Review of Caligula (1979) by Evgueni M — 20 Dec 2008

A hideously crippled masterpiece... What happens when you take a script for a grim political drama, shoot it as a surreal black comedy and then try to re-cut it into a De Mille-esque melodrama? Well... The answer, of course, is "Caligula.".

It will take several hours worth of notes to describe the film shoot from hell that resulted in this twisted, convoluted mess of an art film, so I shall not bother. There are many sites dedicated to that story as is, but if you want to hear the TRUTH and in the most entertaining way, I suggest you purchase the recently released 3-disc special edition.

Yes, the film has many "kinky kicks" to offer, but in the long run, it is a tragedy. The film had such artists behind it; Tinto Brass, Gore Vidal, Danilo Donati; it truly is a loss that they could never find proper ground or reason due to Bob Guccione's constant meddling and inexperience in producing films.

But what remains can be truly striking. Some of the sequences are spectacularly well shot and are every surrealist's wet dream. The lead cast does an outstanding job, especially Malcolm McDowell and John Steiner. Helen Mirren also shines in a sublte, underrated perfomance; most of which was sadly left on the cutting room floor. So, if one can look past the botched job done by the inept post-production crew, they will see a gorgeous, brilliant film that one day deserves a full restoration.