Subject: Retrospective: Flash Gordon (1980)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 20:40:09 -0000

FLASH GORDON (director: Michael Hodges; screenwriters: Lorenzo Semple
Jr./Michael Allin/based on the comic strip by Alex Raymond; cinematographer:
Gilbert Taylor; editor: Malcom Cooke; music: Queen; cast: Sam J Jones (Flash
Gordon), Melody Anderson (Dale Arden), Chaim Topol (Doctor Hans Zarkov), Max von
Sydow (The Emperor Ming), Ornella Muti (Princess Aura), Timothy Dalton (Prince
Barin), Brian Blessed (Prince Vultan), Peter Wyngarde (Klytus), Mariangela
Melato (Kala ), John Osborne (Arborian Priest), William Hootkins (Munson);
Runtime: 115; Universal; 1980-UK) 

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz 

An irrelevant campy sci-fier from the producer Dino De Laurentiis, but at least
it's lively. It is also unfortunate that its stars, Melody Anderson as Dale
Arden and Sam J Jones as Flash Gordon, are liabilities. They just can't act. But
there's some fun to be had in this bad flick through its bouncy musical score by
Queen, its glossy sets arranged by Danilio Donati, by its horrid acting and
trite dialogue, by its exotic costumes, and by Muti's sexy evil portrait of
Princess Aura. Flash Gordon is set in the gaudy Art Deco world of the planet
Mongo, where the color red decorates the palace walls as if it was a replica of
a sleazy bordello in New Orleans and the evil guards flash their crystal swords
as if they were as valuable as diamonds from Tiffanys, while the evil Emperor
Ming (Max von Sydow) has at his disposal gadgets that kill and allow him to read
minds and attack the Earth with all kinds of weather disturbances. 

The film opens as Flash and Dale meet on a plane in Dark Harbor, where the Blond
Bomber is going back to quarterback the NY Jets after his vacation and she's a
NYC travel agent afraid of flying who is going back to work after getting her
head together from a relationship breakup. The plane experiences an
unprecedented solar eclipse disturbance, actually caused by Ming playing with
the Earth. The turbulence causes the novice pilot Flash to crash-land the plane
in the lab area of Doctor Zarkov (Topol). He's a mad scientist dismissed by
NASA, who believes the Earth will be attacked by outer space. When his assistant
Munson informs him of the unusual turbulence on Earth, Zarkov says this proves
he was right and they must both get into his home-made rocket and save the Earth
from the space attackers (it is interesting to note that their plan of action is
never presented). Zarkov says the rocket needs another person along to put their
foot to the pedal. Munson refuses to go, and flies the coop. Luckily the
scientist has Flash and Dale nearby, who have by now become lovebirds, whom he
tricks into stepping into his rickety rocket to make a phone call and then pulls
a gun on them. He starts the rocket and they're soon in Mongo. 

They are immediately captured by Ming's guards and taken to his palace. They
realize that Ming is a psychopath who has conquered outer space by getting his
subjects to war against each other and he now wants to destroy the Earth. They
have 12 hours to save Earth. 

Flash gets into a football game with his more than eleven captors, using a large
metal egg as a football. He is soon tackled, but not before he gets Ming's
daughter all hot for him. Even though she's dating Prince Barin (Dalton), a
subject of Ming's from another planet and the enemy of Prince Vulcan (Blessed);
but, she's horny enough to want the lunkhead Flash in her boudoir and feels
confident she can afterwards soothe Prince Barin's hurt feelings. But Ming
orders Flash executed. This causes Aura to get one of her dad's doctor
scientists to resurrect him with an injection after the execution, and then she
escapes the planet with Flash in her rocketship. Meanwhile Dale is held captive
in Ming's bedroom as he decides to force her to marry him, while Zarkov is
brainwashed and his mind is emptied. 

Flash becomes the hero of the hour, as he travels through the outer kingdoms of
Mongo to unite the people of the Tree Kingdom and their enemies the Hawkmen to
stop Ming. Prince Vulcan and Barin unite, and the trio stops the forced marriage
and Ming's diabolical plans against the Earth just in the nick of time. Ming,
supposedly, dies as a spaceship stabs him right through his heart. 

If you are now an adult and have nostalgia for those Saturday matinee Flash
Gordon serial chapters starring Buster Crabbe you watched as a kid, which were
just as dumb as this film, then you might feel up to seeing this version. The
film is adapted from a comic strip by Alex Raymond and was scripted by Lorenzo
Semple Jr.. 

REVIEWED ON 2/4/2002     GRADE: C - 

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" 

http://www.sover.net/~ozus 

[email-masked] 

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   DENNIS SCHWARTZ

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