Tinto Brass' film has a reputation for being violent, vulgar and pornographic. It’s all those things, but leaving aside the flames and the flesh for a minute, is it any good? The answer is yes and no. Yes because Malcolm McDowell remains engaging even when everything else goes off the rails. His portrayal of the degradation of sanity by power and paranoia is superb. Unfortunately, Tinto's direction is flat; his lack of diversity begins to bore long before the end of the 156 mins running time. It’s possible the decadence of the Roman Senate could've reached the levels of debauchery and self-indulgence depicted in the film, I was fine with that, but the additional sex scenes added later offer nothing other than titillation and distraction. It's an expensive B-Movie.
2½ insane adjudications out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment