3. Sexploitation - Caligula (1979)
It could have been erotic under the sole helm of Tinto Brass - who actually does erotica very well. But when you add in the influence of Penthouse magazine owner - Bob Guccione - Caligula turns out to be the most torpid piece of Sexploitation imaginable. The Film is an account of Caligula's rise to power as the Emperor of Rome, his disastrous and depraved reign and finally his ultimate hubristic downfall. This all happens with a litany of extreme sex acts occurring everywhere constantly in the film. What is queer about the film is the appearance of so many A List respected actors - Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren. And literary giant Gore Vidal wrote the script. It's really flabbergasting that they are in this movie against a back drop of such sleazy sexploitation. Everyone associated with the film has, to a degree, disowned it. Particularly after Guccione shot a load of hard core inserts to put into the production. In true Sexploitation style there is plenty of kinky sex - incest, group sex, bestiality, lesbianism, as well as explicit scenes of torture, castration and murder. There is just so much sex in Caligula, it saturates the film and detracts from the narrative. Bob Guccione ruined what was possibly a semi decent film by his editing - in order to create his own personal w**k fest. And it isn't very good pornography. However, I have read about Ancient Rome and I will concede that the film is historically accurate on the life and times of Caligula. I don't think that Malcolm McDowell does a particularly good job as Caligula, he overacts. But then with such a bombastic role it would be hard not to overdo the hamminess. For its sheer abundance of sex - any which way but loose - Caligula reigns as the Sexploitation movie par excellence.