Caligula (1979)

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Avg Rating: 4.1 / 5. Voted: 82

No one cared thus far. Do you?

AKA:
Directed by: Tinto Brass
Starring: Malcolm McDowell (Caligula), Teresa Ann Savoy (Drusilla), Helen Mirren (Caesonia), Peter O’Toole (Tiberius)
Country: Italy, European Cinema
Language: English
Runtime: 02:35:58
Genres: Based on a True Story, Rape-Sexual-Violence against Women, Torture, Sexual-Violence against Men, Relationship with Animals, Incest, Siblings-Family, Gay-CrossDressing-Transsexual, Unsimulated Sex

Plot – Spoilers:
Based on the Roman emperor Caligula who ruled for four years, the movie attempts to capture the debauchery and perversions that are alleged to have characterized Caligula’s reign as he descended into madness.

The young Caligula spends his time nursing ambitions of one day becoming Caesar without really educating himself in the military and political nous required to establish a legacy. Instead, he frolicks the days away in an incestuous relationship with his sister, while becoming more and more convinced he is blessed with the divine. When his (adopted) grandfather and Emperor shows signs of decay, Caligula quickly seizes power and attempts to crush the Senate. What follows are the whims of a man who sets no boundaries.

The cut featured here is the uncut version with porno scenes (not directed by Tinto Brass) that seek to capture the debauchery of Caligula’s reign. Malcolm McDowell brings a bit of A Clockwork Orange into some scenes and is expectedly brilliant, once again.

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V
V
October 1, 2022 2:24 am

Mark 8:36? – The Whole World

Mike Tython
Mike Tython
June 13, 2022 4:45 am

tathty morthel, i like thith movie it maketh me think of my momth thithter in thlovakia

Leyla
Leyla
June 12, 2022 4:31 pm

Still disturbingly amazing…re-watching it at the age of 54!

MR BRIMSTONE
MR BRIMSTONE
Reply to  Leyla
June 12, 2022 9:20 pm

I know what you mean. I am 53 and I find the film to be Poorly written and definitely falls way short of Tinto Brass directorial talents. It has some outstanding actors but they are forced to overact because of a shitty script. But just the same, for me, the greatest thing about this movie that sends it far above it’s faults is it’s sympathetic portrayal of Caligula as a broken, “blue collar” behaving, common Man’s emperor. His insanity is driven not only by anything that may have been chemically or genetically wrong with him, but by his absolute contempt for an oppressive, “cater to the rich and privileged” system. The only things that he ever wanted out of life was to have fun the way all young people do and (In his case) fuck his beloved Sister. But what happens instead is that this future Caesar with a military education usurps Tiberius, thinking that this would make his life even more fun, and ends up in a world of cretinous slime. The kind of slime who were reared to have no sense of facing suffering like real Men the way he did. He hates this lot so much that he would rather do everything he can to destroy them than to spend another day in their presence; even if it means provoking them to destroy him, as they finally do in the end. Anyone that would care to dispute this need answer but one question… What other world leader,… Read more »

MR FLINTSTONE
MR FLINTSTONE
Reply to  MR BRIMSTONE
June 13, 2022 1:24 am

i wanna pimp you out dumbledore

muffles
muffles
Reply to  MR BRIMSTONE
June 13, 2022 1:26 am

You obviously do not know how the UN functions. Votes are bought and paid for by the wives of the deligates. Whole countries have been sacrificed by their representatives for some slap-n-tickle. It is easily done when it is other people paying but those same people are then comprimissed for life in other ways.

Not forgeting not to long ago various popes took money for obsolutions and much boy-love and prostitution was funding the papal pox-ridden lifestyles.

Not that has any bearing on the quality of the film.

Luka
Luka
Reply to  muffles
June 13, 2022 1:45 am

Finally! This is precisely why I come onto this site, muffles is the only person refined enough, equipped with authentic research and congruity to heed.

MR BRIMSTONE
MR BRIMSTONE
Reply to  muffles
October 2, 2022 11:38 am

Muffles, I am aware of the great deal of power Women who are married to world leaders wield behind the scenes. It is very fair to say that we (the United States) would never have existed had it not been for the dalliances of Benjamin Franklin with the Wives of Men of power, whose wives influenced them to lend us their support.

But having said that, it would appear that your counterpoint is more of an apples and oranges proposition. in the film, we do not see Women capitalizing on the opportunities they are given to politically influence their Men. What we see are what Caligula refers to as “Lascivious sluts” being used and whose senators fall at his hand anyway. In many other cases, I would concede you the point but for our purposes here and for history’s purposes, it is not so. Caligula’s reign (and it’s end) was not influenced by anyone or anyone’s wives. He wasn’t stopped by some feminist dream of Women always covertly controlling the affairs of state. He was stopped by the only thing that could stop him; a brutal assassination that resulted in a coup.

Jason
Jason
May 10, 2022 12:30 pm

This film lives up to the hype, it is brutal. worth the watch for sure!!!

FrogHat
FrogHat
March 27, 2022 3:01 pm

A god you say….well, Caligula by a different name is Patrik Karlson (aka. “Robert”) [LFO, 2013].

Cyanide_Lollipop
Cyanide_Lollipop
January 11, 2022 11:21 am

I know I’m supposed to love this film, like all the cool kids do, but I couldn’t make it past 31 minutes. Omg, the most boring shit I’ve ever had the misfortune of wasting my time on. I could’ve rode it out for the porn scenes, but it’s 70’s porn, so I already know I’m not missing out. At ALL.
Watch it just to say you did, or spend your valuable time doing literally anything else. This movie sucks.

Yawn
Yawn
Reply to  Cyanide_Lollipop
February 7, 2022 12:47 am

You’re not alone. The critical consensus then and now is that it’s godawful terrible…they may have put pedigreed actors in it like O’Toole, Gielgud and Mirren, but it’s still basically a badly directed play – over-theatrical, stilted and staged like a 1950s bible drama. Only with porn. I watched out of curiosity to see what the big fuss was about. Clearly it was only ever about all the non-simulated sex stuff.

Gosu
Gosu
January 6, 2022 4:59 pm

Honestly felt like i was watching kubricks film overall pretty gud

Lynn
Lynn
September 7, 2021 3:37 am

To be honest I was pretty bored with this film i was expecting something more twisted

The White Horseman
The White Horseman
August 30, 2021 4:05 am

I really love this movie

Mike Tyron
Mike Tyron
August 17, 2021 1:05 pm

Amazing and very scenographic movie, after all it’s obvious that two artists like Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione would have made an amazing movie like that. Malcolm McDowell represents very well the character of Caligula, of an emperor who lived alife full of excesses without giving a f*ck about anything. Amazing movie!!

randomopinion
randomopinion
July 24, 2021 2:00 am

fantastic

Kahn V
Kahn V
April 14, 2021 7:01 am

The movie is amazing to watch I really enjoyed it Caligula deserved death because he was heartless hahahaha hail Cesar lol

Zed Man
Zed Man
March 6, 2021 10:23 am

Upon its release in 79 this was one of the most controversial movies of its time even though the uncut version didnt come out years later and as far as I recall only on video, it never was shown uncut in cinemas. Over the decades its shock value has diminished since there are so many unsimulated sex films circulating nowadays. There are still many versions available with varying running times. I liked because it stars Malcolm McDowell, he is a great actor,(also starred in A Clockwork Orange) and Helen Mirren in a role she would rather forget. I found it overlong and a bit boring tbh, but it had its moments where I lmfao and cringed at times. Not really riveting as above commenter Matisse said, but I must ask, is that an avatar of you or someone famous? If its you, I think you are hot, hope you dont mind me saying so. Cheers!

Matisse Famke
Matisse Famke
March 5, 2021 3:50 am

Riveting transmission.
Either affectionately or mockingly, Germanicus’ troops called the boy “Caligula,” meaning “Little Boots” or “Booties.” The nickname stuck, but Gaius reportedly hated it… xx

oJ
oJ
October 9, 2020 10:14 am

It must be the most poetic pornography I’ve ever seen, what a great man. Lived a life as he loved and fuck everything else.

Nobody
Nobody
August 3, 2020 11:17 pm

I was expecting to be bored out of my mind. I have to say it IS too long, but I was entertained. The acting was good, the nudity was fun, enough insanity happened to keep me engaged. Sure why not. Give it a chance.

kaas kerel
kaas kerel
August 2, 2020 9:18 am

He didn’t rule for 4 years.
He ruled for 1400 days keep your facts right
Besides its really slow with buffering

Nobody
Nobody
Reply to  kaas kerel
December 19, 2022 2:07 am

Lol! You get your facts right. 4 years is 4 × 365.25 =1461 days, minus 52 days short of 4 years = 1409 days, not 1,400 days. It’s so stupid to be concerned about it being rounding & stating it as 4 years though. Like who cares if it was less than 2 months shy of 4 years? The only reason I corrected you, was because you took issue with it being called 4 years.

Maybe you should get better internet. I had no buffering at all after I started the video.

Happy Mercedinus
Happy Mercedinus
Reply to  Nobody
December 19, 2022 3:34 am

Did they class a year as 365.25 days? The romans fucked about with the calenda all the time. It could have been 304, 355, … . Even days were not set as uniform hours.

get a fuckling job
get a fuckling job
Reply to  kaas kerel
February 5, 2023 10:15 pm

so….3.8 years???

nobody gives a shit, stfu

woftt69
woftt69
July 20, 2020 8:56 pm

Helen Mirren was (and is) hot!

Horror Buff
Horror Buff
August 24, 2019 12:43 pm

Posting this before I watch the movie

Okay, so I read the description, and this is indeed the infamous 160-minuted version of the film with all the porn scenes. I was actually looking for this version, as I was dared to watch this and A Serbian Film, which I will ATTEMPT to watch later. I was told this version is EXTREMELY sexually graphic, so I’m curious how far they go with this version.

This oughta get interesting really fast…

XdustinX666
XdustinX666
Reply to  Horror Buff
October 29, 2020 10:39 am

Penthouse magazine produced it with most of the pets doing the hardcore stuff that should give a bit of information on how hardcore it is sexually