Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.5

Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 13, 2022

It's maybe just slightly hilarious that in an interview included on this disc as a supplemental feature, screenwriter Luigi Montefiori feels the need to overtly "confess" that he didn't do a ton of research on actual historical facts in preparation for writing this saga, and therefore this film's sobriquet The Untold Story might also include Which is By the Way More or Less Completely Fabricated just to be accurate itself. Of all the "sploitation" offerings through the decades, so-called Caliligulasploitation really has to be one of the oddest and almost unavoidably funniest, if also one of the most intentionally provocative, especially in versions like the unabashedly hardcore Italian cut of Caligula: The Untold Story included on this disc. As for "facts and just the facts, ma'am", this film, while perhaps surprisingly visceral at times, has a tenuous connection to reality at best, but that is perhaps part of its weird allure. There are some rather interesting differences between the Italian and English language versions offered, here, aside and apart from some pretty graphic sexual activity in the Italian cut, and that even includes some dialogue sequences, notably the film's supposedly "tragic" finale, where Caligula (David Cain Haughton) is given totally different monologues which I'd argue make the two films resonate rather differently.

Caligula has had a rather long and actually storied life on both large and small screens, with many fans delighting in portrayals like John Hurt's memorable take in the brilliant miniseries I, Claudius or Jay Robinson's take in both The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators, but for purposes of "Caligulasploitation" it's probably inevitable to begin with Caligula. That 1979 film had the supposed imprimatur of Gore Vidal, not to mention star Malcolm McDowell, and a co-producer who also published Penthouse, offering marketing opportunities galore for pictorials featuring scantily clad women (and men), if, that is, they were wearing anything at all. The 1979 Caligula is in its own way hilarious, though part of the hilarity may come from the film's seeming obliviousness to the fact that its perceived "literary" values are, well, bunk.

In a way, then, Caligula: The Untold Story comes off as relatively less pretentious, and that is certainly at least subliminally reinforced by a production aesthetic that may struggle at times to achieve anything most film lovers would consider truly "epic". That perhaps forced intimacy gives this fanciful, violent and (at least in the Italian version) incredibly explicit version occasional intensity that I have to say is largely lacking in the Tinto Brass (and many others) film. Severin describes this film's "auteur" as "legendary maestro di sleaze Joe D'Amato", but as Montefiori mentions, D'Amato (and/or Aristide Massaccesi, as the case may be) was a supposedly simple, honest guy with a great sense of humor, and that kind of "down to earth" quality pervades at least the presentational aspects here, albeit within the context of sex with horses and lots (and lots and lots) of fellatio.

If the Italian version relies on regular sexually active interstitials for much of its energy, it at least attempts to give Caligula a bit of an "arc", in terms of a troubled and probably sociopathic individual attempting to find some salvation. The English version, while at least relatively chaste (it's almost comical to watch the two versions and see how editing managed to avoid showing any, or least fewer, "naughty bits"), doesn't seem to generate the same cathartic power. If the Italian version is considerably "randier", both versions attempt to depict Caligula's final days in power, when a relationship with a slave named Miriam (Laura Gemser) leads to a number of unexpected developments.

One of the kind of interesting if probably ultimately irrelevant sidebars to having both versions on this disc is being able to watch with the different languages and seeing which actors' lip movements align best with which language. Even when you might suspect that any given actor is speaking English or Italian, the lip movements quite often don't match the sounds emanating from them, which might suggest that there's more than one "untold story" on tap.

Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Caligula: The Untold Story is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of the release mentions the release offers both "the Explicit Italian Version and U.S. Release scanned in 2K from their original negatives". The shared footage looks virtually identical to my eyes, and on the whole is really rather surprisingly good looking. There is some recurrent damage that is quite noticeable down the right side of the frame in particular (seemingly worse in some of the beach scenes, for whatever reason). There are also some passing issues with diminished clarity and kind of mottled grain, as can be seen in screenshots 17 through 19. But on the whole, detail levels are typically commendable throughout the presentation, and the palette pops surprisingly well, especially in some of the sunlit outdoor material, where blue skies are incredibly vivid and fine detail on things like the fabrics on costumes is precisely rendered. There's some slight wobble in the opening and closing credits in both versions.

Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both the Italian and English language version feature DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono audio. The film has an interesting if at times kind of anachronistic score by Carlo Maria Cordio (also available on the bonus soundtrack CD included with this release) which sounds nicely full bodied throughout (some of the cues for the hardcore scenes in particular in the Italian version are almost hilariously pastoral in quality). The English language version has some brief narration which sounds fine, and dialogue, while kind of boxy sounding in both languages, doesn't encounter any major obstacles. Optional English subtitles are available.

Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• US Cut (1:34:47) and Extended Italian Cut (2:01:07) are accessible via the Main Menu.


• The Orgy of Power (HD; 26:25) is an interview with actor David Brandon.


• A False True Story (HD; 12:15) is an interview with screenwriter Luigi Montefiori. Subtitled in English.


• Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (HD; 21:42) is an interview with actor Mark Shannon. Subtitled in English.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 11:21)


• UK Video Trailer (HD; 1:28)


• Bonus Soundtrack CD features Carlo Maria Cordio's score.

Caligula: The Untold Story Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly came to Caligula: The Untold Story expecting not much more than just another round of so-called Eurotrash, so maybe because my expectation bar was fairly low, I was actually kind of surprised that this version of Caligula's reign of terror amazingly probably resonated more with me than the hugely budgeted Tinto Brass version. Still, this is probably best approached as at least something like Eurotrash, at least in its explicit Italian version. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplementary package very enjoyable, for those who may be considering making a purchase.