Movie Review: Caligula (1979)
For all its faults, Caligula is certainly an interesting film. It has one foot in the grand Hollywood epics of the past, reflected right down to the cast, which includes Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia), John Gielgud (Julius Caesar), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), and Helen Mirren (The Queen).
To me, Mirren is the most interesting inclusion here, because she’s definitely an amazing actress who established herself at a very young age on the British stage, but seemed to be cast in films based largely on her looks in the ’60s and ’70s, often appearing nude.
And this is where it cannot be denied that Caligula certainly has one foot in the territory of pornography. It features unsimulated sex, and lots of nudity. While I guess not every film that features unsimulated sex is necessarily categorized as pornography (ask Gaspar Noe), this movie was made and/or distributed by Penthouse Films, so you should know what you’re getting into. If you choose not to consider it pornography, it’s definitely at least sexploitation.
And that in itself is interesting. How the hell did John Gielgud — considered by many to be the greatest stage actor of all time — sign on for this movie? The same can be asked for Peter O’Toole. It’s less of a stretch for Helen Mirren, given her film career up to this point, and for McDowell.
Director Tinto Brass is certainly committed to excess here. At any given moment, there are naked men and women all over the screen. The violence itself is excessive, and the mix of sex and violence is pretty disturbing.
Not to call this movie realistic, but at the very least, the film’s subject, Julio-Claudian emperor Caligula, is pretty well known for being insane. So it’s not just violence and sex for violence’s and sex’s sake. Caligula was accused of being incestuous, killing people on a whim, and hosting orgies. And McDowell captures this all fairly well. He’s a bit too polished, in my opinion, to really capture the alleged insanity of the notorious emperor, but his pride and cockiness (this isn’t a pun) are on full display here. McDowell knows how to properly chew the scenery. There’s not a whole lot of subtlety even in his performance in A Clockwork Orange.
However, about halfway through the film, I lost interest. And I guess that’s just a product of what makes it interesting. You wonder how the hell this movie can look like a big-budget Hollywood epic while being a porno, but then after you’ve grappled with that for an hour, what is there to interest you?
Rating: 3/10
