The first Blu-ray I ever reviewed was Caligula, and that was back when the technology was so new I didn’t realize an ordinary DVD player could not play a Blu-ray. I spent a few frantic hours calling everyone I knew who might have a Blu-ray player, and luckily did locate someone and thus was able to watch the movie and write the review. I also had to spend a fair amount of time profusely apologizing to the owner of the player for bringing such a badly made piece of pornography into his home.
Silly me being so blinded by the eminent names attached to this production (Gore Vidal, John Gielgud, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole, and Malcom McDowell among them) that I didn’t realize that the 1979 release was heavily doctored by producer and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. And by “doctored” I mean “inserted scenes of hard-core pornography and made such a total mish-mash of it that Vidal and director Tinto Brass both pulled their names from this film.”
I definitely don’t recommend that version of Caligula to anyone (and let’s face it, if you want to see porn, your choices are virtually unlimited these days, which was not the case in 1979). However, there’s a new release billed as Caligula: The Ultimate Cut that removes the gratuitous pornography and uses previously unreleased footage in an attempt to create a film more in line with Vidal and Brass’ original intentions. The man behind the restoration effort is the art historian, writer, and musician Thomas Negovan, who spent three years of his life creating this version of Caligula, which you can now see for yourself on the big screen.
The high-toned interpretation of Caligula is that it’s all about the absolutel corruption that results from absolute power, with Caligula (McDowell) the poster boy for what you get when you cross what may have been hereditary insanity (Vida and Brass disagreed on that point) with an unchecked appetite for violence and sexual gratification. McDowell’s Caligula has the mind of a spoiled child in the body of a demented adult, a dangerous combination given that, as emperor, no one could tell him no. The result is something like what Billy Mumy’s character in the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life” might have grown up to be, had he come to power during the Roman Empire and been featured in a three-hour big-budget movie which always went for shock value rather than subtlety.
Negovan’s version of Caligula is not a masterpiece but it’s certainly a more interesting and less silly film than what Guccione originally released. McDowell totally commits to an over-the-top interpretation of Caligula, which is good since he’s the film’s focus for about 90 percent of the running time. O’Toole delivers a memorably grotesque if brief performance as Tiberius, Teresa Ann Savoy is beautiful as Drusilla, John Gielgud gives his best British butler performances as Nerva, and Mirren rather remarkably brings dignity to the role of Caesonia, and a lot of other actors, some of whom have no lines, also contribute to the remarkable spectacle that is Caligula.
The real reason for watching this release of Caligula are its consistently spectacular production values. Danilo Donati is credited with designing both the sets and costumes, as well as hair and makeup, and however ridiculous the story of Caligula may become, it always looks great. As it should: this was the most expensive independent move of its time, and a lot of the money is right up there on the screen.
Guccione did not submit the 1979 release of Caligula for rating, but had he done so, it almost certainly would have received an X for extreme violence and sexual content. There’s plenty of both in the current release as well, so I’d say this is definitely a film for adults who should realize that even if this film is an allegory of the corruption resulting from absolute power, that allegory is presented through explicit scenes that include rape, murder, and incest. | Sarah Boslaugh
