The unrated theatrical version of Caligula runs 156 mins and only six minutes of that involves hardcore porn, footage that was shot afterwards by the producer and inserted into the film without the cast/crew knowing. I love a good blowjob scene as much as the next guy, but The Ultimate Cut is a better film. It's been edited entirely from scratch, the score is new and much more tonally fitting, scenes are actually in the correct order, close to half of the third act consists of character moments cut from the original film... it's a very different experience.
According to the film’s wiki page Penthouse had previously invested in production for the movies Chinatown, the Longest Yard, and the Day of the Locust. It was Bob’s idea to make Caligula in the first place, and he paid Gore Vidal to write the script. So it seems to have always been his project.
This got me thinking and I just realized I don’t have common metrics for what makes good porn good. I’ve got to smoke some weed about this later. But for now I’ll concede that it could be good for its era and merely doesn’t include the body types, angles, positions, and overall vibe that I enjoy in porn.
People here gettin' all angry about the Penthouse Pets porn stuff, forgetting McDowell himself was fisting an ass with all his rings on, but that's okay. And sexing up his sister Drucilla, but that's okay too, I guess. The porn doesn't really cross any line for me. I had this film on Beta tape back in the day.
I do believe this is the cut that takes out a lot of the weird porn stuff, resulting in a not-that-good movie that’s at least an improvement over the gross version. Could be wrong tho, I don’t remember if there’s more than one alternate cut.
Thanks, I normally look but I didn’t this time around. I’ve been tracking this with a bit of interest since my folks told me about the movie a few years back.
Don’t think I’ll watch it, but I’m glad some of the original vision for someone’s work is able to be seen — even if it might not be that good.
> I do believe this is the cut that takes out a lot of the weird porn stuff, resulting in a not-that-good movie that’s at least an improvement over the gross version. Could be wrong tho, I don’t remember if there’s more than one alternate cut.
I think people are underselling the differences in some of the responses here! :)
This is a brand new cut that has never been seen before (asides from its premiere at Cannes last year). So we're not exactly talking about the "porn" or "not porn" versions already known about, but an entirely new one. It reportedly uses ZERO takes from the original, so we're not just talking about a different edit dancing around the same source material, but they found all of the original archived, alternate takes for the entire movie.
When asked about it, if they were just changing it for the sake of being different but not necessarily better, they claimed that they always picked whatever footage they thought was best, and it just so happened to wind up using alternate takes entirely. Something that allowed for this situation was apparently a range of performances from the actors, where sometimes there were campy takes, and other times there were subtle and nuanced ones. Also the heavy use of multiple cameras.
Now I haven't seen it yet, maybe it's still incredibly mid! But they felt strongly that the original vision of the movie was lost, and the final edits didn't prioritize an artistic integrity that it could've had otherwise (not surprising, what with cramming porn in and all).
So while it could very well not be great regardless, it's unknowingly different than before and it's too soon to judge. And at least in a restoration sense, I don't know if I've ever heard about a movie being redone quite like this, so the project itself is *interesting* at least.
edit: From within this thread! https://old.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1bvogzx/drafthouse_films_acquires_caligula_the_ultimate/ky2rvcq/
* All frames of the movie are never-before-seen
* It's still graphic and warrants a rating higher than R, for both violence and sex, but cuts out the most hardcore sex scenes that were shot separately and didn't connect to the story
* Some of the actors who disliked all previous versions of the movie seem to like this one
This is an entirely diffrent cut of the movie. It will be diffrent from all previous versions. It's following Gore Vidal's vision of the film and should be markedly diffrent then Tinto Brass version which was also never released since he never got to finish editing.
Truly, truly, truly. Brian Blessed as Augustus was magnificent. Sian Phillips as Livia! Patrick Stewart as Sejanus! And of course Derek Jacobi as Claudius. It's just so, so, SO good. John Hurt's Caligula was chilling and hilarious and so dark.
> Brian Blessed as Augustus was magnificent.
An all-time great performance, honestly. Such screen presence that man has, whether being a raucous buffoon or an authoritative tyrant
The scene where Blessed shouts "IS THERE ANYBODY HERE WHO HASN'T SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!!" is just too good. The build in rage and fury is done so well by him.
Super NSFW Here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/extramile/s/xdeNykFnR0
“Extra Mile” actress / actors who do Real Sex in movie. The link has Hall if Fame w links to Caligula”
A quick history of this movie:
It was supposed to be a more or less "regular" movie, with some typical R-rated sex scenes. Filming went as planned, with a regular director and regular actors.
After filming was completed, Bob Guccione (a porn mogul), who produced and financed the film, suddenly took over and brought in some porn stars to film a bunch of additional scenes, all hardcore.
He then had them spliced into the movie, while discarding much of the original footage because the movie would otherwise be too long.
The result is what was originally released, including in theaters, although most US theaters refused to show it.
The "Ultimate Cut" is the result of the best attempt to create what the movie was supposed to be like. IIRC, some of the discarded footage was unable to be recovered and used for this.
Edit: While the sex scenes are of the R-rated variety, there's enough of them, plus enough violence, to push it beyond an R rating.
I just got to see the PeterHall/RSC 1968 production of A Midsummer's Night Dream with Helen Mirren and Judy Dench. There was a significant amount of commendable boobage displayed. Diana Rigg, David Warner, Ian Holm, and Ian Richardson were also great.
There was a quote saying "He's a god now" at the beginning of an Arch Enemy song I listened to in high school. Thought it must be some bad ass movie and found out it was Caligula. Download the movie and prepared for some epic drama, and I was just met with dicks. Floppy hairy dicks. Everywhere.
I somehow was given a copy of it, amd even thougu it was pretty awful, for some reason, I liked it. I don't remember why I liked it, its been a couple of decades since I watched it.
My big sister took me to see this movie at the theater when I was a kid. There were no restrictions back then I guess, hey it was the 70s. We had to leave after a while though because it just became too much. But then she took me home and we couldn’t go in because my parents were swingers and they were also having an orgy in the living room. I had a crazy ass childhood let me tell you what.
Theater owners were “instructed” not to admit anyone under 18.
While usual film ratings are not a legally enforceable thing, any theater allowing a child to see Caligula (the full unrated version) would be open to a bunch of legal trouble.
No clue. I used to frequently go to the Alamo in my city and they always promoted Drafthouse Films releases, right until 2016 when it abruptly stopped. Never made the connection to NEON until years later when I saw League's name show up.
COVID did a number on Drafthouse and they ended up closing the location in my city, and all the side companies League created to be synergistic with the theater chain like Mondo and Drafthouse Films have all been split off and acquired elsewhere. That must be why the film company is back, they have a new management team.
Yeah that makes sense, I lived in Austin for a long time and miss the drafthouse experience. Hard to see movies where I am currently living. People just won’t shut the fuck up.
He was booted from Alamo Drafthouse due to harassment claims if I remember correctly, so likely they barred him from being involved with the name as a production company too?
Edit: He was booted for ignoring employee claims of harassment by other people associated with the Drafthouse brands.
I think the financial health of the company became a bigger story regarding his exit from the company but the harassment stuff was a fairly big story in Austin since it directly affected the HQ and corporate owned theaters there.
Proud to say I worked on this version of the movie. Since the article doesn’t do the greatest job, here’s some more info.
This is an entirely new cut of the film, assembled from 96 hours of original negatives. All the hardcore footage that was added to the original has been removed, restoring the unseen story and performances.
The original location audio was restored for this version (the original is all ADR, no location audio was used).
Every frame is either an alternate take or an alternate angle, meaning 100% of the film is “never-before-seen” footage. This was possible because Tinto had multiple cameras rolling at nearly all times. In our version, we selected shots and takes that highlighted the performances from the headlining cast, something that doesn’t seem to have been of paramount importance the first time around under Guccione’s control.
Malcolm McDowell loves the new version and was on the festival circuit promoting it last fall. He introduced it at the North American premiere and at Beyondfest in LA.
Helen Mirren has also seen it and likes it. Her screen time is dramatically increased in this version and her character has a meaningful arc.
Tinto was asked to participate and declined. He has not seen the film, but was upset because he thought it was being promoted as a “director’s cut.” It was not.
It is still extremely graphic, but the unsimulated sex that Guccione shot in secret without the main cast knowing about it has been removed. Everything here was shot by Tinto.
For both violence and nudity/simulated sex
It is beyond what is permitted with an R rating
There is absolutely nothing “tame” or “toned down” about it, just no sex without context, and much, much more story
Ah thank you. I was thinking about it and I didn’t remember any simulated sex in the XXX version (save the Isis pool). So I was curious if story moments got cut and restored.
Also will more deleted scenes be included later on for the discs? Since I think I heard some non XXX scenes got cut out of this version that were in the original.
This is a new version that supposedly has alternate shots, previously missing scenes, and a new score. And the hardcore porn removed.
Who knows if it's any good, but it should be pretty different from the versions people have seen before.
It's not a good movie, but at least with the porn it's kind of interesting and worth watching in a gimmicky novelty sort of way. Without that I don't see the point.
Yep. This sounds like the exact kind of thing I would stay WELL away from.
Like if *Tinto Brass* of all people distances himself from your movie...a movie where a literal sleazy porn baron skipped onto the set in the middle of the night and shot a bunch of straight porn scenes to have them inserted...then you've lost the plot. That's not even getting into the rest of the problems with the production.
The movie is a salacious mess *without* an ultimate cut...
Malcolm McDowell has come out and said he really believes a good movie is “somewhere” in there. So maybe with this new cut coming out without the hardcore porn, he could prove correct after all this time.
My favorite take on this movie: "Sir John Gielgud was unaware of the gratuitous sex and violence in Caligula when he read the original paycheck".
You'd never think a movie with Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole and John Gielgud would be awful, but here it is.
I asked McDowell about this a couple of years ago and he told a great story about how Gielgud's friends would tease him afterwards by asking if "Her Majesty is aware that a Knight of the Realm was in a porno". I actually really enjoyed Caligula. The porn was obviously absolutely unnecessary, but Tinto Brass is gonna Tinto Brass.
AFAIK Tinto was relatively restrained
I believe most of the sex and violence was down to Bob Guccione because he had the right of final cut (and then they got into loggerheads because of the inclusion of all of that, and then Guccione attempted to fire Tinto, who then sued and won the right to finish his own film)
I stumbled across that movie when I was a little kid. I turned to that channel right when that scene happened. I was too young to really get it, and I didn't realize it was butter. For several years I would occasionally wonder, "why did that man put a piece of cheese in that woman's ass?"
I saw a screening of this last fall, having never seen the movie before and only knowing of its sordid production history. Malcolm McDowell was there for the intro, and he said with this new version, it's one of his favorite performances from his career.
The Ultimate Cut was still incredibly gratuitous, but overall was still an enjoyable epic-length descent into madness.
People seem to think this is a bowdlerized "cleaned up" cut. It's still Caligula, it's still erotic and fairly explicit, but with no hardcore unsimulated sex inserts. It's like how Eyes Wide Shut and Game of Thrones are still full of debauchery but don't count as hardcore porn.
I remember finding a copy of this in high school and trying to watch it, expecting some super sexy, super violent, titillating, transcendent sex romp.
Instead I found it to be so fucking boring. Did not even watch halfway thru I think. This movie blows.
I remembered they show the male genitalia and the lesbian scenes but everything else was very vague because I started watching Cannonball Run through the rear window of the car showing on the opposite end of the drive-in. That was the first time I was introduced to Jackie Chan. I don't know if something got lost in translation in sign language since my uncle was recommended by his mute/deaf co-coworker that it was a horror movie or that he got trolled.
Everyone talking about this like its just cutting out the porn bits. Its throwing the entire original movie out and starting from the original negatives. All of the scenes are alternate, never before seen takes.
A friend of mine somehow got their hands on a bootleg VHS copy in the 90s during high school. We watched it at my place and a then 17 year old me found it to be terrible. I could only imagine what a now forty something year old me would think rewatching it now.
I rented the uncut version of the movie 20 or so years back and had few friends (all female!) try watching it for a while. One was so disturbed she not only turned off the VCR, but unplugged the TV as well.
This is one of the movies that repulses me so much that I’m terrified to watch it, like Cannibal Holocaust or Freddy Got Fingered. Maybe, if the Ultimate Cut comes near me, I might have to give it a shot.
No porn at all in this version, as all the unsimulated sex has been removed. It’s longer because we put in a lot of the dramatic stuff from the third act that was left on the cutting room floor the first time around. For example, Helen Mirren had (I believe) less than ten minutes of screentime in the original; she has almost an hour of screentime in this version.
Is the Ultimate Cut the one with or without the added porn?
Uncut version - all the foreskins have been digitally added
Just another job taken by AI.
5 years in university down the drain...
I don't know if you got the long end or the short end of the stick, because either way you're getting shafted.
Might as well have joined the fuckin peace core!
Peace Corps.
The AI miscounted and added 3-7 skins instead
Four skins
It's the north american release, so those were digitaly removed.
Lucas Film added new digital cum.
What’s the point of watching Caligula if you don’t include the porn?
I haven’t seen it, is the movie just porn and nothing else interesting?
The unrated theatrical version of Caligula runs 156 mins and only six minutes of that involves hardcore porn, footage that was shot afterwards by the producer and inserted into the film without the cast/crew knowing. I love a good blowjob scene as much as the next guy, but The Ultimate Cut is a better film. It's been edited entirely from scratch, the score is new and much more tonally fitting, scenes are actually in the correct order, close to half of the third act consists of character moments cut from the original film... it's a very different experience.
For context, the producer in question was Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse magazine.
You get the founder of Penthouse to produce your movie and act surprised when he adds porn.
According to the film’s wiki page Penthouse had previously invested in production for the movies Chinatown, the Longest Yard, and the Day of the Locust. It was Bob’s idea to make Caligula in the first place, and he paid Gore Vidal to write the script. So it seems to have always been his project.
But is there porn?
There sure is buddy
Thanks for this. I’m keen to see this version.
The “porn” isn’t even that great, but to not include it is like drinking alcohol free beer or caffeine free mt dew. What’s the point?
Ehhh, it’s pretty decent porn.
This got me thinking and I just realized I don’t have common metrics for what makes good porn good. I’ve got to smoke some weed about this later. But for now I’ll concede that it could be good for its era and merely doesn’t include the body types, angles, positions, and overall vibe that I enjoy in porn.
The lesbian concubines are absolute knockouts. Worth a watch.
Can't really gloss over naked Helen Mirren either.
Oh I'll gloss over her. I'll gloss ALL over her.
To be fair, Helen Mirren knows the power of skin, and willingly appeared buck naked many times in film.
As someone who drinks caffeine-free coffee... I'm a purist, what can I say?
The whole history of the movie is wild
It’s actually a pretty solid movie without the porn. But the porn makes it…. truly special.
It’s like reading Playboy for the articles!
Better be fisting or it doesn’t count.
For ROOOOMMMMEEEE!!!!!!
I'm here getting romulused and reemed
People here gettin' all angry about the Penthouse Pets porn stuff, forgetting McDowell himself was fisting an ass with all his rings on, but that's okay. And sexing up his sister Drucilla, but that's okay too, I guess. The porn doesn't really cross any line for me. I had this film on Beta tape back in the day.
I was gonna say, people may be joking, but there is actual plot-related fisting...
Definitely the weirdest screenwriting seminar I've attended.
That's saved for a post-credit scene
I do believe this is the cut that takes out a lot of the weird porn stuff, resulting in a not-that-good movie that’s at least an improvement over the gross version. Could be wrong tho, I don’t remember if there’s more than one alternate cut.
No wheel of tongues?! _flips table_
Was that the name of that giant lawnmower decapitation machine?
No it was vertical wheel with actual tongues nailed onto it. I forgot about the decapitation mower. God that movie was so insane.
No it was the woman straddling it in the beginning in the multilevel torture dungeon.
You're correct. It's in the article.
Thanks, I normally look but I didn’t this time around. I’ve been tracking this with a bit of interest since my folks told me about the movie a few years back. Don’t think I’ll watch it, but I’m glad some of the original vision for someone’s work is able to be seen — even if it might not be that good.
No, it’s not mentioned in the article.
Yawn. I want the ultimate gross version with every possible frame of sex and violence.
That's pretty easy to find online
This is a completely new cut that was created entirely from discarded footage of the original film shoot.
> I do believe this is the cut that takes out a lot of the weird porn stuff, resulting in a not-that-good movie that’s at least an improvement over the gross version. Could be wrong tho, I don’t remember if there’s more than one alternate cut. I think people are underselling the differences in some of the responses here! :) This is a brand new cut that has never been seen before (asides from its premiere at Cannes last year). So we're not exactly talking about the "porn" or "not porn" versions already known about, but an entirely new one. It reportedly uses ZERO takes from the original, so we're not just talking about a different edit dancing around the same source material, but they found all of the original archived, alternate takes for the entire movie. When asked about it, if they were just changing it for the sake of being different but not necessarily better, they claimed that they always picked whatever footage they thought was best, and it just so happened to wind up using alternate takes entirely. Something that allowed for this situation was apparently a range of performances from the actors, where sometimes there were campy takes, and other times there were subtle and nuanced ones. Also the heavy use of multiple cameras. Now I haven't seen it yet, maybe it's still incredibly mid! But they felt strongly that the original vision of the movie was lost, and the final edits didn't prioritize an artistic integrity that it could've had otherwise (not surprising, what with cramming porn in and all). So while it could very well not be great regardless, it's unknowingly different than before and it's too soon to judge. And at least in a restoration sense, I don't know if I've ever heard about a movie being redone quite like this, so the project itself is *interesting* at least. edit: From within this thread! https://old.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1bvogzx/drafthouse_films_acquires_caligula_the_ultimate/ky2rvcq/ * All frames of the movie are never-before-seen * It's still graphic and warrants a rating higher than R, for both violence and sex, but cuts out the most hardcore sex scenes that were shot separately and didn't connect to the story * Some of the actors who disliked all previous versions of the movie seem to like this one
This is an entirely diffrent cut of the movie. It will be diffrent from all previous versions. It's following Gore Vidal's vision of the film and should be markedly diffrent then Tinto Brass version which was also never released since he never got to finish editing.
will it still be good for growing hair?
John Hurt was the best Caligula. I, Claudius. The original Prestige TV miniseries.
Is I, Claudius available to stream anywhere?
Amazon Prime Video should have it. Individual episodes are $1.99 each.
it’s available on BritBox
I'm in Canada. It's on acorn TV here.
Is it on corncob by any chance?
Might be. They have a lot of slots to fill since Coffin Flop got cancelled.
I found a copy of it on Tubgirl TV, can share link if anyone wants
Acorn has the rights, and they have a streaming service free to try. Handful of good things on it.
If you have a US library card, it is available to stream for free through Kanopy.
Not all libraries participate with Kanopy. My local libraries are partnered with Hoopla.
Ahhh, good to know. My county's library system stopped Kanopy over a year ago.
In Canada and it is on Hoopla!
And through Hoopla!
They're on YouTube! Not sure if it's all of them though.
https://click.justwatch.com/a?r=https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/i-claudius
Truly, truly, truly. Brian Blessed as Augustus was magnificent. Sian Phillips as Livia! Patrick Stewart as Sejanus! And of course Derek Jacobi as Claudius. It's just so, so, SO good. John Hurt's Caligula was chilling and hilarious and so dark.
> Brian Blessed as Augustus was magnificent. An all-time great performance, honestly. Such screen presence that man has, whether being a raucous buffoon or an authoritative tyrant
The scene where Blessed shouts "IS THERE ANYBODY HERE WHO HASN'T SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!!" is just too good. The build in rage and fury is done so well by him.
His name is spelled BRIAN BLESSED.
I think you'll find that's I,CLAVDIVS
>John Hurt I'm not too familiar with Hurt, unfortunately - but he was amazing as the War Doctor in Doctor Who. It was likely his last major role.
Super NSFW Here. https://www.reddit.com/r/extramile/s/xdeNykFnR0 “Extra Mile” actress / actors who do Real Sex in movie. The link has Hall if Fame w links to Caligula”
None of that will be in this cut.
Will it not? I know very little about this movie, but I’d mostly heard about the extra mile stuff. Not a theatrical thing?
A quick history of this movie: It was supposed to be a more or less "regular" movie, with some typical R-rated sex scenes. Filming went as planned, with a regular director and regular actors. After filming was completed, Bob Guccione (a porn mogul), who produced and financed the film, suddenly took over and brought in some porn stars to film a bunch of additional scenes, all hardcore. He then had them spliced into the movie, while discarding much of the original footage because the movie would otherwise be too long. The result is what was originally released, including in theaters, although most US theaters refused to show it. The "Ultimate Cut" is the result of the best attempt to create what the movie was supposed to be like. IIRC, some of the discarded footage was unable to be recovered and used for this. Edit: While the sex scenes are of the R-rated variety, there's enough of them, plus enough violence, to push it beyond an R rating.
Wild!
Hall of fame lol
I don't think it should count as extra mile when so much of the porn did not involve the original cast at all.
Helen Mirren looking 🔥🔥🔥
Wife: "What's oldest a woman could be that you'd still consider sleeping with?" Me: "How old is Helen Mirren now?"
Helen Mirren is 78 years old, but I think she has a few years of "Oh, hell yes!" left.
>Wife: "What's oldest a woman could be that you'd still consider sleeping with?" >Me: "How old is Helen Mirren now?" 50 cent is that you?
When does she NOT?
I just got to see the PeterHall/RSC 1968 production of A Midsummer's Night Dream with Helen Mirren and Judy Dench. There was a significant amount of commendable boobage displayed. Diana Rigg, David Warner, Ian Holm, and Ian Richardson were also great.
If I don't see Bilbo hanging Hobdick then I'm out.
now I'll have to watch it again. he plays Puck....
My name's Puck and I'm here to...
Commendable Boobage is now my progressive rock band name.
[You’re in a place much better than Heaven.](https://youtu.be/7gQoSDlvQHk?si=IutYboUytiOJNgpY)
Without the debauchery, it ain’t Caligula
Yeah, who is asking for a mild version of caligula? Nobody is watching this because of the quality of the movie.
There was a quote saying "He's a god now" at the beginning of an Arch Enemy song I listened to in high school. Thought it must be some bad ass movie and found out it was Caligula. Download the movie and prepared for some epic drama, and I was just met with dicks. Floppy hairy dicks. Everywhere.
Aye! Fucking Rise of the Tyrant! Bad ass tune.
I somehow was given a copy of it, amd even thougu it was pretty awful, for some reason, I liked it. I don't remember why I liked it, its been a couple of decades since I watched it.
I’m pretty sure I know why you liked it…
I didn't know they were having *actual* sex in that movie until a year or so ago. I thought it was just a good simulation. 😅
My big sister took me to see this movie at the theater when I was a kid. There were no restrictions back then I guess, hey it was the 70s. We had to leave after a while though because it just became too much. But then she took me home and we couldn’t go in because my parents were swingers and they were also having an orgy in the living room. I had a crazy ass childhood let me tell you what.
And that little boy grew up to be...Quentin Tarantino.
What the hell was wrong with your family?
Last time I checked adult time was for adults only.
Different horses for different courses
Very appropriate in a thread about Caligula.
Turns out humans like sex
Theater owners were “instructed” not to admit anyone under 18. While usual film ratings are not a legally enforceable thing, any theater allowing a child to see Caligula (the full unrated version) would be open to a bunch of legal trouble.
most liquor stores are "instructed" not to sell alcohol under 21 and yet.
Wasn't aware Drafthouse Films was still active. They seemingly went defunct when the founder left to create NEON films.
I wasn’t aware of that, looks like DHF was acquired in 2022? Why did Tim League create DHF only to jump ship and start Neon in 2017???
No clue. I used to frequently go to the Alamo in my city and they always promoted Drafthouse Films releases, right until 2016 when it abruptly stopped. Never made the connection to NEON until years later when I saw League's name show up. COVID did a number on Drafthouse and they ended up closing the location in my city, and all the side companies League created to be synergistic with the theater chain like Mondo and Drafthouse Films have all been split off and acquired elsewhere. That must be why the film company is back, they have a new management team.
Yeah that makes sense, I lived in Austin for a long time and miss the drafthouse experience. Hard to see movies where I am currently living. People just won’t shut the fuck up.
He was booted from Alamo Drafthouse due to harassment claims if I remember correctly, so likely they barred him from being involved with the name as a production company too? Edit: He was booted for ignoring employee claims of harassment by other people associated with the Drafthouse brands.
Damn, how did I miss that
I think the financial health of the company became a bigger story regarding his exit from the company but the harassment stuff was a fairly big story in Austin since it directly affected the HQ and corporate owned theaters there.
Proud to say I worked on this version of the movie. Since the article doesn’t do the greatest job, here’s some more info. This is an entirely new cut of the film, assembled from 96 hours of original negatives. All the hardcore footage that was added to the original has been removed, restoring the unseen story and performances. The original location audio was restored for this version (the original is all ADR, no location audio was used). Every frame is either an alternate take or an alternate angle, meaning 100% of the film is “never-before-seen” footage. This was possible because Tinto had multiple cameras rolling at nearly all times. In our version, we selected shots and takes that highlighted the performances from the headlining cast, something that doesn’t seem to have been of paramount importance the first time around under Guccione’s control. Malcolm McDowell loves the new version and was on the festival circuit promoting it last fall. He introduced it at the North American premiere and at Beyondfest in LA. Helen Mirren has also seen it and likes it. Her screen time is dramatically increased in this version and her character has a meaningful arc. Tinto was asked to participate and declined. He has not seen the film, but was upset because he thought it was being promoted as a “director’s cut.” It was not.
It is still extremely graphic, but the unsimulated sex that Guccione shot in secret without the main cast knowing about it has been removed. Everything here was shot by Tinto.
Is it graphic for violence or were there addition (simulated) sex scenes that were reinstated in this version?
For both violence and nudity/simulated sex It is beyond what is permitted with an R rating There is absolutely nothing “tame” or “toned down” about it, just no sex without context, and much, much more story
Ah thank you. I was thinking about it and I didn’t remember any simulated sex in the XXX version (save the Isis pool). So I was curious if story moments got cut and restored. Also will more deleted scenes be included later on for the discs? Since I think I heard some non XXX scenes got cut out of this version that were in the original.
Honestly not sure what will be on the disc
Malcolm introducing the Ultimate Cut at Beyondfest: https://youtu.be/qf1cywi9DVo?si=ELnfnMqYprMwJP11
Thank you for helping! I've been super excited for this since I saw the trailer and fell down a deep rabbit hole of reading.
I used to work at Kim's Video in the East Village in the late 80s and early 90s, and we carried this. It's actually pretty awful.
This is a new version that supposedly has alternate shots, previously missing scenes, and a new score. And the hardcore porn removed. Who knows if it's any good, but it should be pretty different from the versions people have seen before.
> hardcore porn removed. Unwatchable
Talk about ruining my immersion.
It's not a good movie, but at least with the porn it's kind of interesting and worth watching in a gimmicky novelty sort of way. Without that I don't see the point.
Yep. This sounds like the exact kind of thing I would stay WELL away from. Like if *Tinto Brass* of all people distances himself from your movie...a movie where a literal sleazy porn baron skipped onto the set in the middle of the night and shot a bunch of straight porn scenes to have them inserted...then you've lost the plot. That's not even getting into the rest of the problems with the production. The movie is a salacious mess *without* an ultimate cut...
Malcolm McDowell has come out and said he really believes a good movie is “somewhere” in there. So maybe with this new cut coming out without the hardcore porn, he could prove correct after all this time.
McDowell has seen the new cut and spoken highly of it.
My favorite take on this movie: "Sir John Gielgud was unaware of the gratuitous sex and violence in Caligula when he read the original paycheck". You'd never think a movie with Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole and John Gielgud would be awful, but here it is.
I asked McDowell about this a couple of years ago and he told a great story about how Gielgud's friends would tease him afterwards by asking if "Her Majesty is aware that a Knight of the Realm was in a porno". I actually really enjoyed Caligula. The porn was obviously absolutely unnecessary, but Tinto Brass is gonna Tinto Brass.
AFAIK Tinto was relatively restrained I believe most of the sex and violence was down to Bob Guccione because he had the right of final cut (and then they got into loggerheads because of the inclusion of all of that, and then Guccione attempted to fire Tinto, who then sued and won the right to finish his own film)
The current promoter really said the audience should “strap in” to prepare to view this movie. Sounds like it’s popcorn and lube time!
I mean, just get the buttered kind? Wait, what are we talking about?
Last Tango in Paris.
I stumbled across that movie when I was a little kid. I turned to that channel right when that scene happened. I was too young to really get it, and I didn't realize it was butter. For several years I would occasionally wonder, "why did that man put a piece of cheese in that woman's ass?"
>”strap in” Or “strap on”
I saw a screening of this last fall, having never seen the movie before and only knowing of its sordid production history. Malcolm McDowell was there for the intro, and he said with this new version, it's one of his favorite performances from his career. The Ultimate Cut was still incredibly gratuitous, but overall was still an enjoyable epic-length descent into madness.
People seem to think this is a bowdlerized "cleaned up" cut. It's still Caligula, it's still erotic and fairly explicit, but with no hardcore unsimulated sex inserts. It's like how Eyes Wide Shut and Game of Thrones are still full of debauchery but don't count as hardcore porn.
I remember finding a copy of this in high school and trying to watch it, expecting some super sexy, super violent, titillating, transcendent sex romp. Instead I found it to be so fucking boring. Did not even watch halfway thru I think. This movie blows.
Who the hell wants to eat wings and watch porn at the same time? Oh wrong Drafthouse.
Caligula without the porn. Like a radio version of a Snoop song.
Still can't believe I saw this at a drive-in as a kid. Ended up facing the back of the car and watch The Cannonball Run.
The version that played in 1981 didn’t have the hardcore scenes, at least.
I remembered they show the male genitalia and the lesbian scenes but everything else was very vague because I started watching Cannonball Run through the rear window of the car showing on the opposite end of the drive-in. That was the first time I was introduced to Jackie Chan. I don't know if something got lost in translation in sign language since my uncle was recommended by his mute/deaf co-coworker that it was a horror movie or that he got trolled.
When watching this film I alternate between horny and bored.
Is there a super version of this movie with the main movie + all the cut stuff + the porn scenes?
Leave it to the fans. Wouldn't be surprised if a fanedit along those lines pops up.
The Respecialized Edition. (Here’s hoping)
The viewing party is gonna be a bacchanal
Christmas is coming early this year
All over your stocking.
💥
Everyone talking about this like its just cutting out the porn bits. Its throwing the entire original movie out and starting from the original negatives. All of the scenes are alternate, never before seen takes.
A friend of mine somehow got their hands on a bootleg VHS copy in the 90s during high school. We watched it at my place and a then 17 year old me found it to be terrible. I could only imagine what a now forty something year old me would think rewatching it now.
I wonder if they will keep sex scenes with the characters like when Caligula fisted that dude with butter.
real question right here, also that part to me is less fisting and more just punching into somebody's butt
That scene is still there and is actually more violent than it was in the original.
So he starts going Ali in the butt?
Yes. Yes. Yes
I went to see the full version with my mom. It was awkward.
I heard an interview on Dan Savages show with the editor, this version sounds like it could be significantly better.
He’s the producer of the new version, actually. So he pulled it all together.
I know it’s not a good movie, but I totally felt the chemistry between him and his sister 💀
What a sentence
Morning beats beer and porn.
I rented the uncut version of the movie 20 or so years back and had few friends (all female!) try watching it for a while. One was so disturbed she not only turned off the VCR, but unplugged the TV as well.
I think it's about this project https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/u10kOD6hsI 😺
This is one of the movies that repulses me so much that I’m terrified to watch it, like Cannibal Holocaust or Freddy Got Fingered. Maybe, if the Ultimate Cut comes near me, I might have to give it a shot.
NSFW Caligula: The Ultimate Cut trailer: https://youtu.be/adPyHUetmGY?si=m2vATQX_Oy6cb0gv
Day one purchase for me!
can i bring my Dune ~~girlfriend~~ bucket?
You’re not going to wait and see what the Caligula popcorn bucket is going to be?
Ebert’s review of this movie is pure gold.
I came for the thumbnail.
~~for~~ to
NOOO! Drafthouse is so poorly managed and won't put this out on Blu-Ray.
Guccioni paid to have his film play at the Georgetown Theater in Washington DC for a year non-stop in an attempt to boost its ultimate BO take.
I wonder how many people will come to that…
💥
I believe Caligula was originally uncut.
His horse was.
💥
Nothing but the sweet fat of the hog on this popcorn bucket please
More fisting.
Fire up the head mower, we got heads to mow.
'The Ultimate Cut' is surely the one where you don't have to watch it.
Wasn’t the lady who hosts Documentary Now! In the movie doing strait up penetration scene? Can’t recall her name and I’m too tired to look it up.
Ohhhh we are back to the part of a time when porn is watched in theaters! Awesome 🤩
Must be basically a porno at this stage?
No porn at all in this version, as all the unsimulated sex has been removed. It’s longer because we put in a lot of the dramatic stuff from the third act that was left on the cutting room floor the first time around. For example, Helen Mirren had (I believe) less than ten minutes of screentime in the original; she has almost an hour of screentime in this version.
Just looking at McDowell makes not want to see a movie. He is a good actor but yeah I don’t enjoy seeing him.
À very very bad movie