Guccione hired screenwriter
Gore Vidal to draft the film's script and
Tinto Brass to direct the film. Brass extensively altered Vidal's original screenplay, leading Vidal to disavow the film. The final screenplay focuses on the idea that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". Brass and Guccione disagreed over Guccione's use of unsimulated sexual content, which Brass refused to film. Because the producers did not allow Brass to edit the film, they changed its tone and style significantly and added hardcore sex scenes not filmed by Brass, thus turning
Caligula into a pornographic drama that disregarded the director's intentions to present the film as a
political satire. As a result, Brass also disavowed the film.
Caligula's release was controversial; it was met with legal issues and controversies over its violent and sexual content. Its uncut form remains banned in several countries.
[12] Although reviews were overwhelmingly negative (though McDowell's performance as the title character was praised),
Caligula is considered to be a
cult classic and its political content was considered to have significant merit.
Caligula is the young heir to the throne of his
great uncle, the
syphilis-ridden, half-mad Emperor
Tiberius. One morning, a blackbird flies into his room; Caligula considers this a bad omen. Shortly afterward, the head of the
Praetorian Guard,
Macro tells Caligula that Tiberius demands his immediate presence at
Capri, where the Emperor lives with his close friend
Nerva, a dim-witted relative
Claudius, and Caligula's younger stepbrother
Gemellus. Fearing assassination, Caligula is afraid to leave but his sister and lover
Drusilla persuades him to go.
At Capri, Caligula finds that Tiberius has become depraved, showing signs of advanced
venereal diseases, and embittered with Rome and politics. Tiberius enjoys swimming with naked youths and watching degrading
sex shows that often include children and deformed people. Caligula observes with fascination and horror. Tensions rise when Tiberius tries to poison Caligula in front of Gemellus. Nerva commits suicide and Caligula tries to kill Tiberius. Proving his loyalty to Caligula, Macro kills Tiberius instead with Gemellus as a witness.
After Tiberius' burial, Caligula is proclaimed the new Emperor, then proclaims Drusilla as his equal, to the apparent disgust of the
Roman Senate. Drusilla, fearful of Macro's influence, persuades Caligula to get rid of him. Caligula sets up a
mock trial in which Gemellus is intimidated into testifying that Macro murdered Tiberius alone, then has Macro's wife
Enniabanished from Rome. After Macro is executed in a gruesome
public game, Caligula appoints Tiberius' former adviser Longinus as his personal assistant while pronouncing the docile Senator
Chaerea as the new head of the Praetorian Guard.
Drusilla tries to find Caligula a wife among the priestesses of the goddess
Isis, the cult they secretly practice. Caligula wants to marry Drusilla, but she insists they cannot marry because she is his sister. Instead, Caligula marries
Caesonia, a priestess and notorious
courtesan after she bears him an heir. Drusilla reluctantly supports their marriage. Meanwhile, despite Caligula's popularity with the masses, the Senate expresses disapproval for what initially seem to be light eccentricities. Darker aspects of Caligula's personality emerge when he rapes a bride and groom on their wedding day in a minor fit of jealousy and orders Gemellus's execution to provoke a reaction from Drusilla.
After discovering that Caesonia is pregnant, Caligula suffers severe fever. Drusilla nurses him back to health. Just as he fully recovers, Caesonia bears him a daughter,
Julia Drusilla. During the celebration, Drusilla collapses with the same fever he suffered. Soon afterwards, Caligula receives another ill omen in the form of a blackbird. Despite his praying to Isis out of desperation, Drusilla dies from her fever. Initially unable to accept her death, Caligula suffers a
nervous breakdown and rampages through the palace, destroying a statue of Isis while clutching Drusilla's body.
Now in a deep
depression, Caligula walks the Roman streets disguised as a beggar; he causes a disturbance after watching an amateur performance mocking his relationship with Drusilla. After a brief stay in a city jail, Caligula proclaims himself a god and becomes determined to destroy the senatorial class, which he has come to loathe. The new reign he leads becomes a series of humiliations against the foundations of Rome—senators' wives are forced to work in the service of the state as prostitutes, estates are confiscated, the old religion is desecrated and the army is made to embark on a mock invasion of
Great Britain. Unable to further tolerate his actions, Longinus conspires with Chaerea to assassinate Caligula.
Caligula enters his bedroom where a nervous Caesonia awaits him. Another blackbird appears but only Caesonia is frightened of it. The next morning, after rehearsing an Egyptian play, Caligula and his family are attacked in a coup headed by Chaerea. While leaving the stadium, Caligula's wife and daughter are murdered and Chaerea stabs Caligula in the stomach. With his final breath, he defiantly whimpers "I live!" As Caligula and his family's bodies are thrown down the stadium's steps and their blood is washed off the marble floor, Claudius is proclaimed the new Emperor.
