Review of Caligula (1979) by Jostein N — 21 Jan 2009

"I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night.

Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a god".

The story of Gaius Julius Caesar, the great-grandson of both Augustus and Marc Anthony; whose megalomania stunned the entire Empire for four years until he eventually suffered the same fate as the first Gaius Julius Caesar being stabbed to death at the hands of his own Praetorian prefect and his Senatorial co-conspirators.

Either totally insane or purely brilliant, or perhaps threading the fine line in between; his rule was tainted with acts of extreme megalomania and vile athrocities towards anyone challenging his authority and selfproclaimed divinity.

This is the edited version of the movie as the unrated one wasn't listed. As far as movies goes I wish there were more like it. The extreme violence and all the perversities of his reign depicted without any form of camoflage whatsoever. Dumped shamelessly straight into the viewers brain with no moral filter.

Combine this with the stunning performance of class-actors such as Malcom McDowell and Peter O'Toole and you have a movie you'll most likely either love or hate.

Some people say this movie is masked pornography, but I say it's a brilliant movie with themes of pornography in it. I wish more directors had the balls to make movies such as this, but to be honest I don't think the audience is ready for it. Not even today, thirty years after it's release.