I have to say that D'Amato's take on the life and death of Roman Emperor, Caligula, was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. The storyline centers less around any real historical relevance and instead goes straight for the sleaze - which is just fine by me. I'd already sat through Tinto Brass's epic film about the depraved Caesar, I was fine with this entry being a lot "thinner"...
D'Amato's imagining of the emperor's life leaves out many of the actual details surrounding him, and instead wallows in long orgy scenes and some decent violence and torture. We get a pretty good look at the type of person that Caligula was, but there's very little history to be learned here. The bulk of the storyline is based around Caligula's "love" of a slave-girl named Miriam (played by super-smoker Laura Gemser) and her wish to betray him for the murder of one of her friends. Honestly - none of this really matters, you'd be better off resigning yourself to the fact that you're basically watching a mid-budget porn film...
Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of D'Amato's other sleazy offerings like EMANUELLE IN America and EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD, just don't expect to pass any tests by using the film as a Cliff's Notes version of Caligula's life. I'm pretty sure that D'Amato realized that he'd never reach the heights of infamy or production value with his film that Brass enjoyed with his far more expensive and elaborate telling of the tale - so I figure D'Amato decided to just try to out-sleaze him - and it worked. Way more graphic sex including midget-sex and some more horse-masturbation (a la EMANUELLE IN America) - so fans of this sort of thing will be pleased. Not a perfect film, but sleaze fans will get a laugh out of the seriousness of such a blatantly trashy production...8.5/10
D'Amato's imagining of the emperor's life leaves out many of the actual details surrounding him, and instead wallows in long orgy scenes and some decent violence and torture. We get a pretty good look at the type of person that Caligula was, but there's very little history to be learned here. The bulk of the storyline is based around Caligula's "love" of a slave-girl named Miriam (played by super-smoker Laura Gemser) and her wish to betray him for the murder of one of her friends. Honestly - none of this really matters, you'd be better off resigning yourself to the fact that you're basically watching a mid-budget porn film...
Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of D'Amato's other sleazy offerings like EMANUELLE IN America and EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD, just don't expect to pass any tests by using the film as a Cliff's Notes version of Caligula's life. I'm pretty sure that D'Amato realized that he'd never reach the heights of infamy or production value with his film that Brass enjoyed with his far more expensive and elaborate telling of the tale - so I figure D'Amato decided to just try to out-sleaze him - and it worked. Way more graphic sex including midget-sex and some more horse-masturbation (a la EMANUELLE IN America) - so fans of this sort of thing will be pleased. Not a perfect film, but sleaze fans will get a laugh out of the seriousness of such a blatantly trashy production...8.5/10