History Film / Caligula

* GratuitousDiscoSequence: The soundtrack is a combination of the kind of boombastic classical music you expect to see in a Roman period piece, and [[TheSeventies '70s]] [[BowChickaWowWow Porn Music]].

* KingIncognito: After [[spoiler: Drusilla's death]] Caligula takes to the streets in Rome.

* SceneryPorn: Say what you will about what's happening in the film, many of the sets are rather beautiful.
** And in the case of the orgy scenes, it takes on a literal meaning.

* {{Euroshlock}}: ''Technically'' zigzagged. Its writer and producer were American, its director was Italian and its actors were British. That said, whether or not you believe this qualifies as a "European" film, at the very least it fits the spirit of this trope.

* {{Euroshlock}}: ''Technically'' zigzagged. Its writer and producer were American, but its director, setting, and filming location were Italian, and its actors were British. That said, whether or not you believe this qualifies as a "European" film, at the very least it fits the spirit of this trope.

* {{Euroshlock}}: Its writer was American, but its director, setting, and filming location were Italian, and its actors were British. And its producer was American but of Italian descent. Therefore, it counts.

Never, in the history of the world, will there ever be another movie like ''Caligula''. And never, in the history of this website, will there ever be a movie more difficult than ''Caligula'' to describe.

There exist many, many, many [[ReCut different cuts]] of the film, all varying in length and legality; R-rated versions run around 98-105 minutes, while the "uncut" version with Guccione's hardcore footage has a runtime of 156 minutes. In 2023, a new version called ''Caligula: The Ultimate Cut'' (also known as ''Caligula MMXX'') was screened at Cannes Film Festival, running at 180 minutes -- and with all of the pornographic scenes removed.

There exist many, many, many [[ReCut different cuts]] of the film, all varying in length and legality; R-rated versions run around 98-105 minutes, while the "uncut" version with Guccione's hardcore footage has a runtime of 156 minutes. In 2023, ''Caligula: The Ultimate Cut'' (also known as ''Caligula MMXX'') was screened at Cannes, running at 180 minutes -- and with all of the pornographic scenes removed.

There exist many, many, many [[ReCut different cuts]] of the film, all varying in length and legality; R-rated versions run around 98-105 minutes, while the "uncut" version with Guccione's hardcore footage has a runtime of 156 minutes.

Creator/FedericoFellini's art director Danilo Donati was hired to build the expensive and complex sets and costumes. Renowned acting talent, including Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, Creator/HelenMirren, Creator/PeterOToole and Sir Creator/JohnGielgud, was cast. Maria Schneider was originally cast as Caligula's doomed sister Drusilla, but later dropped out and was replaced by Teresa Ann Savoy. After Guccione was unable to come to an agreement with more established directors Creator/JohnHuston and Lina Wertmuller, Tinto Brass, a relatively young Italian director who directed an artsy big budget [[FollowTheLeader progenitor]] to the {{Nazisploitation}} genre called ''Salon Kitty'' that Guccione had taken a shine to was made the head instead. Shooting commenced in September 1976 in Dear Studios, Rome with plans for a 1977 release.

From the start, ''Caligula'' was [[TroubledProduction plagued by difficulties]]. According to Guccione in a 1980 ''Penthouse'' magazine interview, Vidal (whom Guccione called a "prodigious talent") started trouble with a ''Time'' magazine interview in which he called directors parasites living off writers, and that the director need only follow the directions as provided by the author of the screenplay. According to Guccione, an enraged Brass responded to Vidal's comments by throwing Vidal out of the studio. Guccione was forced to side with Brass (whom he called "a megalomaniac") because "Gore's work was basically done and Tinto's work was about to begin."

Casting and logistical issues were problems. Uncomfortable with the sex and nudity in the script, the female lead Schneider quickly resigned from the film, to be replaced with Teresa as said earlier. It was soon apparent to the filmmakers that the aggressive shooting schedule developed by the inexperienced Rossellini and Guccione was unrealistic for a film of such scope. Donati had to scrap some of his more elaborate original ideas for the sets and replace them with such surreal imagery as bizarre matte paintings, blacked-out areas, silk backdrops and curtains. This resulted in significant script changes, with Brass and the actors improvising scenes written to take place in entirely different locations, and sometimes shooting entirely new scenes (such as the frolicking scene that opens the film) in order to show progress while the incomplete or redone sets were unavailable. The production was plagued by delays due to disagreements between Brass and Donati over Brass not using Donati's completed sets, as well as Brass and Guccione disagreeing over the sexual content of the film. [=McDowell=] and Brass' rewrites of the script changed the tone from a more factually based historical drama to a more surreal BlackComedy satire based on the premise that "absolute power corrupts absolutely"; Brass depicted Caligula as a man who becomes a tyrant after gaining absolute power, then after realizing what he had become, uses his political power to disrupt the political elite to the benefit of the poor citizens of Rome, leading the wealthy Romans to assassinate him.

By the time the principal photography on ''Caligula'' had completed, Vidal (having a previous issue with his involvement in the infamous ''Film/MyraBreckinridge'') was concerned about being associated with such an out-of-control production, but also disliking the political satire Brass and [=McDowell=] had inserted into the story, Vidal distanced himself from the project. Of Vidal, Brass concluded, "If I ever really get mad at Gore Vidal, I'll publish his script." (An early draft is included as an extra on the Imperial Edition DVD release.)

As the film entered post-production, Guccione took control of the film footage, fired Brass for running up huge costs (Guccione claims Brass shot enough film to "make the original version of ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' about 50 times over"), casting anarchists and criminals as Roman senators, and using what Guccione considered "fat, ugly, and wrinkled old women" in the sex scenes instead of his Penthouse Pets. (In actuality, the women weren't "ugly" or "old" at all, just not as beautiful as Guccione's models.) Guccione hired friend Giancarlo Lui to reedit the film. Lui was instructed to refashion the film into something more in keeping with what Vidal had first scripted, while delivering the sexual content demanded by Guccione; they shot and added hardcore scenes. Guccione's recut also removed Brass' satire and much of the humor (and context which would have indicated that the film was meant to be funny), simply painting Caligula as a man mad with power without Brass' subtext, turning the film into an erotic drama.

In the unpleasant aftermath, both Brass and Vidal launched independent tirades against the film and lawsuits against Guccione, delaying the release of ''Caligula''. Vidal, who was paid $200,000 for his script, agreed to drop his contractual claim for 10% of the film profits in exchange for having his name removed from the title of the film (original billing was to have been ''Gore Vidal's Caligula''). In 1981, Anneka Di Lorenzo, who played Messalina, sued Guccione for sexual harassment and damage to her career, claiming that he pressured her to have sex with his business associates and used hardcore sexual scenes in the final cut of ''Caligula'' without her knowledge, thereby associating her with a pornographic film. After a protracted litigation, in 1990 a New York state court awarded her $60,000 in compensatory damages and $4,000,000 in punitive damages. On appeal, the punitive damages were determined to be not recoverable and the court vacated the award. Anneka Di Lorenzo retired from filmmaking shortly after the release of ''Caligula'' and died under mysterious circumstances in 2011.

So, just to recap, ''Caligula'' was a film with a costume and set designer from Roman period epics, director from Italian exploitation films, Shakespearean actors, and an executive producer with a background in porn. Where else are you gonna see that?

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The head chopping machine is a diabolically crafted work of art.
* AllThereInTheManual: According to the production notes, two of the characters played by Penthouse Pets were supposed to be Messalina (who would go onto marry Claudius) and Agrippina (mother of Nero).
* AmbiguouslyGay: A gay sex scene involving Gemellus and one of the guards was actually filmed, but left on the cutting room floor. Some hints as to Gemellus's sexual preferences remain in the film, but nothing that specifically identifies him as being gay.

** Nothing about Caligula's husband or his homosexuality made it into the film. So, you could have Creator/{{Malcolm McDowell}} play a character who engages in rape, torture, murder, incest, bestiality and other horrible acts, but they couldn't say he was ''gay''. Somewhat downplayed, because the film was made in TheSeventies [[ValuesDissonance when acceptance of homosexuality was very low]].
** The film itself became notorious for scenes of hardcore pornography, graphic violence and...poor editing.

** Notably, much of the film is based on the work of Suetonius, a late first century "historian" notorious for emphasizing the most salacious details of the lives of rich and powerful Romans, and in many cases probably just making stuff up for the sake of sales; Suetonius is alone, for instance, in describing the historical Tiberius as a pedophile. Tellingly, he disappears from the historical record around the same time he was alleged to have had an affair with Emperor Hadrian's wife...
** Most of the characters are [[CompositeCharacter condensed versions of various different historical figures]] and many have their real roles in the historic events were changed for dramatic purposes.

** The sets and costumes have more in common with stereotypical Hollywood Epic representation of Ancient Rome rather than the real Pagan Rome of that time.

* EpicMovie: Possibly the only EpicMovie, and the only movie starring Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, Creator/HelenMirren, Creator/PeterOToole and Sir John Gielgud, to feature unsimulated hardcore sex.
* {{Euroshlock}}: Its writer was American, but its director, setting and filming-location were Italian, and its actors were British. And its producer was American but of Italian descent. Therefore, it counts.

* ThePeepingTom: Messalina and Agrippina, spying on a threesome between Caligula, Drusilla and Caesonia through a literal peephole. The trope is somewhat inverted by making the voyeurs female, and themselves the object of the resulting lesbian sex scene.

* ReCut: The film first received one in 2007 with the "Imperial Edition" DVD and Blu-ray release, which contained both the 1979 PornWithPlot version of the film and a new edit that changes up the scene sequencing and completely removes the porn scenes shot by Guccione, intending to bring the available footage in the final cut closer to Brass' original vision. A second re-cut was announced in 2018, edited by Alexander Tuschinski from Brass' original workprint and produced in cooperation with the Brass estate and ''Penthouse''. This new cut is meant to improve on what the Imperial Edition started, and bring the film even closer to Brass' artistic intentions (meaning, again, no unsimulated Roman hanky-panky); no confirmation has been given as to what involvement, if any, Brass will have with the new edit.

** Likewise, Tinto Brass used plain looking people in the orgy scenes and deliberately shot the sexual footage as comical and softcore to spite Guccione. This [[BullyingADragon backfired]] horribly.
* TearsOfBlood: Frequent imagery used to promote the film showed a coin with Caligula profile that is bleeding out of his eye. Same logo was used in the opening credits.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: When [[spoiler:Caligula]] comes down with the fever he pukes into the camera. Making matters worse, according to Creator/MalcolmMcDowell it was real vomit.

* HollywoodHistory: The film is often mistakenly lauded to be "historically accurate," but that is far from the truth.
** Most of the characters are [[CompositeCharacter condensed versions of various different historical figures]] and many have their real roles in the historic events were changed for dramatic purposes.
** Nerva did not slit his wrists, he starved himself to death in 33 AD, four years before the events of the film.
** Similarly, Drusilla died long before Caligula even met Caesonia.
** Caligula's previous marriages before Caesonia are never mentioned.
** The sets and costumes have more in common with stereotypical Hollywood Epic representation of Ancient Rome rather than the real Pagan Rome of that time.
** Caesonia and Caligula's young daughter were not killed at the same time as him. They were cornered by the Praetorian Guards in their chambers several hours after Caligula's assassination.
** Bob Guccione's mangling led to some events being presented in an order that would have been chronologically impossible.
** Notably, much of the film is based on the work of Suetonius, a late first century "historian" notorious for emphasizing the most salacious details of the lives of rich and powerful Romans, and in many cases probably just making stuff up for the sake of sales; Suetonius is alone, for instance, in describing the historical Tiberius as a pedophile. Tellingly, he disappears from the historical record around the same time he was alleged to have had an affair with Emperor Hadrian's wife...

* DrivenToSuicide [[spoiler: Nerva]] who has had enough of Tiberius's reign and can't bear the fact Caligula will be the next emperor.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Despite the liberal use of HollywoodHistory (see below), some of the weirder elements of the movie have a basis in history.
** The scene where Tiberius refers to the sex slaves in his bath as his "little fishies". Most viewers would think it's just another one of those over the top sexploitation scenes put in to shock audiences. In fact, the historian Suetonious wrote that Tiberius did indeed have "minnows" and they were mostly [[PaedoHunt little boys]]. So this is one case where the movie actually ''toned it down'' from the real thing.
** Tiberius has what appears to be a small cemetery in his lair on Capri. While it makes for a striking gothic image, Romans did indeed maintain lavish private mausoleums for their deceased loved ones, and the names on the urbs accurately reflect the historical Tiberius' dead relatives.
** At one point, Caligula muses whether semen might prevent his hair from falling out. It comes across as a weird joke in tune with the film's sexploitationy tone, but in fact the historical Caligula had lost most of the hair on the back of his head by this point, and did experiment with various remedies to grow his hair back, including applying semen to his bald spot.

* {{Fanservice}}: Pretty much any sex scene shot by Bob Guccioni, in particular, the infamous lesbian scene. Albeit, the fanservice aspect of these scenes is played down by the fact that none of the performers in the Guccioni-directed scenes are top-billed cast, but rather Penthouse Pets and porn actresses snuck onto the set for the purpose. However, Teresa Ann Savoy, who appears even in the non-sex scenes, can be said to be giving fan service every time she shows up on screen.

* FanDisservice: To give a general summary of the Disservice this film provides: There are two major orgy sequences. One features midgets, grossly disfigured women, and children. The second consists of ordinary adult men and women. Both of them are [[SarcasmMode equally arousing]].

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SCROTUM!

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Despite the liberal use of Hollywood History (see below), some of the weirder elements of the movie have a basis in history.

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