Roger Ebert Called Caligula "Sickening" — Controversial Film Still Banned

In 1980 the historical epic Caligula drew outrage from critics and audiences alike, with Roger Ebert writing that the film was "sickening" and walking out before its end. The movie has been banned in multiple countries and remains controversial decades later. The production was fraught: director Tinto Brass and writer Gore Vidal disavowed the final picture, Brass was removed before editing, and producer Bob Guccione of Penthouse reportedly spliced explicit pornographic scenes into the footage during post-production.

Actors were reportedly not informed about the added material and were appalled when the film was released. Ebert said he could not finish the film, beginning his review: "Caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash... Disgusted and unspeakably depressed, I walked out of the film after two hours of its 170-minute length." He elaborated on the violence and sexual content, describing scenes of decapitation, evisceration, rape, bestiality, sadomasochism and necrophilia among other horrific acts.

Caligula starred Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren, and despite critical revulsion it reportedly earned around $23 million at the box office and has an 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was banned in countries including Canada, Australia, Iceland, Singapore and the UK, and was at one point seized by Italian police; some bans apply only to the unedited version while cut-down versions remain available.

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