Caligula (Uncut Edition)

This is one of those notorious films that I grew up hearing about but never seeing fully. I’ve caught parts from time to time, but I’ve always been excited to see. Streaming is non-existent, so I bought this DVD.The reviews are spot on, this movie is awful. There is a film here, the story of Caligula is ripe for dramatization. Unfortunately what happened here was the interference of Bob Guccione making the final product a glorified pornographic film.What could have been a historical epic turns out to have a very loose in not completely lost narrative structure that makes the film hard to follow.Is there artistic merit? I think there is. The production design team tries their best, but many of the sets are so obvious that you’re taken out of the film. The cinematography is atrocious at times, I understand that is is the by-product of a bad edit job by Guccione himself.Let’s not forget that there are some exceptionally talented actors here: John Gielgud, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole and of course, Malcolm McDowell. It’s really incredible to imagine a film like this exists, and that’s what is so exciting, at least for me.If you bought this for erotic purposes, I’ll say that you’re already on the internet and can find much better and more effective products elsewhere.For someone who’s interested in experiencing the film and believe me, it is an experience, then you can probably do worse. By the end of the film I was bored and just waiting for Caligula’s brutal end.

Item is beautiful and arrived in great time

I would have rated 4-stars, only because the pixels are a bit grainy . Perhaps that is no fault of the seller.The movie is every bit as dramatically licentious as I could imagine. Pure debauchery, epic acting, demented demonstration of historical non-fiction. The sets are corny, but that's not what's going to make you wretch in your seat. I love to hate it, and am very happy I only had to for out 11 dollars for this full frontal.

Nothing to say yet about it

Gift for my hubby. Malcolm McDowell at his best

I bought this one because I heard is was very bad. That turned out to be an understatement. It's virtually plotless and shifts from one explicit sex scene to the next. Don't get excited, the production quality and photography aren't very good. It lives up to its reputation as one of the worst, if not the worst, movie ever made.

This was financed and co-written by Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse, so temper your expectations with that nugget of info. Lots of nudity and sex (simulated and real -- it is a porno). But if you can get past that, there is a story and the acting is good. It is filmed as if they are putting on a large stage production and they have three cameras recording the action.The film stars some serious movie heavyweights: Malcolm McDowell in the title role, alongside Teresa Ann Savoy, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, John Steiner and John Gielgud. Bob G ponied up the cash for A list talent. And they don't disappoint.This came out when I was a kid, so of course I never saw it. But curiosity got the best of me and I purchased the DVD (it is not available for rental anywhere I could find). I would say it is worth the purchase price just to have seen what is really a piece of art history, no matter how derided it has been over the decades.I would have given it four stars, but (the pornography aside) the production does have a cheap feel to it. But not every movie can be the Godfather. A solid 3.5 stars.

When in Rome...