Caligula (Unrated Edition)
by Tinto Brass, Bob Guccione, Giancarlo Lui
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Actor: Guido Mannari, Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, Teresa Ann SavoyDirector: Bob Guccione, Giancarlo Lui, Tinto Brass
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Silvano Ippoliti
Editor: Nino Baragli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 156 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-02
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Caligula (Unrated Edition)
DVD Review: An odd mixture of artistry and pornography
Summary: 3 Stars
In some ways, this film is a unique cultural product, that demonstrates the tension between historic fact and imaginative embellishment; between the craft of fine acting and pornography; and between the contrasting philosophies of the artists responsible for this collage of intentions. This review will look at all three of these contrasts.
Many of the events in this film come down to us as part of the historic record. The rise and fall of these characters was documented by historians of the time and in following generations. However, in this production the events are embellished to the extreme so that the film becomes nightmarish or surreal. The costumes are akin to the flimsy costumes worn by strippers. The lives of Tiberius and Caligula and Claudius offer incredible drama and decadence as related in Suetonius' Live of the Caesars and in Robert Graves' I, Claudius. Yet we know enough of Roman culture and daily life to understand that these characters were aberrations and products of madness and absolute power. The average Roman did not act this way and were scandalized by the behaviors of Tiberius and Caligula. The beautiful young lovers, Livia and Proculus, exemplify this in the film. The terrible deeds that are inflicted on this handsome and innocent couple are a critical aspect of the film for they demonstrate the violation of commonly-held moral behaviors by those in absolute power who also are mentally deranged. This is a critical point in understanding this film. The absolute power of the Julio-Claudians family, of which Tiberius and Caligula were emperors 3 and 4, surrounds itself with immoral fortune seekers and parasites, that reflect back to the source of power a sense that their cruelty is indeed just fun and games, that their abuse of power is justified because of the baseness of human nature and that the people they rule are scum. An important scene in the film depicts Caligula forcing the entire Senate to make sheep sounds while he gleefully laughs at the ability of his absolute power to create absurd behaviors in others.
The second theme that any reviewer must address is the contrast between actors with top tier reputations combining their art with that of pornographers. John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, and Helen Mirren are highly respected and are the three strongest actors in this production. It is actually hard to judge the acting of Malcolm McDowell as Caligula since the character is so wildly overstated and dominant. McDowell plays Caligula as highly intelligent, highly indulged, and sadistically deranged. Again we are less concerned with his violent outbursts against the self serving court favorites as we are about his treatment of the lovers, Livia and Proculus, the moral center of the production. As an example, handsome and ruthless and cunning Macro is outsmarted by Caligula and comes to a terrible end, but the viewer could care less because we have learned that Macro is corrupted and power seeking. However the violation of Livia and Proculus on their wedding night and then the subsequent violence against Proculus is horrifying. As they torture Proculus he screams asking why such pain is being inflicted on him since he is a loyal lower rank military officer. Caligula answers that it is because he is not guilty that he is guilty. It is because he is not corrupt that he must be destroyed. Absolute power in combination with sadism is the recipe for human evil. But beyond Caligula, we must remember that power over others in combination with inability to experience empathy with the other is one strong source of the evil we may all experience in everyday life.
This last point brings up the contrasting and conflicting visions of Gore Vidal and Bob Guccione, the owner of Penthouse and the producer of the film. If you are familiar with the excellent novels and essays of Gore Vidal, you soon learn of his contention that when Republics become Empires they lose their moral footing and begin to inflict cruelty and oppression against those they conquer and begin to stimulate decadence in the lives of the privileged individuals who have risen in the social class structure of the Empire. Thus the decadence of Tiberius and Caligula and the suicide of Nerva all help convey his message that Empire and power corrupts. But Bob Guccione has a philosophy against censorship and sexual oppression, and therefore he inserted many pornographic sequences into the film in the final edits, as if to thumb his nose at the moral sensibilities of those that run our current Empire. At first glance it would appear to be that Vidal and Guccione would be allies in their assault against the Empire. Vidal would accost the Empire for turning from its Republican roots and suppressing other nations for the aggrandizement of the Empire. Guccione would accost the Empire for sexual hypocrisy and lack of sexual freedoms. However it is the manner in which they accost the Empire that differs, and style and taste matter. For Vidal wishes us to draw upon our intellectual history and challenge the Empire on historic and rational grounds founded in the Enlightenment whereas Guccione wishes to challenge the Empire with sexual truths that often stay inside the bedroom but become unnerving when viewed in the light of day or on the motion picture screen.
This film is definitely a unique viewing experience.
Description of Caligula (Unrated Edition)
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