A close and revealing look on human nature/basic instincts, wrapped into a visual masterpiece and daring acting - that's the reason why this movie is still after all gone by time controversial.Such producers and directors we need in our shallow and in mediocrity drowned times - any mature who cannot cope with the shown material should stick to Sesame Street and hopefully never drops by coincidence on a porn site ;)

As a piece of high film-making, this is acceptable trash. It's over-the-top blubbery and overblown. The 'I wanna be Fellini' italo-euro 70's stylings don't help. It's hard to believe that anyone ever thought this thing should be taken seriously... so I don't! I look at Caligula as a blowout-budget b-movie. It allows me to laugh at the effluvia on the screen while simultaneously looking at boobies, and heaven forbid, actual copulation (depending on the version). It saves the film from being a poorly lit, pretentiously staged, unevenly acted pile of rueful garbage. Each and every one of the big names that appeared in this probably rues the day they heard of Bob Guccione, but they all cashed the checks...

I am amazed that I have been able to find this movie at all because it's probably the only pornographic film I'll ever watch. I have no idea how this made it to mainstream theaters. I normally never watch porn at all, but I was willing to make an exception for this movie because it was the only one that I could really find that was in standard movie guides. I remember reading how much Roger Ebert despised this film and then hearing that it was Brad Jones' (Cinema Snob) favorite movie. It's so ridiculous because all he did in his review was talk about how horrible it was.This movie may have at least been tolerable if not for the fact that it goes on forever. It might be the longest porn movie ever made. You could have trimmed all the nudity out to make this an hour and a half. The film becomes too predictable, being nothing but sex scenes over and over. The acting and dubbing is quite poor too. As far as I know, this is in fact a historically accurate film. I don't know quite that much about the real life Caligula. It doesn't matter, because it's awful any way. I consider myself open to new ideas, which is why I saw this. I will now never watch a feature length porn movie the rest of my life! At least I gave it a chance. *

Here's a historical film that's epic in length, if not in production values. A film financed in the US by Playboy, made in Italy with a cast of British leads, this was hugely controversial back on its release due to the explicit scenes of sex which litter the production. Be prepared for acres of heaving flesh throughout the film's course. Only one or two scenes (the lesbian interlude in particular) seem to have been clumsily inserted into the movie by Tinto Brass and generally the rest of the sex fits the story and adds to the realism of the times, e.g. the epic Roman orgy which is probably the closest filmed to how it really happened back then.Sadly, despite some impressive sets, the movie just looks cheap all the way through. Cheap, tawdry, with poor costumes, and not at all the expensive production I had expected it to be beforehand. Despite the incredibly long running time, it doesn't really drag much, even when nothing is happening, which can only be in the film's favour. It's also not as violent as I had expected, with only two scenes of graphic bloodshed which really stand out - the first is an offbeat interlude involving an incredible "decapitation machine" which rolls along and chops off heads sticking from the ground with huge metal pincers; the second, the film's grisly close.The inimitable Malcolm McDowell takes the lead role of Caligula and puts in his trademark intense performance. This is a very scary man who convinces you that he's insane and McDowell's turn is commanding without being over-the-top or hammy. Instead, he's just believable, underplaying it to the point in which you understand his motivations and actions. Top-notch support comes from Helen Mirren, who also excels as Caesonia, Caligula's arranged wife and a former prostitute who stands by him until the end; Peter O'Toole also appears as a madman, Tiberius, the former Emperor.As well as Mirren and O'Toole, we also get a cameo from British thespian John Gielgud, who was obviously convinced that some kind of high-brow movie was being filmed and not just a cheap exploitationer. Two other cast members are worthy of note; firstly, Teresa Savoy, who plays Caligula's sister Drusilla who is the object of her brother's incestuous desires. Savoy is underused but from what we see of her, she's totally convincing as a voluptuous, smouldering love interest and it's easy to see why Caligula wants to marry her. Euro-action man John Steiner has a memorable turn as Caligula's bald aide, Longinus, always plotting and toadying to his master until his true colours show through at the end.There are many memorable moments in this production - the aforementioned decapitation machine being one of them. Caligula's descent into a bleak madness is shown by scenes of him sharing a bed with a horse (!)The scene in which McDowell cavorts naked in the cold night air is very similar to a moment with Olivier in Shakespeare's King Lear, yet this is the more convincing situation thanks to McDowell's half scary/half tragic portrayal of the doomed Caligula. Without McDowell, I have a feeling that this movie would be worthless trash. With him, it's a flawed but occasionally worthwhile would-be epic.