Caligula (1982) - Quotes

Controversy Surrounding Explicit Content in Film

Quotes about Caligula: The fact that we have used celebrated movie personalities to make a film with sexually explicit passages is probably the source of the controversy. People talk about the violence, of course, but it's easier and more sophisticated to say that you're shocked by the violence rather than the sex.

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Reflections on Caligula's Reign

Quotes about Caligula: [[w:Bob Guccione|Bob Guccione] * ], as quoted in "Bob Guccione Caligula Interview from Penthouse May 1980". Penthouse: 112–118, 146–115.

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Artistic Intent Behind Caligula's Controversial Imagery

Quotes about Caligula: I don't see the film as being pornographic, and I certainly didn't set out to make a pornographic movie. It's a question of definitions. To me, pornography is a work of bad art, as opposed to good art. And I don't think Caligula qualifies under the heading of bad art. It was a huge commercial undertaking, and at the same time we wanted to make a serious statement. We've done with cinematic images what so many authors and historians have done with words - we have re-created a complex life-style that flourished before Christ and the Judeo-Christian philosophy came into being.

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Reflections on Caligula's Reign and Madness

Quotes about Caligula: [[Roger Ebert; http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/caligula-1980 ''Caligula''] * ], (22 September 1980)

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Critique of Caligula's Artistic Value

Quotes about Caligula: Caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. If it is not the worst film I have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful: People with talent allowed themselves to participate in this travesty.

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The Paradox of Loyalty and Treason

Proculus: Divine Ceasar, PLEASE! What have I done? Why am I here?

Caligula: Treason!

Proculus: Treason? I have always been loyal to you!

Caligula: [laughs insanely] That IS your treason! You're an honest man, Proculus, which means a bad Roman! Therefore, you are a traitor! Logical, hmm? Ha, ha, ha!

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Power and Fear in Political Conflict

Caesonia: They hate you now.

Caligula: Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.

Caesonia: They are senators and consuls. They are important men.

Caligula: So important that they approve all I do? They must be mad. I don't know what else to do to provoke them.

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Debate Over Kingship in Rome

Caligula: I want your honest advice. Should I make myself king of Rome?

Claudius: King? Well... But this is a republic, isn't it?

Caligula: Very well, then. I shall make myself king of the republic.

Longinus: But you're already greater than any king, Caesar.

Caligula: I am a god, or at least I will be when I'm dead.

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Questioning Paternity in Caligula's Marriage Plans

Caligula: I've told Caesonia that I would marry her

Drusilla: Don't...

Caligula: But only after she has borne me a son.

Drusilla: How will you ever know its yours?

Caligula: Don't worry. I've got her very well guarded.

Drusilla: Then you can be sure one of the guards will be the father.

Caligula: No, they're all homosexuals who've been castrated.

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A Disagreement on Marriage Choices in Rome

Caligula: That will be my wife.

Drusilla: [[w:Caesonia|Caesonia] Oh no! Not ].

Caligula: You're impossible!

Drusilla: She's the most promiscuous woman in Rome.

Caligula: Perfect!

Drusilla: Caesonia's been divorced. She's extravagant, always in debt.

Caligula: I want her.

Drusilla: But not for a wife.

Caligula: Send her to me now.

Drusilla: No, "Little Boots". I won't let you do it. It wouldn't be wise.

Caligula: Yet such is the will of the senate and the people of Rome.

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Beauty and Marriage in Ancient Rome

Caligula: I'm going to marry you.

Drusilla: You can't. We're not Egyptians.

Caligula: I know. We are much more beautiful.

Drusilla: Rome is not Egypt, and stop looking at yourself like that.

Caligula: Let's go to Egypt then.

Drusilla: You are a fool.

Caligula: Caesar cannot be a fool.

Drusilla: But he's trying very hard.

Caligula: Caesar cannot be a fool!

Drusilla: Little Boots", they'll throw you in the Tiber if you attempt to move the government. So, you're going to marry a respectable Roman lady of the senatorial class.

Caligula: No, I'm not.

Drusilla: Yes, you are! You've got to have an heir.

Caligula: Who will kill me when he grows up!

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Power and Loyalty in Caligula's Court

Caligula: Did you see their faces when I told them they had to swear not only to me, but to you?

Drusilla: They were appalled.

Caligula: I do hope so!

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A Conversation on Life and Afterlife

Caligula: Nerva, what's it like?

Nerva: Warm, no pain. Just drifting away.

Caligula: Do you see her?

Nerva: Who?

Caligula: [[w:Isis|Isis] The goddess, ].

Nerva: So you're one of those who believe.

Caligula: Do you see her?

Nerva: No.

Caligula: Are you sure? You're almost dead. What's it like? What's happening to you now?

Nerva: Nothing.

Caligula: You're lying. You can see her, I know you can. What is she like?

Nerva: No. Nothing at all. Just sleep.

Caligula: Liar!

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Struggles with Fate and Friendship

Tiberius: [seeing Nerva has cut his wrists; to Nerva] Cretins... why did you permit him to do it? Bind his wrists... BIND HIS WRISTS! You must not go, you must not leave me, you are my friend, my only friend.

Nerva: I've lived too long, Tiberius, I hate my life.

Tiberius: [to the slaves] Leave us! Both of you!

Nerva: [[w:Naevius Sutorius Macro|Macro] For a man to choose the hour of his own death is the closest he will ever come to tricking fate, and fate decrees that when you die, ] will kill me.

Tiberius: I'll arrest him and have him executed.

Nerva: [Looks at Caligula] You can't. He controls you. Anyway, even with Macro dead, how could I go on living with this reptile?

Tiberius: [To Caligula] You will respect my friend always, won't you, reptile?

Caligula: I've always respected him, lord.

Tiberius: [To Nerva] You hear?

Nerva: Tiberius, you were wise once.

Tiberius: Ah, don't taunt me. I am old.

Nerva: I've watched you grow into a monster! One by one, I've seen you murder your whole family, your friends, the noblest men in Rome.

Caligula: That is treason!

Nerva: No, it's the truth.

Tiberius: I am and I always have been surrounded by enemies. In my own family, in the senate... You are cruel!

Nerva: No, honest. Old men can sometimes see the future. So, from evils past, and the evils yet to come, I now choose to escape.

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Fear vs. Love in Leadership Dynamics

Tiberius: Serve the state, Caligula, although the people in it are wicked beasts.

Caligula: But they love you, lord.

Tiberius: No, they fear me, and that is much better. I have no choice, you see. No choice.

Caligula: No choice?

Tiberius: All I wanted was private life. I did not truly want to become emperor, but I had to.

Caligula: Had to?

Tiberius: If someone else had become emperor, I would have been killed, as you will be.

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Fate and Divinity in Caligula's Dialogue

Tiberius: I'm old.

Caligula: Yes, lord. But you will live forever.

Tiberius: [[w:Tiberius Gemellus|Gemellus; [w:Claudius|Claudius] All my family are dead but you, the child ], and that ], that uncle. They were struck down by fate, and it is fate, "Little Boots", that rules us, not any god.

Caligula: You are a god, lord.

Tiberius: No I'm not, not even when I am dead.

Caligula: Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, they are gods.

Tiberius: So say the senate, and so the people prefer to believe. Such myths are useful.

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Transformation Aspirations in Roman Leadership

Tiberius: Help me, Nerva. Help me transform this young barbarian into a Roman Caesar.

Nerva: [[Julius Caesar|Julius; [Augustus] There have been three Roman Caesars; ], ] and yourself. Which do you want him to be?

Tiberius: The best.

Nerva: That would be your father Augustus.

Tiberius: You see, Caligula? I'm insulted to my face.

Emperor's Mood Compared to the Weather

Caligula: Tell me, how is the emperor?

Nerva: Old, like me.

Caligula: I mean, how is his mood?

Nerva: Like the weather.

Caligula: The weather is good today!

Nerva: Changeable. I've heard that during the last month, seven of my colleagues in the senate have been put to death for treason.

Caligula: [[w:Marcus Cocceius Nerva (jurist)|Nerva] Nine, to be exact. Five of them cheated. They killed themselves. That wasn't playing fair. Don't you agree, ]?

Nerva: They were all good men.

Caligula: If they were good men, how could their beloved emperor find them guilty?

Nerva: You have a gift for logic, prince.

The Senate's Betrayal of Caesar's Authority

Tiberius: Every senator believes himself to be a potential Caesar. Therefore every senator is guilty of treason, in thought if not in deed. The senate is the natural enemy of any Caesar, "Little Boots". They offer to prove any law I made before I made it. I said: What if I go mad? What then? No answer. They were born to be slaves.

Reflections on Rome's Decline and Moral Decay

Tiberius: [[Cato] When Rome was just a city, we were just citizens, known to one another, you see. We were frugal, good, disciplined and dignified. The Romans I rule are not what they were. They lust. They lust for power and pleasure, money, the wives of other men. Oh yes, I am a true moralist, and stern as any ]. Fate chose me to govern swine. In my old age, I am become a swineherd.

Nursing a Viper in Rome

Tiberius: I am nursing a viper in Rome's bosom.

Mastering Your Own Destiny

Ennia: Now you are a man, Caligula. What are you going to do? You must be the master of your own destiny. Take it with both hands.

The Eternal Existence of Caligula

Caligula: I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man, and therefore I am a god.

The Futility of Resistance Against Authority

Caligula: As if there ever could be an antidote against Caesar!

Caligula's Blessing for the Wedding

Caligula: You see how I have exhausted myself to make your wedding holy. My blessings to you both.

Desire for absolute power over Rome

Caligula: If only all Rome had just one neck!

Caligula's Declaration of Identity with Rome

Caligula: I am Rome. Wherever I am, Rome is, and there is the senate and the people of Rome.

Curiosity About Rome's Details

Caligula: I am interested in all that is Rome, even down to the length of a toga.

Oaths of Loyalty to Emperor and Sister

Caligula: [[w:Drusilla (sister of Caligula)|Drusilla] From this moment, all official oaths will contain the following phrase; I will value neither my life nor the lives of my children any more highly than I do the emperor and of his sister ].