My friends and I consider it the lowest point in film making history...
What I don't understand however, is the claim made by O'Toole that he wasn't aware of any of the pornographic scenes! Surely he must've known *something* was up when they shot the Isle of Capri scene.
Evan
You and your friends haven't seen a lot of movies
I say this because, while it wasn't the best movie out there...it was no 'Ernest goes to camp'
I can see how they might not have been privy to the hard core porn scenes. It is completely believable that while they were aware it would be risqué, sexually explicit film and gory. Neither O'Toole or Gielgud were in any terribly graphic scenes and none of the scenes were pornographic...those scenes were placed in using people who were not main players...No scenes that they were in would warrant more than a hard 'R' rating. If you have seen the uncut version you will know that almost all the actual actors have no
part in the hard pornographic scenes...in fact those scenes were shot separately and placed in...Malcolm McDowell is in alot of scenes with nudity and simulated
sex, but none of it x-rated.
For example the lesbian scene where
Caligula looks through a curtain or hole in the wall (been years since I have seen the movie) and takes a peek at two servant ladies...It is easy to see that what could have been a quick peek (that
had nothing to do with a story line) became a prolonged lesbian scene that he was in no way a
part of.
Also the most sexually explicit scene where
Caligula was pimping the senatorial wives...the graphic pornographic orgy scenes were spliced in...
Most of the actors
had no
part in the hard pornographic elements. There is a long story about the 4 years it took to make this movie, probably more interesting than the movie itself.
There is a cut version with these pornographic scenes removed and you wouldn't know they were gone as they, for the most
part, have nothing to do with the movie.
It is historical fiction at its worst without doubt. Imagine after reading every awful thing written about
Caligula and know that the film proceeds to present these as all true with no asterisk to explain that it might not be as it was reported by some sources. There are also completely fictional scenes thrown in.
Even with the porno cut, its graphic and violent.
Caligula makes
his visit to the wedding of
Livia and
Proculus and proceeds to give the bride (and the groom) a present from a God involving a greased fist for
Proculus. He finds a guard drunk on duty, force feeds him wine then drains it from
his belly with a sword, people are killed in brutal manners with blades and heavy mallets to the
head. A bizarre sexual
circus at Tiberius's palace on Capri (again, the pornographic scenes are not shot with
Tiberius there) and
Tiberius swims with
his little minnows. Gore,
sex, death, and violence abounds. Like said before, there is nudity that seems to have no reason or make sense like the nude workers in the city.
There ARE some
good scenes...O'Toole is a perfect
Tiberius in my humble opinion...old, at the end of
his life, perverted, diseased, jaded and malignant...vain, wearing an obvious wig, thin and boney......the scene as he stamps
his seal on official decrees...bored...wanting to get back to
his fun but resigned to the fact that it is required of him......telling
Caligula he knows he has nursed a viper. later the scene with
Caligula who is required to do the same but he has no patience and loses it, stamping faster and faster. The scene when
Caligula thinks
Tiberius is dead, pry's the signet ring off
his finger before he wakes up only to be killed by
Caligula who doesnt want to explain or wait any longer, the Death scene of
Nerva as he speaks of the past, the awful present, and the probable future as he relieves himself of life, no longer able or willing to continue,
Caligula the viper will bring trouble...played with
Patrician dignity, duty and
honor, extreme disappointment and the last insult as he dies. Among others, they are
good scenes which makes one a
bit sad they couldn't have been the norm.
In the end
Caligula is brutally killed
as is his wife and
his young childs
head is bashed on the steps...
Its not an Oscar winner...but hardly the worst movie I have seen...not only that but I tend to enjoy movies about
Rome even when they diverge from strict historical accuracy or arent that great...I read
history books for my
history and watch movies for entertainment...If nothing else...it was interesting...
