Flash Gordon

Directed by: Mike Hodges - 1980 - UK - Color - Blu-ray - 2.35:1 - 1 hour, 51 minutes
Starring: Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow, Ornella Muti, Brian Blessed

Every thousand years, Ming the Merciless travels the galaxy unleashing disasters on developing civilizations. Once the societies are advanced enough to realize they’re not natural disasters, he destroys them. It’s the Merciless way. Today he has decided to destroy Earth, who have just begun hurtling machines out into the cosmos and might be considered a threat. He unleashes earthquakes, hurricanes, and “hot hail” on the planet, and causes the crash of the plane carrying New York Jets star quarterback Flash Gordon. In one of the all-time great story setups, Flash (who is also training to be a pilot), is able to crash-land the plane, right into the laboratory of the disgraced scientist Dr. Zarkov, who is about to launch into space on his personal rocket to escape the disaster. Zarkov tricks Flash and his companion Dale into space (they ask to use his phone - he tells them it’s in the rocket), and they are immediately captured by Ming and brought to the planet Mongo. Flash and Dale must try to escape Ming’s clutches and unite the warring factions of the moons of Mongo, whose combined forces may be able to defeat Ming. Luckily, Flash Gordon has the superpower of… being good at football. You might think this superpower couldn’t be used to fight aliens. You would be wrong.

Flash Gordon is the shiniest movie I own. It’s based on Alex Raymond’s comic strip, which had previously been adapted for the screen in three 1930s serials starring Buster Crabbe. A remake was first attempted in the early 70s, but the director wasn’t able to acquire the film rights, deciding instead to do his own homage to 30s serials called Star Wars. Flash Gordon was among the first in a wave of new science fiction films that tried to capitalize on Star Wars’ success. Sam Jones, a young and inexperienced actor who had done a Playgirl spread and not much else, was cast in the lead. The screenplay was done by Lorenzo Semple, Jr., who had previously written many episodes of the 1960s Batman series. Appropriate to a comic book movie, the cinematography and effects are eye-searing and psychedelic - I suspect that colors occur in this movie that occur nowhere else in nature - and the costumes followed suit, landing somewhere between Sun Ra, The Wizard of Oz, and a Mummers Fancy Brigade. And the soundtrack was performed by Queen, because seriously, who else? There are many, many, films better than Flash Gordon, but few that make me happier.

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Pauline Kael review