ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS.
In the 1970s, Bob Guccione had become a notorious but successful man. His Penthouse magazine had made him wealthy and he used some of the money to invest in films. Not porn, but ”real” movies. His money helped get Chinatown (1974) made, for instance, but his Penthouse-tainted name stayed out of the credits. Guccione dreamed of earning respect as a producer of cinema, and he identified the Roman emperor Caligula as a worthy subject. After all, if making a film about a man who once appointed his horse consul doesn’t scream quality, what does?
Preferring orgies to politics
Historians debate whether or not all rumors about the allegedly wicked, sadistic and perverted emperor are true. But Guccione and his filmmaking crew have no qualms – it all goes into this movie. We first meet Caligula (Malcolm McDowell) in his youth when he’s heir to the throne. A sickly, depraved Tiberius (Peter O’Toole) rules the empire and prefers orgies to politics. Their relationship deteriorates to the degree that Tiberius ends up dead, killed by Macro (Guido Mannari), a leader of the Praetorian Guard, who’s loyal to Caligula. Once the young man is named emperor, Rome is in for shocking changes. One of them is the appointment of Drusilla (Teresa Ann Savoy), Caligula’s sister and lover, as his equal.
Fitting nicely into a 1970s trend
It all goes downhill from there, with the kind of debauchery that tends to get Roman emperors killed in a plot orchestrated by men who have not been sufficiently bribed or entertained. It’s perfect fodder for this project, which was always going to be an erotic drama, fitting nicely into a 1970s trend where some pornographers aimed higher, trying to turn their smut into art. What it was never intended to be was simple porn. After all, with that budget, Guccione reasoned, he could have just made 20 pornos. And yet, when Caligula premiered after years of delay and a very troubled production, it did include hardcore pornography, seemingly in a desperate attempt to lure audiences. Which it also did; this was the era of adult movie theaters and that’s where Caligula ended up.
Stars like John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole and Malcolm McDowell never agreed to star in the most expensive porn flick in history, but the sex (closeups of porn actors doing their thing) were convincingly inserted into the orgy scenes in post-production, a decision made by Guccione after firing director Tinto Brass, whose first cut was deemed a disaster.
Much of the film is joyless, crass wallowing in filth, sadism and sensationalism.
45 years later, a new version was released in theaters. 22 minutes longer, this ”ultimate cut” has no hardcore porn, but several new scenes picked up from the cutting-room floor. Hailed by McDowell, among others, this version is an improvement technically speaking, but Caligula never was a new I, Claudius, in spite of that cast and Gore Vidal’s name attached to it as writer. Much of the film is joyless, crass wallowing in filth, sadism and sensationalism. A generous interpretation would suggest that Caligula is an attack on the sordid nature of dictatorships, but a more artistic approach would have made it more interesting.
Young Helen Mirren is unable to add much, but so is Gielgud. O’Toole chews the scenery as the syphilis-ridden Tiberius, but McDowell is the one who comes out of this ordeal on top. His performance makes us believe that this is a young man who believes in nothing and is prepared to do anything.
Caligula 1979-Italy-U.S. 156 min. Color. Directed by Tinto Brass. Screenplay: Gore Vidal. Cast: Malcolm McDowell (Caligula), Teresa Ann Savoy (Drusilla), Guido Mannari (Naevius Sutorius Macro), John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Giancarlo Badessi, Helen Mirren.
Trivia: Joss Ackland dubbed the voice of Cassius Chaerea. John Huston and Lina Wertmüller (who wrote the first draft of the script) were offered to direct the film. Orson Welles was considered for the part of Tiberius; Maria Schneider was originally cast as Drusilla, but bowed out.
