Let me clarify that. This is the worst film ever made that isn't in the category of being so bad it's good. It falls into the class of execrable films that you don't want to see. Trust me on this, or you'll be very sorry later.
I saw "Caligula" in its theatrical release in 1979. Coming off the high of the superb BBC mini-series, "I, Claudius", I thought "Caligula" might be in the same spirit. What a horrific mistake! "Caligula" was entirely lacking in dramatic merit. There's no dramatic progress, there's no lesson, there are no surprises, there's nothing except base depravity in scene after scene after scene. And the scenes that aren't disgusting are boring. The titular Caligula is a reptile at the beginning, and he's the identical reptile at the end. He lives, he stinks, he dies. The end.
I'll close by noting that, as far as I know, this is the only film the erudite Roger Ebert summed up by invoking the word "sh**". You can find his review by searching at his website, RogerEbert dot com.
I saw "Caligula" in its theatrical release in 1979. Coming off the high of the superb BBC mini-series, "I, Claudius", I thought "Caligula" might be in the same spirit. What a horrific mistake! "Caligula" was entirely lacking in dramatic merit. There's no dramatic progress, there's no lesson, there are no surprises, there's nothing except base depravity in scene after scene after scene. And the scenes that aren't disgusting are boring. The titular Caligula is a reptile at the beginning, and he's the identical reptile at the end. He lives, he stinks, he dies. The end.
I'll close by noting that, as far as I know, this is the only film the erudite Roger Ebert summed up by invoking the word "sh**". You can find his review by searching at his website, RogerEbert dot com.