Product Description

Before Rome. Before Gladiator. The most controversial film of all time as you've never experienced it before! Combining lavish spectacle and top award-winning stars, this landmark production was shrouded in secrecy since its first day of filming. Now, this unprecedented special edition presents a bolder and more revealing Caligula than ever before, with a beautiful new high-definition transfer from recently uncovered negative elements and hours of never-before-seen bonus material! From the moment he ascends to the throne as Emperor, Caligula enforces a reign like no other as power and corruption transform him into a deranged beast whose deeds still live on as some of the most depraved in history.

Malcolm McDowell (NBC's top-rated Heroes, Rob Zombie's Halloween, A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time, If..., Cat People and O Lucky Man), Helen Mirren: 2007 Academy Award & Golden Globe Winner for The Queen; 2007 Emmy & Golden Globe winner for HBO's Elizabeth I; star of hit TV series Prime Suspect and films including National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Calendar Girls, Excalibur, The Mosquito Coast, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover), Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, The Ruling Class, My Favorite Year, Venus, The Stunt Man), John Gielgud (Gandhi, The Elephant Man, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent, and Academy Award-winning role in Arthur).

Supporting cast includes a wide array of European cult actors including Teresa Ann Savoy (Salon Kitty), John Steiner (Mario Bava's Shock), Leopoldo Trieste (Cinema Paradiso), Mirella D'Angelo (Tenebrae), Paolo Bonacelli (Mission: Impossible III) and Adriana Asti (The Best of Youth).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27765 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2007-10-02
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Customer Reviews

Nice to see this
With all the much deserved hoopla over the IMPERIAL edition of CALIGULA, it is nice to see that Image has taken as much care with the often neglected R rated theatrical version as they did with the uncut version. The film has never looked or sounded better. I have always loved this cut of the film (for one thing you don't have to be embarrased to watch it with your family or more sensitive friends) and I am very grateful that this cut has now been restored to its former visual glory. There are also three theatrical trailers included on the disc. It comes in a beautiful package with an embossed slip cover. I think the cover art for this version is actually more attractive than that chosen for the 3 disc edition. If you are looking for a version of CALIGULA that everyone can appreciate, this is it. Bravo to Image entertainment!

Incomplete and incoherent but kinda interesting
The R rating means that the fifty four minutes or so of hardcore is nowhere to be found so nothing can distract you from the film's choppy editing. Scenes jump ahead so abruptly and frequently that it's impossible to be sure what the hell is going on. This makes a mess of a movie even messier. With that being said, 'Caligula' is one of the more interesting failures in cinema of the past forty years. The script was written by Gore Vidal but he demanded his name be removed. I'm sure it was historically accurate at depicting the perverse sex and violence rampant in Rome at the time but pornographer Bob Guccione goes overboard making things more raw and in your face than is appropriate or tolerable. The cast, a who's who of top British talent had no idea that Guccione was going to bastardize the film. Malcolm McDowell is a natural for Caligula since he engages in the same kinds of ultra violence as he did in 'A Clockwork Orange', Helen Mirren is extremely sexy as his wife Caesonia, Peter O' Toole is debauched perfection as Caligula's Uncle Caesar, and John Gielgud is the psychic Nerva. All of them invest their roles with everything they have but none of them could foresee where this film was headed.'Caligula' the movie is famous for attempting to be the first Hollywood movie with hardcore mixed throughout. No one talks about the acting, just the sex. It's too bad since the acting is decent. Fortunately for Gielgud and O'Toole their embarrassment is short lived since neither actor makes it past the first half hour. Caligula will do whatever it takes to assume power and this means killing as many people as it takes, including his uncle. After he inherits the throne his next order of business is to find a wife who will produce him an heir. Caligula isn't too interested in finding a mate since he enjoys sleeping with his sister (Teresa Ann Savoy) too much. He finds a way around this by having a threesome with both women (glimpsed briefly in the trailer). Caligula goes mad with his new power and begins assassinating anyone who opposes him, and raping the wives of his soldiers whom he has sent away on false military campaigns. He anoints himself a God and decides the logical way to eliminate Rome's debt is to force senator's wives into prostitution. He builds an Imperial Brothel where the commoners can come and sleep with his trusted adviser's wives. The set for the Brothel is as outrageous as the concept. A giant ship complete with Roman soldiers as rowers serves as the pleasure palace. This scene is a perfect example of the outrageous grandiosity and extravagant spending that this film degenerated into. This edited version can't come close to telling the full story and shocking you as much as the unrated version but it's kinda fun to see the sets and costumes and laugh at how absurd it all is. Working from a good script and full of great actors this film turned into a legendary bomb that is worth checking out to see what all the fuss was about.