CALIGULA

Review: The rise and fall of the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula.
Director: Tinto Brass
Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, Guido Mannari, John Gielgud, Adriana Asti, Leopoldo Trieste, Paolo Bonacelli, John Steiner and Mirella D’Angelo
Year: 1979
Genre: Drama and History
Conclusion: 4/5
This movie was a box-office hit when the number of theatres in which it played is taken into account. However, because of its limited run, it was a financial disappointment. Caligula took nearly four years to make, and another two years to have been distributed worldwide. At the time, this film was the most expensive independent movie ever made, even now to this present day, it remains the most expensive and highest grossing adult film ever made. Apparently, Caligula had been creating legal difficulties and controversy long before it was submitted to the BBFC for classification. This film was banned in Russia until 1993. In The Movie Doctors book (Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode) it quotes “Fast-Forward to 2008, and the complete uncut Caligula which had caused such public health anxieties back in the early eighties found its way back to the BBFC. ‘The passage of nearly 30 years had significantly diminished the film’s impact,’ the BBFC reported, ‘and after careful consideration it was decided that it could now be classified 18 uncut’. But what about those scenes of sex and violence which Her Majesty’s own Customs and Excise officers had found likely to deprave and corrupt back in 1980? Was the film really no longer a danger to innocent UK viewers? Apparently not. As the BBFC pointed out, ‘Although there are scenes in Caligula that some people will find shocking, offensive or disgusting, the film does not contain…any material that is likely to give rise to harm for adult audiences, most of whom will be well aware of its controversial reputation.’