Caligula

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"I'm not even kidding. My favorite film of all time is Tinto Brass' Caligula. With a movie that combines the qualities of a lush big-budget studio Roman epic period piece, and the kind of exploitation that Joe Dimodo would frequently get sued over, there is no other large scale piece of high quality smut exploitation that I could possibly choose over Bob Guccione's ode to paganism. This is fucking Caligula. A big-budget mainstream porno film that screwed it's way into worldwide cinemas throughout the late 70s and early 80s. A movie to satisfy the tastes of audiences craving the finest in bestiality, and the finest in Shakespeareian actors." —The Cinema Snob

"'Caligula' is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. If it is not the worst film I have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful: People with talent allowed themselves to participate in this travesty. Disgusted and unspeakably depressed, I walked out of the film after two hours of its 170-minute length. That was on Saturday night, as a line of hundreds of people stretched down Lincoln Ave., waiting to pay $7.50 apiece to become eyewitnesses to shame. . . . 'Caligula' is not good art, it is not good cinema, and it is not good porn. "This movie," said the lady at the drinking fountain, "is the worst piece of shit I have ever seen."" —Roger Ebert

Love It or Hate It, never, in the history of the world, will there ever be another movie like Caligula. And never, in the history of this website, will there ever be a movie more difficult than Caligula to describe.

It all began with Gore Vidal writing a screenplay about the life of the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula based on an unproduced television mini-series by Roberto Rossellini. Though Vidal and Franco Rossellini (Roberto's nephew) originally only intended for it to be a modestly-budgeted historical drama; when they couldn't obtain funding they went to none other than the founder of Penthouse Magazine Bob Guccione. Guccione agreed to finance the film on two conditions: 1, that it would be tarted up into a lavish, flamboyant spectacle akin to the Sword and Sandal epics of the 50s; and 2, that sex would be incorporated to promote the magazine.

Federico Fellini's art director Danilo Donati was hired to build the expensive and complex sets and costumes. Renowned acting talent, including Malcolm Mcdowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole and Sir John Gielgud were cast. Maria Schneider was originally cast as Caligula's doomed sister Drusilla, but later dropped out and was replaced by Teresa Ann Savoy. After Guccione was unable to come to an agreement with more established directors John Huston and Lina Wertmuller, Tinto Brass, a relatively young Italian director who'd produced an artsy big budget progenitor to the Nazisploitation genre called Salon Kitty that Guccione had taken a shine to was made the head instead. Caligula production was housed in Dear Studios, Rome, where the infamous Cleopatra had been filmed thirteen years earlier. Shooting commenced in September 1976, with plans for a 1977 release.

From the start, Caligula was plagued by difficulties. According to Guccione in a 1980 Penthouse magazine interview, Vidal (whom Guccione called a "prodigious talent") started trouble with a Time magazine interview in which he called directors parasites living off writers, and that the director need only follow the directions as provided by the author of the screenplay. According to Guccione, an enraged Brass responded to Vidal's comments by throwing Vidal out of the studio. Guccione was forced to side with Brass (whom he called "a megalomaniac") because "Gore's work was basically done and Tinto's work was about to begin."

Casting and logistical issues were problems. Uncomfortable with the sex and nudity in the script, the female lead Schneider quickly resigned from the film, to be replaced with Teresa as said earlier. It was soon apparent to the filmmakers that the aggressive shooting schedule developed by the inexperienced Rossellini and Guccione was unrealistic for a film of such scope. Donati had to scrap some of his more elaborate original ideas for the sets and replace them with such surreal imagery as bizarre matte paintings, blacked-out areas, silk backdrops and curtains. This resulted in significant script changes, with Brass and the actors improvising scenes written to take place in entirely different locations, and sometimes shooting entirely new scenes (such as the frolicking scene that opens the film) in order to show progress while the incomplete or redone sets were unavailable. The production was plagued by delays due to disagreements between Brass and Donati over Brass not using Donati's completed sets, as well as Brass and Guccione disagreeing over the sexual content of the film.

By the time the principal photography on Caligula had completed, Vidal (having a previous issue with his involvement in the infamous Myra Breckinridge) was concerned about being associated with such an out-of-control production. Fearing the film would turn out incoherent, Vidal distanced himself from the project. Of Vidal, Brass concluded, "If I ever really get mad at Gore Vidal, I'll publish his script."

As the film entered post-production, Guccione took control of the film footage, fired Brass for running up huge costs (Guccione claims Brass shot enough film to "make the original version of Ben-Hur about 50 times over"), casting actual criminals as Roman senators, and using what Guccione considered "fat, ugly, and wrinkled old women" in the sex scenes instead of his Penthouse Pets. Guccione hired friend Giancarlo Lui to reedit the film. Lui was instructed to refashion the film into something more in keeping with what Vidal had first scripted, while delivering the sexual content demanded by Guccione; they shot and added hardcore scenes.

With much footage improvised and rewritten from the original draft of the film, Lui further scrambled, re-cut, and deleted scenes altogether. Many of the disturbing sexual images shot by Brass were removed, replaced by approximately six minutes of hardcore sex shot by Guccione and Lui. In the end, the final cut of the film had strayed far afield from what Brass had intended. Ironically, perhaps, it bore little resemblance to what Vidal had scripted as well.

In the unpleasant aftermath, both Brass and Vidal launched independent tirades against the film and lawsuits against Guccione, delaying the release of Caligula. Vidal, who was paid $200,000 for his script, agreed to drop his contractual claim for 10% of the film profits in exchange for having his name removed from the title of the film (original billing was to have been Gore Vidal's Caligula). In 1981, Anneka Di Lorenzo, who played Messalina, sued Guccione, claiming that he damaged her career by using hardcore sexual scenes in the final cut of Caligula without her knowledge, thereby associating her with a pornographic film. After a protracted litigation, in 1990 a New York state court awarded her $60,000 in compensatory damages and $4,000,000 in punitive damages. On appeal, the punitive damages were determined to be not recoverable and the court vacated the award.

So, just to recap, costume and set designer from Roman Period Epics, Director from Italian Exploitation films, Shakespearian actors, and an exectutive producer with a background in porn. Where else are you gonna see that?

In late 1979, three years after production began, Caligula made its debut.

It was used as the subject of The Cinema Snob's 100th episode. In his introduction to the review, Brad Jones cited it as his all-time favorite movie.

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Tropes used in Caligula include:

• Advancing Wall of Doom: The head chopping machine is a diabolically crafted work of art.
• All There in the Manual: According to the production notes, two of the characters played by Penthouse Pets were supposed to be Messalina (who would go onto marry Claudius) and Agrippina (mother of Nero).
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The scene where Tiberius refers to the sex slaves in his bath as his "little fishies". Most viewers would think it's just another one of those over the top sexploitation scenes put in to shock audiences. In actual fact most historians will tell you he did have something like that, and they where mostly little boys. So this is one case where the movie actually toned it down from the real thing.
• Ambiguously Gay: A gay sex scene involving Gemellus and one of the guards was actually filmed, but left on the cutting room floor. Some hints as to Gemellus's sexual preferences remain in the film, but nothing that specifically identifies him as being gay.
• Ancient Rome
• Badass Boast: "I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God."
• Captain Obvious: Despite torturing and killing several people, not to mention making his horse Incitatus a senator, it's only after Caligula declares himself a god in front of the senate Longinus exclaims "he's mad!"
  • In fairness, the stuff Caligula had done until that point was apparently less crazy than what Tiberus had been doing in his final years. Declaring himself a god was probably the first sign that he was truly delusional, as opposed to just being a tyrant.
• The Caligula: Three guesses, no prizes.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Half the Cast.
• Costume Porn: Caligula alone has roughly ten different costumes.
• Den of Iniquity: Tiberius's mansion.
• Depraved Bisexual: Caligula.
• Driven to Suicide Nerva who has had enough of Tiberius's reign and can't bear the fact Caligula will be the next emperor.
• Epic Movie: Possibly the only Epic Movie (and the only movie starring Malcolm Mcdowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O' Toole and Sir John Gielgud) to feature unsimulated hardcore sex.
• Everythings Funkier With Disco: The sound track is a combination of the kind of bombastic classical music you expect to see in a Roman period piece, and 70s Porn Music.
• Fan Disservice: And HOW!
• A God Am I: "Aye!" "Aye!" "Baaaah!" "Baaaah!"
• Gorn
• Heroic BSOD/Villainous Breakdown: Depending on your character interpretation of Caligula, he suffers one of these following the death of Drusilla.
• Historical Villain Upgrade
• Hollywood History
• Infant Immortality: Averted, in a fairly sickening manner during the film's ending.
• King Incognito: After Druscilla's death Caligula takes to the streets in Rome.
• Large Ham: Caligula.
• Male Frontal Nudity
• "No. Just... No" Reaction: Malcolm McDowell's reaction to the originally scripted scene that would have involved him anally raping Proculus. He eventually agreed to do it, just so long as Caligula was carrying out the rape with his fist rather than his dick (it isn't shown on-screen).
• Only Sane Man: Nerva seems to be both Tiberius's only real friend and the only person who dares criticize his reign to his face. It still doesn't stop him committing suicide.
• Plot With Porn
• Praetorian Guard: This being ancient Rome, they play a pretty big role.
• The Queen's Latin: Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O' Toole, and Sir John Gielgud.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Caligula trashes the statue of Isis after Druscilla dies of the fever.
• Scenery Porn: Say what you will about what's happening in the film, many of the sets are rather beautiful.
  • And in the case of the orgy scene, it takes on a literal meaning.
• Schizo-Tech: Wow, they never taught us in history class that the Romans had a giant wall/car/thing with lawnmower blades on the bottom that could move forwards and decapitate people buried up to their necks in the dirt in front of it!
• The Starscream: Longinus. Macro is set up to be this early in the film, but Caligula decides that he's too much of a potential liability and disposes of him.
• Take That: According to MalcolmMcDowell's commentary track on the DVD, the scene where Caligula lines people up and has Gemellus identify the culprit who killed Tiberius, was a jab at Guccione who did something similar after one of the dancers shoved one of the Penthouse Pets.
  • Likewise, Tinto Brass used plain-looking people in the orgy scenes and deliberately shot the sexual footage as comical and softcore to spite Guccione. This backfired horribly.
• Tears of Blood: As seen on most of the film's poster art.
• Three-Way Sex: At one point Caligula has a threesome with his wife and sister.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Caligula comes down with the fever he pukes into the camera.
  • Making matters worse, according to Malcolm McDowell it was real vomit.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
• Your Head Asplode: A baby's head is smashed on a staircase. Something the IMDb Parental Guide makes sure to mark as "UNRATED VERY BLOODY DISTURBING.