Caligula (1979)

Summary: The rise and fall of Caligula, the infamous Roman Emperor is chronicled. He rises to power under quite treasonable circumstances and slowly loses his mind he lets both himself and his kingdom devolve into debaucherous sex-crazed maniacs with no respect for anything.           Overall: I will say, this film isn’t as bad as the press it has gotten. In fact as time has gone by I really think the awful reviews it has gotten only reflects the fact it might have been made at a time where society just wasn’t ready for the film yet. If you have a chance to read Roger Ebert’s review for the film...he totally rips and shred the film. But I think Ebert aimed too high. It’s not really a “porn film with real actors.” It’s a film that tried to capture as accurately as possible the abuses that were occurring at the time. The problem was, the film doesn’t do a good job of being convincing in what it shows. The porn scenes are soooo out of place, they really look like they got inserted later on (which did happen), as opposed to originally planned for. The sheer fact the original writer, the director and much of the actors disavowed the film after realizing what it turned into, shows that our producer wasn’t exactly “truthful” when explaining their overall vision of the movie. I think it’s an “ok” film that is sorta racy and disturbing. It’s got some good acting performances by Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell. But, the film really just doesn’t work.           Comparison: Gladiator meets Flesh Gordon

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