonder what all the fuss is about, but those viewing the original cut will quickly realize that it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. There is a tremendous amount of nudity, and that remains in the edited version, but the original comes complete with XXX scenes: there is very explicit gay, lesbian, and straight sex, kinky sex, and a grand orgy complete with dancing Roman guards thrown in for good measure. The film is also incredibly violent and bloody, with rape, torture, and mutilation the order of the day. In one particularly disturbing scene, a man is slowly stabbed to death, a woman urinates on his corpse, and his genitals are cut off and thrown to the dogs.

In a documentary that accompanies the DVD release, Guccione states he wanted the film to reflect the reality of pagan Rome. If so, he missed the mark. We know very little about Caligula--and what little we know is questionable at best. That aside, orgies and casual sex were not a commonplace of Roman society, where adultery was an offense punishable by death. And certainly ancient Rome NEVER looked like the strange, slightly Oriental, oddly space-age sets and costumes offered by the designers.

On the plus side, those sets and costumes are often fantastically beautiful, and although the cinematography is commonplace it at least does them justice; the score is also very, very good. The most successful member of the cast is Helen Mirren, who manages to engage our interests and sympathies as the Empress Caesonia; Gielgud and O'Toole also escape in reasonably good form. The same cannot be said for McDowell, but in justice to him he doesn't have much to work with.

The movie does possess a dark fascination, but ultimately it is an oddity, more interesting for its design and flat-out weirdness than for content. Some of the bodies on display (including McDowell's and Mirren's) are extremely beautiful, and some of the sex scenes work very well as pornography... but then again, some of them are so distasteful they might drive you to abstinence, and the bloody and grotesque nature of the film undercuts its eroticism. If you're up to it, it is worth seeing once, but once is likely to be enough.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

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