Pros: David Brandon is effective in the title role, and D'Amato delivers the sleaze.
Cons: Lets face it, the movie is a rip-off, no matter what you say about it.
The Bottom Line: This is for the bootleg UNCUT DVD for the only halfway decent Caligula rip-off. Joe D'Amato directs with pure sleaze, and David Brandon makes a nice Caligula.
caligula79's Full Review: Caligula: The Untold Story
You have to admit, Italian Cinema has some of the best sub-genres on the face of the planet. I am one to admit that I am glad to live in a world to where there is such a thing as the "Caligula rip-off" subgenre.
There are so many degrees to the "Caligula" rip offs. Really, there are, let me explain. We all know the controversy to Guccione's classic art house porn, so it only seems natural to want to repeat that odd success. You've got movies that are about a different emperor in Roman history, but they follow the Caligula timeline, such as "Caligula Reincarnated As Nero," then there are movies that were even made BEFORE "Caligula" but want to mooch on the title, such as "Caligula Reincarnated As Hitler," which was previously known as "Gestapo's Last Orgy." Caligula nor Hitler make an appearance.
I'm not done yet. Lets not forget about the title moochers post-"Caligula" i.e. "The Heritage of Caligula" later known as "Bloodsucking Freaks." It's like the name Caligula draws such a crowd and promotes so much sleaze that who needs to rip off the plot.
Well, the plot was ripped off several times and even kept the central character, Caligula. I refer to it as a character because these films aren't exactly non-fiction. "Caligula II: Messalina, Messalina" is a sex comedy filmed on the same sets as "Caligula" while "Caligula and Messalina" is like a Disney "Caligula" rip off, meaning there's nothing memorable or gutsy about it. Throw in "Orgies of Caligula" aka "Caligula's Slaves" and my "Caligula" memory is empty.
For the most part, it shouldn't come as a surprise, these movies aren't very good. They range from mildly entertaining to unwatchable. But that's where "Caligula: The Untold Story" comes in. Yes, the movie is a rip off, there's no way I'm going to deny it. On the other hand, I'm not going to say it's a bad film either.
What's weird about this sleaze fest from writer/director Joe D'Amato is that in a field that contains movies one would want to bury in coalmine, this movie isn't that bad. Okay, I can go higher than that. This is a pretty good movie.
Lets focus on the positives. The movie is well acted. David Brandon portrays the title character at first like a raving lunatic and a sadistic madman, almost like a comic book villain, but when we get deeper into the psychosis, we see a level of humanity that one wouldn't expect, and I applaud the movie for that.
This movie also follows in the original's footsteps by creating two versions. The one available to the public here in the states and in most other areas of the world is an edited "unrated" version that does bring on the sleaze to a satisfying extent, that is if you HAVEN'T seen the XXX version.
I have seen the XXX version. The way I attained it is from a bootlegged DVD from a website that deals in rare horror. It's in English, but contains Dutch subtitles, and wouldn't you know it, it even has an extra. It contains the theatrical trailer for "Porno Holocaust," another D'Amato classic.
The XXX version to this movie, when compared to the Guccione epic, is like comparing a carnival to Six Flags. There's no topping "Caligula." There just isn't. You can try, but doing that is so hard that not even Joe D'Amato could top it. That's how hard it is.
God love this movie for trying though. This movie does contain its own jawdropping moments, like orgies galore with dwarfs and small members, a graphic scene in a pool involving a period, there's the murder of an infant, a painful scene where spears are pierced through men's colons and come out their chest, and I'm sure you've heard about the love scene involving a homely woman and a horse. I'm not doing false advertising, these scenes, that are hinted at in the edited version, are shown in full force in the uncut version.
As far as the negative factors of the film, we cannot go any further without admitting the fact that this movie is indeed a rip-off. It just is, and there's no getting around it. But, it's a good rip-off. It maintains its entertainment factor, even if the times when it appears to try to go by history, it fails miserably.
This is basically a revenge picture. Caligula has his eyes set on the lovely Livia, but she would rather die than give herself to him, so she stabs herself in the side. Come to find out Livia belonged to a newfound cult, and one of its members, played by Laura Gemser of the D'Amato "Black Emanuelle" movies, vows revenge on the emperor.
She poses as an imperial prostitute, but when she gets closer to Caligula, she finds herself falling in love with him. Before you know it, the movie turns into a love story, but then descends into a rather dark and morbid dream-like fantasy land in which Caligula has visions and nightmares involving his fate. If there's one thing I didn't expect from this film, it was character development, but it surprised me. Most of the kudos to that can be given to David Brandon, who is a remarkable actor. Check him out in "Stagefright."
It would seem improper to take a movie like this seriously, but by the end of the film, that's pretty much what we have done. In the finale on the beach involving Caligula's new respect for life, I honestly couldn't help but chuckle, but maybe that's due in part to the fact that I know that that is not how things went down. This movie isn't history, but when it involves a real historical figure as a main character, it's a little hard to get over putting him in a fictitious surrounding.
The other "Caligula" rip-offs failed at that too, but if there were as entertaining and well made as "Caligula: The Untold Story," it could all be forgiven. I loved the Guccione "Caligula." I find it to be one of the best films ever made. It's the universal movie that compares the tastes of mainstream cinema and underground sleaze fest.
"Caligula: The Untold Story" gets the underground sleaze fest part right, which quite honestly, is all you really need when you are dealing with a bizarre Italian subgenre, especially one with the title of "Caligula rip-off."
**In its edited form, this movie is also known as "Emperor Caligula: The Untold Story" and "Caligula: The Garden of Taboo." My XXX copy goes by "Caligula: The Untold Story," so that's what you should search for in your quest for the real version.
Rome, Captial Of The Greates6t Empire The World Had Ever Seen,, Became, During Emperor Caligula's Era, A City Of Unrivaled Lust, And Erotic Indulgence...More at HotMovieSale.com
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