Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Directed by Tinto Brass
Written by Gore Vidal
Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, Peter O'Toole
Unrated
Runtime: 2 hours and 58 minutes
DVD & Blu-ray available now, coming to digital on Oct. 18th, and as a 4K Box Set on Oct. 22nd, from Unobstructed View

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, Staff Writer

Synopsis:

Stop me if you've heard this one before: In 1976, Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, renowned novelist and essayist Gore Vidal, and Italian arthouse director Tinto Brass all joined forces to create one of the most hotly-contested and divisive films of all time. With a classically-trained cast of British stage actors, decadent costumes, and elaborate sets and props–including a full-scale Roman boat that was one of the largest props ever constructed at that time–Caligula was destined to be talked about.

The film tells the story of the rise and fall of the infamous emperor (Caesar) of Rome whose four-year reign began with good faith and increasingly slid into corruption, indulgence and perversion. Director Tinto Brass was hired under the auspices of making a film satirizing man's lust for power, and allegedly Gore Vidal's original screenplay was more historically accurate with regards to Caligula's sexuality–early promotional ads for the film even included a quote from the screenplay of Caligula saying "What better proof that I am God. I have a husband. And a wife. I am all that is and shall ever be." However, Bob Guccione had other ideas.

With more dicks than a private eye convention, more boobs than a Three Stooges marathon, Caligula wouldn't appeal to more puritanical audiences already, but apparently Guccione wanted his production to fully blur the lines between art-house film and hardcore pornography. He shot his own fully pornographic b-roll on the side and at one point decided that Tinto Brass had done enough work on the film's final edit, locking the director out of the editing suite so Guccione could cut in all the full penetration his lens could hold. Still he excised all mentions of Caligula's bisexuality so as to not alienate potential audiences.

The original Caligula is still one of the most notorious disasters in film history. Almost no one is happy with their association with it, some even having their names removed from the credits, and few accounts of what movie anyone thought they were making align. Ironically, Caligula's tagline and purportedly its ultimate lesson is "Absolute Power Corrupts" and about the one thing anyone can agree on is that Bob Guccione didn't take that lesson to heart.

What Features Make it Special:

On the 4-disc Collection (*) includes:

Disc 1: The Ultimate Cut

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Cannes 2023 Teaser
English Closed Captions
French Canadian Subtitles
Audio Commentary with editor Aaron Shaps and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan
Audio Commentary with author Grant Morrison and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan

Disc 2: 1980 Theatrical Version

Caligula: Restored Original 1980 Theatrical Version
Restored Original Theatrical Trailer
English Closed Captions

Disc 3: Caligula: The Bonus Materials

"The Orgy of Power" interview with Tinto Brass
The Making of Caligula
The Guccione Scandal

Disc 4: Audio Soundtrack [CD]

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut Soundtrack

(*) The 2-Disc Blu-Ray and DVD releases have the same features as Discs 1 and 2, with the addition of "The Guccione Scandal" from Disc 3

Why You Need to Add it to Your Media Library:

Malcolm McDowell's Caligula performance is electric, full of energy, and sadistic tomfoolery. Ultimately, he is the whole damn show here, but that's not to undermine the contributions of everyone else in the cast. Comparatively brief appearances from legendary actors Peter O'Toole and John Guilgud, and larger supporting performances from Teresa Ann Savoy and (one of the most beautiful women to ever exist) Helen Mirren all light up the screen and match (or counter) McDowell's mania to tremendous effect.

The four-disc collection also includes an all-new score for The Ultimate Cut by Troy Sterling Nies. It's an interesting score, with lots of droning tones and slight distortion that slightly reminded me of Neil Young's (much more heavily-distorted) guitar tones from his score to Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. The minimalism of it contrasted well with the decadence onscreen.

On a lot of levels, this is a fascinating artifact, if nothing else. Not only is it a version of Caligula that was thought to no longer exist, BUT it allegedly contains NO FOOTAGE used in the previously released, 1979 theatrical version! Supposedly, The Ultimate Cut is built entirely from alternate takes and non-explicit b-roll and that's ...just an incredible thing. Huge if true, as they say.

On top of that, all available versions also include the original theatrical release, so you can go through and double check that previous assertion, if you're so inclined. And even if not, you'll be able to watch the original, which is hard to track down on its own. So you're getting two films: one whose content and controversy makes it nearly impossible to find on streaming, and the second which, up until a few years ago, was thought to be as likely to exist as your average bigfoot!