Flash Gordon

After the big sci-fi adventure boom that was brought about thanks to Star Wars, there seemed to be a clamouring to hop onto the popularity and cash in with similar type films.  The year was 1980, and entering the epic space scene was Flash Gordon, a movie based off of the 1930s comic strip.  On a visceral level, I suppose as well as on an acting and script level, the film, at first glance, feels a notch or two above the Italian movie Starcrash.  If you simply substitute Christopher Plummer for Max von Sydow and David Hasselhoff for Timothy Dalton you could possibly make a case for the two movies being of similar schlocky form.

There is a main difference, however, between Flash Gordon and Starcrash as well as the many other space movies of the time.  Instead of taking a purely serious approach (and failing as Starcrash did), director Mike Hodges and scriptwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. went the route of creating a film that was full of an intentional campiness.  There may be some folks out there who could believe that I am wrong in viewing it that way and that the film was truly a poorly made film, but one only needs to know that Semple is the same man who penned the infamous 1966 Batman: The Movie starring Adam West (AKA the best Batman ever).  Batman: The Movie is a film that perfected the art of intentional camp, allowing the movie to be close enough to walk the line that would confuse people in understanding  its true intentions of what Adam West likes to call ‘the theatre of the absurd.’  The same heights of the art form are not found in Flash Gordon, but it is still deceptive enough to leave people believing it was taking itself seriously.

The movie finds Earth to be in trouble, thanks to the meddling nature of The Emperor Ming (von Sydow), which means that a flight home for Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) turns into a nightmare of turbulence and poor special effects as Earth is plagued by natural (and unnatural) disasters.  After Flash flirts with the only other passenger on the plane, Dale (Melody Anderson), he safely lands the plane into the side of a greenhouse/secret rocket launch facility of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Oscar nominated Topol).  Flash, who is in need of making a phone, is tricked into entering a rocket ship with an intricate flight system that needs someone to step on a red pedal, shoots off into space and enters into a tie-dyed black hole.

Once in space, Flash shows the powers he has as being quarter back for the New York Jets and attempts to save earth by uniting the divided peoples under the rule of the dread Emperor Ming.  He comes face to face with over the top costumes, odd gimmicks, and the ever present looming danger of poor acting and dialogue.  This is where the brilliance of Hodges and Semple come into play, as they do just enough to make it laughable, but never bring it fully into the realm of complete catastrophe.

The sound track to the film is enhanced by Queen, who made a special anthem for the blond-haired hero.  The song is not great, and it is not even that good.  What it is, though, is fitting to the feel of camp-style heroics that the movie is aiming to capture.  The repetitive and over-the-top nature of the song burrows deep into your head like those torturous creatures that Khan used in Wrath of Khan, a key means for which to carry out his wrath.

I am kind of saddened that I never saw this film in my childhood.  I feel like perhaps I missed out on the legend that it could have been for an eight year old boy (although I only would have been two when it was in theatres).  Still, many years later I find much fascination and youthful energy in the movie that entertained me from start to finish.  Oh, and, as mentioned, Timothy Dalton is in it, too!

Rating – 3 out of 4 stars

As a side note, I remember hearing a tale of someone whose mother intended to rent Flash Gordon for her son’s birthday party.  Popping the VHS into the player and hitting play, she left the boys to have their fun while they watched good versus evil and ate potato chips.  What she would realize about ten minutes later, when she heard noises coming from the television that did not sound like the movie she had envision as well as absolutely no sounds coming from the young boys.  After investigating, she quickly discovered that she had accidently rented Flesh Gordon, which carries a rather different approach to telling the story.  Parents, always be sure to properly read the titles of movies.