The director screws over the writer, the producer screws over the director, and then the studio just turns it all into porno film.
Such is the succinct history of this six-year-long movie production. What started as a contemplative biopic on one of the most controversial Emperors of the Roman Empire and the corruption of absolute power got rewritten to hell and back into satire with erotic elements only to eventually transform into a 2-hour phantasmagoria with live births (according to some sources) and dicks galore.
It is peculiar to see that the plot actually tries to stick with very one-sided Caligula titbits, but it's all so hyperbolized that it comes off like 2000-year-old anti-Julio-Claudian dynasty propaganda, painstakingly designed to have so little nuance in its portrayal of Caligula (and pretty much anyone of note in that time period, for that matter) that it turns the plot into a farce.
A very engaging mockery of history. I doubt anyone is going to be aroused by the multitude of orgies depicted on the screen. But the sadistic showmanship of these orgies and executions is a sight to behold. The head-cutting wall is worth a watch by itself.
Such is the succinct history of this six-year-long movie production. What started as a contemplative biopic on one of the most controversial Emperors of the Roman Empire and the corruption of absolute power got rewritten to hell and back into satire with erotic elements only to eventually transform into a 2-hour phantasmagoria with live births (according to some sources) and dicks galore.
It is peculiar to see that the plot actually tries to stick with very one-sided Caligula titbits, but it's all so hyperbolized that it comes off like 2000-year-old anti-Julio-Claudian dynasty propaganda, painstakingly designed to have so little nuance in its portrayal of Caligula (and pretty much anyone of note in that time period, for that matter) that it turns the plot into a farce.
A very engaging mockery of history. I doubt anyone is going to be aroused by the multitude of orgies depicted on the screen. But the sadistic showmanship of these orgies and executions is a sight to behold. The head-cutting wall is worth a watch by itself.