Perhaps the most lavish exploitation film ever made, Tinto Brass’s Caligula astonished critics and audiences upon its initial release in 1980. They deemed it garish, over the top, and self-indulgent. Producer Bob Guccione, the founder of Penthouse Magazine, inserted hardcore porn scenes into the cut that did nothing to endear the film to viewers in Midwestern America. With a massive (for the time) budget of more than $17 million, Caligula did a belly flop into the pool of obscurity, its title a byword for bloat and bad decisions.
Rescued and reconstructed from over 90 hours of footage by Thomas Negovan, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut adheres more closely to screenwriter Gore Vidal’s original vision. This is the way Caligula was meant to be seen in all of its vulgar yet beautiful glory. Neither cut to the bone in a nonsensical fashion nor a vehicle for mindless orgy scenes for the trenchcoat crowd, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is a gorgeous and bizarre spectacle.
It’s a simple story. Caligula (Malcolm McDowell) worms his way to position of Emperor of the Roman Empire through murders and machinations. He’s in love with his sister, Drusilla (Teresa Ann Savoy), the mother of his children, Caesonia (Helen Mirren), and possibly his horse. McDowell gives a prime performance, making Caligula a scrawny, simpering hedonist who wants nothing but a good time, regardless of who gets in his way. Caligula is a man-child, wearing a constant sneer while his bright blue eyes glisten with madness and paranoia. His fear of being eliminated by a usurper overshadows his thoughts and decisions. He is cruel and twitchy, a megalomaniac with a penchant for rape and murder.
And those are his good qualities.
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is no sanitized edited-for-television version. Nudity and sexual situations permeate the film, portraying Rome as a depraved and brutal society. There is no privacy in the streets and no decency in the Senate. Despite Caligula’s seemingly endless stream of new laws, the people do as they will with nothing to reel in their behavior.
This is Rome as Dystopian horror, a land of unbidden excess led by a madman. Yet, for those with the right eyes and a willingness to observe lecherous and evil acts, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is a thing of ghastly beauty. Presented in 4K, Negovan’s painstaking edit of Brass’s original highlights the amazing art direction of Danilo Donati. Filled with static wide shots framed in doorways and through arches, the viewer’s eye has room to wander. From statues and silk to fire and fornication, the screen is crammed with too many details to appreciate during one sitting. Combined with an all-new atmospheric score by Troy Sterling Nies, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut turns a somewhat seedy and unappreciated film into a surreal nightmare. In many ways, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is what Ridley Scott’s Gladiator should have been.
Unabashed in its depiction of sexuality and the madness that comes with unchecked power, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is sleazy and sophisticated. McDowell’s demented performance alone makes it worth watching, but there’s more to Caligula: The Ultimate Cut than pageantry and a prurient sensibility. It is the terrifying story of one man’s chaotic downfall and those in the Roman Empire that came tumbling after.
Released by Unobstructed View, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is available in a limited edition numbered UHD boxed set, a two-disc Blu-ray set, and a DVD version. Caligula: The Ultimate Cut will be available on VOD from October 18, 2024.
I’ve never seen this film, but after this awesome review, I have to see The Ultimate Cut