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DVD
Image Entertainment
Publisher: Analysis Film Releasing Corporation
Bob Guccione
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, Guido Mannari
Before Rome. Before Gladiator. The most controversial film of all time as you've never experienced it before! Combining lavish spectacle and top award-winning stars, this landmark production was shrouded in secrecy since its first day of filming. Now, this unprecedented special edition presents a bolder and more revealing Caligula than ever before, with a beautiful new high-definition transfer from recently uncovered negative elements and hours of never-before-seen bonus material! From the moment he ascends to the throne as Emperor, Caligula enforces a reign like no other as power and corruption transform him into a deranged beast whose deeds still live on as some of the most depraved in history. Malcolm McDowell (NBC's top-rated Heroes, Rob Zombie's Halloween, A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time, If..., Cat People and O Lucky Man), Helen Mirren: 2007 Academy Award & Golden Globe Winner for The Queen; 2007 Emmy & Golden Globe winner for HBO's Elizabeth I; star of hit TV series Prime Suspect and films including National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Calendar Girls, Excalibur, The Mosquito Coast, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover), Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, The Ruling Class, My Favorite Year, Venus, The Stunt Man), John Gielgud (Gandhi, The Elephant Man, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent, and Academy Award-winning role in Arthur). Supporting cast includes a wide array of European cult actors including Teresa Ann Savoy (Salon Kitty), John Steiner (Mario Bava's Shock), Leopoldo Trieste (Cinema Paradiso), Mirella D'Angelo (Tenebrae), Paolo Bonacelli (Mission: Impossible III) and Adriana Asti (The Best of Youth).
Remember the dumbstruck, jaw-dropped expressions on "Springtime for Hitler's" shocked opening-night audience in Mel Brooks's original film of The Producers? That will no doubt be your face through much of the two-and-a-half-hour running time of this infamous 1979 pornographic epic that was a (Penthouse) pet project of publisher Bob Guccione. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But don't take our word for it. Listen to Helen Mirren--yes, the Oscar-winning Queen herself--who stars as Caesonia, Caligula's third wife and "the most promiscuous woman in Rome" (and in this film's salacious vision of Pagan Rome, that is saying something). In her very gracious, thoughtful and candid audio commentary that alone is worth the price of this set, she remarks, "I think it's a movie that is unlike any other, which is difficult to achieve." And for those of a more prurient bent, she adds, "It has an awful lot of bottoms." Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) gives a brave and fearless performance as Caligula, the hated and feared emperor corrupted by absolute power and no doubt voted Most Likely to Be Assassinated. The film unflinchingly charts his plummet into madness and the brutality of his reign in scenes of hardcore sex and violence that cannot be described here ("I can't watch," Mirren cries to her interviewers over one scene in which unfortunate characters are beheaded by a blade-spinning combine. "I can't even listen to it"). Caligula is also a career curiosity for author Gore Vidal, who wrote the original screenplay, but later demanded his name be removed from the credits, and venerable actors Peter O'Toole, appearing briefly as the syphilitic Emperor Tiberius Caesar, and John Gielgud as Nerva, a Senator who'd rather take his own life than "live with this reptile." This controversial film's tortured history is untangled in a very helpful booklet that is packaged along with this set's three discs. One is hard-pressed to think of a more reviled film graced with such a gala presentation, but Caligula's defenders and the curious will be amply rewarded with both the original uncut theatrical version of the film and a re-edited alternate version. Supplementary material includes an hour of deleted footage, a pretentious "making of" documentary made during the film's production and a new interview with director Tinto Brass, whose softcore tendencies clashed with Guccioni's more extreme vision (Brass did not have final cut, allowing Guccione to insert more explicit footage into the film). McDowell contributes his own lively audio commentary. "God help us," he groans as the film begins, but by its bloody conclusion, he proclaims he has "no regrets at all" about making the film. Caligula, Mirren maintains, is "an irresistible mix of art and genitals." And you've got to hand it to Guccione. Especially in these politically correct times, it is still strong and scandalous stuff. --Donald Liebenson
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| Just disappointed |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I finally broke down and bought the movie. It does have some decent sex scenes, it's just very choppy. I am not sure if they were trying to show how crazy stuff was back then or the movie makers were just unexperience. If you heard of this movie and just wanted to see it for all it's hype and still don't know. Try to find someone who has it this way you can watch it and save your money.
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| a great exploitation flim based on reality |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This is a movie about caligula which meant little boots in latin.
He was the son of the great prince and general Germanicus and he was Romes third emporer. He started out ok and then began to push the boundries into the realm of either insanity or just selfish evil. His life was [...] , you can't tell about Caligula unless you tell about how he made the wives of senators into whores. He was driven to sexual excesses that were shocking to the Romans. His cruelty was legendary and finally they assassinated him. This movie depicts him in all his monstrous excesses. And it does a great job doing it too. Malcolm Mcdowell really portrays the essence of the man. Was he insane? or was he the ultimate spoiled young man who is allowed to do whatever he wanted? Did he actually believe that he was a god or did he just want to get away with anything he could? An interesting fact is that he was killed as he attempted to put his statue on the Temple Mount in Jerusalum. This was seen as a act of god. And perhaps he should be in the bible as a lesson that NO man shall become a god. after all he was contemporary with peter, paul and the other biblical figures. Sure the movie has lots of sex in it but it still tells one of histories most bizaare stories and on blu ray things are only better!
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| Greatest Porno Ever Made |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Let's just call and spade a spade. This is a pornographic film. But damn if it isn't the best one ever made. The sets are amazing. The production design is amazing. To hell with Vivid Video's 'Pirates' and the like. Buy this instead. Wonderfully excessive!
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| A hideously crippled masterpiece. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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There are two reactions to this film: 1. "I absolutely HATED it!" and 2. "I absolutely LOVED the sex in that movie!!!!". EIther way you cannot deny- this film, meant to be good, was edited badly.
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN SUMMARY:
1. Thought of as a surreal black comedy
2. Scripted as a homoerotic political satire
3. Shot as an erotic mindflip of a movie
4. Edited as a disaster
5. Released as a disaster.
What could have been a great film was ruined by one man: Bob Guccione. Tinto Brass and Gore Vidal had shot 95% of the footage, and Bob GUccione had shot about 5 hours of "sexy" material to make this a "T-ts-and-arse-and-gore", 6 minutes of which had ended up in the movie. He then went to edit an AWESOME satire of Caligula's atrocities into a disaster of a movie. The acting was great, and Malcom McDowell outdid himself as Caligula. The film has many great scenes, including the nervous breakdown from Caligula. Gore Vidal and Tinto Brass had disowned the film because Bob Guccione would lock Tinto Brass outside the editing room. If the film had been edited properly, It would have been a great film.
The recut version on this DVD has scenes edited back the way they were meant to be edited, but 5 quick Gooch inserts were left in by a mistake. It's worth watching though. And the film must be seen to be believed. You may love it, you may hate it. I know I didn't hate it or love it.
Overall, this gets a 5/5 for what it could have been, but for what it ended up, it gets a 1/5.
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| Hard Core Porn |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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This movie is an attempt to make a film with respected actors and high production values that also contains scenes of hard core sex where NOTHING is left to the imagination.Just a warning to those who might accidentally buy it who would be offended.The film itself is rather boring.What popularity it DOES enjoy is pretty much due to the novelty of a "high quality"porn flick,and the fact that as an unrated film you can get it from outlets that would not carry X or NC-17 films.
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