Caligula

Land sakes!!! They don't make films like this anymore...and that's a dirty rotten shame! =)

Arrrrrrrach

February 21, 2017

9/10

Walk through a Bosch painting and marvel at the excesses and debauchery. Critics don't take this seriously because a porn producer snipped it up and inserted his own scenes. It is what it is. A near masterpiece.

A distinguished international cast; a screenplay by Gore Vidal; respected, award-winning talent behind the scenes; and millions of dollars at its disposal. What could possibly go wrong? Where would you like to start? CALIGULA (1979) had so much potential. I'd like to think that there's another universe where Vidal's much darker original script was given over to, say, Stanley Kubrick. That world now has a SPARTACUS (1960) for the post-porn age. Instead, we have something closer to CENTURIANS OF R…

CinemaSerf

August 10, 2024

6/10

Now I'll be honest, I think John Hurt ("I Claudius" - BBC - 1976) made a better Caligula, but Malcolm McDowell is still pretty convincing as the despotic sexual deviant who held the ultimate power in the Roman Empire for four years. It ought not to have been a surprise that he turned out the way he did when we are introduced to the decrepitly monstrous Tiberius (Peter O'Toole) on his island paradise of Capri. He lives there in a court of acolyte nymphs and "fishes" guided only by the vaguest sem…