References
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- The film’s titles credit both Baragli and «The Production», a credit possibly referring to Bob Guccione and his production assistants, with editing.
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- ↑ Jay Scott, The Globe and Mail, February 7, 1980.
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- Photoplay Magazine, Volume 38, 1987 (p.38)
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- «Lowest:100 Really Bad Moments in 20th Century Entertainment». The Hamilton Spectator, July 24, 1999 (p. W17).
- Joe Holleman, «Roman Warriors roam the big screen again». St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 5, 2000 (p. E1).
- Keith Phipps (April 23, 2002) . The AV Club. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
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Plot
Caligula is the young heir to the throne of the syphilis-ridden, half-mad Emperor Tiberius. One morning, a blackbird flies into his room; Caligula considers this a bad omen. Shortly afterward, the head of the Praetorian Guard Macro tells Caligula that Tiberus, his great uncle, demands his immediate presence at Capri, where the Emperor lives with his close friend Nerva, a dim-witted relative Claudius, and Caligula’s younger stepbrother Gemellus. Fearing assassination, Caligula is afraid to leave but his sister and lover Drusilla persuades him to go.
At Capri, Caligula finds that Tiberius has become depraved, showing signs of advanced venereal diseases, and embittered with Rome and politics. Tiberius enjoys swimming with naked youths and watching degrading sex shows that often include children and deformed people. Caligula observes with fascination and horror. Tensions rise when Tiberius tries to poison Caligula in front of Gemellus. Nerva commits suicide and Caligula tries to kill Tiberius. Proving his loyalty to Caligula, Macro kills Tiberius instead with Gemellus as a witness.
After Tiberius’ burial, Caligula is proclaimed the new Emperor, then proclaims Drusilla as his equal, to the apparent disgust of the Roman Senate. Drusilla, fearful of Macro’s influence, persuades Caligula to get rid of him. Caligula sets up a mock trial in which Gemellus is intimidated into testifying that Macro murdered Tiberius alone, then has Macro’s wife Ennia banished from Rome. After Macro is executed in a gruesome public game, Caligula appoints Tiberius’ former adviser Longinus as his personal assistant while pronouncing the docile Senator Chaerea as the new head of the Praetorian Guard.
Drusilla tries to find Caligula a wife among the priestesses of the goddess Isis, the cult they secretly practice. Caligula wants to marry Drusilla, but she insists they cannot marry because she is his sister. Instead, Caligula marries Caesonia, a priestess and notorious courtesan after she bears him an heir. Drusilla reluctantly supports their marriage. Meanwhile, despite Caligula’s popularity with the masses, the Senate expresses disapproval for what initially seem to be light eccentricities. Darker aspects of Caligula’s personality emerge when he rapes a bride and groom on their wedding day in a minor fit of jealousy and orders Gemellus’s execution to provoke a reaction from Drusilla.
After discovering that Caesonia is pregnant, Caligula suffers severe fever. Drusilla nurses him back to health. Just as he fully recovers, Caesonia bears him a daughter, Julia Drusilla. During the celebration, Drusilla collapses with the same fever he suffered. Soon afterwards, Caligula receives another ill omen in the form of a blackbird. Despite his praying to Isis out of desperation, Drusilla dies from her fever. Initially unable to accept her death, Caligula suffers a nervous breakdown and rampages through the palace, destroying a statue of Isis while clutching Drusilla’s body.
Now in a deep depression, Caligula walks the Roman streets disguised as a beggar; he causes a disturbance after watching an amateur performance mocking his relationship with Drusilla. After a brief stay in a city jail, Caligula proclaims himself a god and becomes determined to destroy the senatorial class, which he has come to loathe. The new reign he leads becomes a series of humiliations against the foundations of Rome—senators’ wives are forced to work in the service of the state as prostitutes, estates are confiscated, the old religion is desecrated and the army is made to embark on a mock invasion of Great Britain. Unable to further tolerate his actions, Longinus conspires with Chaerea to assassinate Caligula.
Caligula enters his bedroom where a nervous Caesonia awaits him. Another blackbird appears but only Caesonia is frightened of it. The next morning, after rehearsing an Egyptian play, Caligula and his family are attacked in a coup headed by Chaerea. While leaving the stadium, Caligula’s wife and daughter are murdered and Chaerea stabs Caligula in the stomach. With his final breath, he defiantly whimpers «I live!» As Caligula and his family’s bodies are thrown down the stadium’s steps and their blood is washed off the marble floor, Claudius is proclaimed the new Emperor.
Reception
Contemporary reviews
Peter O’Toole was cast as Tiberius in the film, a role originally offered to John Gielgud.
Caligula received generally negative reviews.Roger Ebert gave it zero stars, calling it «sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash». Ebert wrote, «In the two hours of this film that I saw, there were no scenes of joy, natural pleasure, or good sensual cheer. There was, instead, a nauseating excursion into base and sad fantasies.» He and Gene Siskel selected the film as one of their «dogs of the year» in a 1980 episode of Sneak Previews.Rex Reed called Caligula «a trough of rotten swill».Jay Scott, reviewing Caligula for the The Globe and Mail, said, «Caligula doesn’t really work on any level». Scott unfavourably compared Caligula with In the Realm of the Senses, describing the latter film as a better treatment of extreme sexuality. Scott’s review went on to say «Rome would seem to be at least as fecund a territory for the cinematic exploration of sex, death and money, as pre-war Japan…but what’s missing from Caligula, which is rife with all three, is any connective tissue (also any point of view, any thought, any meaning)». Scott concluded his review by claiming the whole film’s production was «a boondoggle of landmark proportions».New York critic David Denby described the film as «an infinitely degraded version of Fellini Satyricon.
Retrospective reviews
Although Caligula is considered to be a «cult classic», it continued to garner negative reception long after its release. It has been reappraised by some critics; review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 24%, based on 29 reviews.Leslie Halliwell said Caligula was «a vile curiosity of interest chiefly to sado-masochists».Time Out London called it «a dreary shambles». Positive criticism of the film came from Moviehole reviewer Clint Morris, who awarded it 3 stars out of 5, calling it » classic in the coolest sense of the word».New Times critic Gregory Weinkauf gave the film 3 out of 5, calling it «Kinda dumb and tacky, but at least it’s a real movie».Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reviewer Philip Martin also gave the film 3 out of 5.
Writers for The Hamilton Spectator and St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Caligula was one of the worst films they’d seen. Writing for The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps said, «As a one-of-a-kind marriage of the historical epic and the porn film … Caligula deserves a look. But it might be better to let Guccione’s savagely unpleasant folly fade into the century that spawned it».
Release
Helen Mirren was cast as Caesonia, wife of Caligula. Mirren described the film as an «irresistible mix of art and genitals».
Guccione refused to submit Caligula to the MPAA because he did not want the film to receive a rating—even X—which he considered to be «demeaning». Instead, Guccione applied his own «Mature Audiences» rating to the film, instructing theater owners not to admit anyone under the age of 18. The film premiered in the United States on February 1, 1980, at the Trans Lux East Theatre, which Guccione had rented exclusively to screen the film; he changed the theater’s name to Penthouse East.
Rather than leasing prints to exhibitors, the distributor rented theaters that specialized in foreign and art films for the purpose of screening Caligula exclusively, to keep the film out of theaters that showed pornographic films. In 1981, the Brazilian Board of Censors approved the establishment of special theaters to screen In the Realm of the Senses and Caligula because they were international box office hits.
Caligula grossed US$23 million at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing pornographic film ever produced independently. The film was a financial success in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan. A 105-minute R-rated version without the explicit sexual material was released in 1981.
Legal issues
In 1979, when Guccione tried to import the film’s footage into the U.S., customs officials seized it. Federal officials did not declare the film to be obscene. When the film was released in New York City, the anti-pornography organization Morality in Media unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against these federal officials.
In Boston, Massachusetts, authorities seized the film.Penthouse took legal action, partly because Guccione thought the legal challenges and moral controversies would provide «the kind of coverage money can never buy».Penthouse won the case when a Boston Municipal Court ruled that Caligula had passed the Miller test and was not obscene. While the Boston judge said the film «lacked artistic and scientific value» because of its depiction of sex and considered it to » to prurient interests», he said the film’s depiction of ancient Rome contained political values which enabled it to pass the Miller test in its depiction of corruption in ancient Rome, which dramatized the political theme that «absolute power corrupts absolutely». A Madison, Wisconsin district attorney declined an anti-pornography crusader’s request to prevent the release of Caligula on the basis that «the most offensive portions of the film are those explicitly depicting violent, and not sexual conduct, which is not in any way prohibited by the criminal law.»
Atlanta, Georgia prosecutors threatened legal action if the film was to be screened in the city, but experts testified in court on behalf of the film, and Atlanta, too, declared that the film was not obscene. Citizens for Decency through Law, a private watchdog group which protested against films which it deemed immoral, sought to prevent the film’s exhibition in Fairlawn, Ohio on the grounds that it would be a «public nuisance», leading Penthouse to withdraw the film from exhibition there to avoid another trial. CDL’s lawyer advised against attempting to prosecute Penthouse for obscenity and instead recommended a civil proceeding, because the film would not be placed against the Miller test. The Penthouse attorney described the Fairlawn events as being driven by conservative morality reinforced by Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory, stating, «Apparently, these extremists have interpreted a change by administration to mean a clarion call for a mandate to shackle the public’s mind again.» The uncut film was granted a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification in 2008. The film was banned in Australia, where it continues to be banned in its uncut form as of 2014.
In 1981, Anneka Di Lorenzo, who played Messalina, sued Guccione, claiming sexual harassment. In 1990, after a protracted litigation, a New York state court awarded her $60,000 in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages. On appeal, court vacated the award because the punitive damages were determined to be unrecoverable.
Legacy
Helen Mirren described Caligula as «an irresistible mix of art and genitals». In 2005, artist Francesco Vezzoli produced a fake trailer for an alleged remake called Gore Vidal’s Caligula as a promotion for Versace’s new line of accessories; the remake was to star Helen Mirren as «the Empress Tiberius», Gerard Butler as Chaerea, Milla Jovovich as Drusilla, Courtney Love as Caligula, and Karen Black as Agrippina the Elder and featuring an introduction by Gore Vidal. The fake trailer was screened worldwide, including New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2006 Whitney Biennial.Leonardo DiCaprio has cited the film as an influence on his approach to the lead in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Caligula was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in an «Imperial Edition», which featured the unrated theatrical release version and a new version featuring alternate sequencing from the original theatrical release and without the explicit sexual content shot by Guccione. This edition also includes audio commentaries featuring Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren, and interviews with the cast and crew.
