Caligula (1979)

Rating: 20%



(www.moviemuser.co.uk)

Also Known As:

Year:

1979

Countries:

Predominant Genre:

Pornography

Director:

Outstanding Performances:

None

Premiss:

Details the tragic story of Rome’s most infamous ruler, Caligula.

Themes:

Alienation | Destiny | Loneliness | Materialism | Narcissism | Pornography | Republicanism | Solipsism | White culture | White supremacy

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

Review Format:

DVD

Joy of Porn

Summary: Self-indulgent pornography disguised as a serious look at a famous historical despot.

Even removing the often-gratuitous hard-core inserts would not improve the situation for some of the world’s greatest actors trapped in an exploitation (rather than an exploration) of depravity - despite a good screenplay by Gore Vidal.

Trying hard to look like a Fellini movie, this one proves high porn and high art can make unhappy bed-fellows.

Shot in master scenes, it is obvious that the point of the exercise is just sex-and-violence - not the telling of an important and interesting story. By focusing on a mass of details, we paradoxically lose focus on what should have been the essentials of the drama. And adding classical music to images almost entirely content-free will never make up for this failing.

So far, no-one has made a better story of ancient Rome than the BBC’s I, Claudius. And the only good thing about this interminable catalog of human degradation - that is, the disgusting without the edifying - is that at least it did not adversely affect the careers of the high-profile and quality actors appearing in it.

---

Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.