Caligula is a 1979 film directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Bob Guccione and Giancarlo Lui, about the Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus also known as "Caligula". Caligula was written by Gore Vidal and co-financed by Penthouse magazine, though the script underwent several re-writes after Tinto Brass and Malcolm McDowell found Gore Vidal's interpretation of the infamous Emperor to be unsatisfactory. The producers were Bob Guccione and Franco Rosselini. The film was budgeted at about 20 million dollars and ended up grossing around 30. The production advertised itself as "the most controversial film in history. Only one movie dares to show the perversion behind Imperial Rome..."
It stars Malcolm McDowell as the Emperor and chronicles his rise and fall as the brief ruler of the Roman Empire. The film focuses heavily on Caligula's infamously deranged sexual practices, as well as those of his contemporaries.Multiple versions
Caligula was shown in various versions, including:
- An unreleased version, shown in a limited private screening at the Cannes, was 210 minutes long.
- A 150 minute Italian cut; it was basically a shortened version of the U.S. edition. It was eventually pulled out of release on favour of Franco Rossellini's re-edited version (more on which below), but a briefly released VHS tape exists, though it is now out-of print and is considered a major collector's item.
- The unrated version, available in the U.S. and mainland Europe, running 156 minutes (NTSC) and 150 minutes (PAL), holding the honour of being the most widely seen cut of the film. It enjoyed a limited, albeit highly profitable, run in the American cinemas. This version contained several scenes with sexually and violently explicit content, including orgies, masturbation, fellatio, anal fisting, female urination, beheading prisoners using a lawn-mower-type device (which is unlikely to have existed in reality), and slamming an infant on the stone steps like a rag doll.
It was highly controversial and would certainly have received an X rating from the MPAA. The U.S. DVD release of this version is available in a blue cover. In 2001, Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) released a European region 2 uncut version of Caligula in re-mastered form with a cleaner print. DFW released two editions of this, firstly a standard single DVD of the main feature, and secondly a limited edition double disc set which additionally included biographies of the actors, deleted scenes, filmographies of the actors, a "making of 'Caligula'" featurette (55 mins), and a photo gallery.
- The UK version, running 144 minutes. Aside from the removing 12 minutes of explicit footage, the editors included some replacement shots, derived from Tinto Brass' principal shoot, as well as remainder footage from Bob Guccione's re-shoots. Just like the older Italian cut, this version is also out-of-print these days, but is actively hunted for by various collectors.
- Guccione eventually authorized an R-rated cut released in 1981, 105 minutes long, which earned the film wider distribution. Contrary to popular belief, majority of the cut footage was that of various dramatic scenes, which many felt brought the pace to a screeching halt (this was due to the botched editing). In this version all of the hardcore, bloody and violent footage was either trimmed or replaced with yet another set of alternate shots and angles. Though the controversy over the film's content drew large crowds, virtually none of the most excessive scenes were included in the R version. But strangely, the audience's reaction was much more positive than to the uncut 156 minute version.
- In 1984, Franco Rossellini, unhappy with Bob Guccione's final edit of the film, re-edited an extended, pre-release print of Caligula, which may or may not have been the infamous 210 minute version. This new edition of the film, re-titled as Io, Caligola clocked in at 133 minutes, but the Italian censors had it cut down to 86 minutes (!). However, after a huge backlash, they allowed it to be brought up to 123 minutes. The missing ten minutes are no doubt responsible for a few jump cuts that occur throughout the film. This version has been released on DVD, but is available exclusively in Italy.
- The second R-rated version saw light in 1999. It was released straight to DVD and contained no alternate angles. Various shots simply repeated themselves continuously instead of using the different takes of scenes seen in the R-rated theatrical release, causing numerous continuity problems and a disorienting, nauseating feel to the viewers. The rest of the cuts and trims, however, were based on the 1981 censored release. This DVD version clocked in at 102 minutes. This version was released with a red cover.
- A few months later, the FilmFour channel, frustrated by the lack of any extended version of the film available in the UK (only the low quality 1981 censored version was still in print), released their own cut of Caligula, running approximately 140 minutes (the missing 16 minutes can be mostly attributed to the PAL overspeeding and time compression.) It was essentially the same as the 156 minute version, but lacked all of Bob Guccione's footage (much to his anger). Those missing bits were the lesbian tryst and a handful of sexual inserts during the imperial bordello sequence.
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