I will be the first person to say that I am guilty of never seeing this film. To be honest I’m very surprised my parents didn’t introduce this film to me when I was a child. Mt father is a die hard New York Jets fan and being that the back story of Flash Gordon is that he is the quarterback for the football team, I’m really surprised my father did not push this sci-fi film over Star Wars on me. Well here I am twenty seven years after the release of Flash Gordon seeing it for the first time on DVD.
Flash Gordon is based on the popular Alex Raymond comic strip. The film is about a football player named Flash Gordon who is the star quarterback for the professional football team the New York Jets. While on a airplane the weather on earth is becoming crazy as a freak energy wave has pulled to moon out of orbit and is slowly sending it into the earths atmosphere. when Flash crash lands the plane along with the lovely Dale Arden, they just so happen to land at the research center of scientist Doctor Hans Zarkov. The doctor has been predicting for years that the earth was going to be invaded by an outside source and has built himself a spaceship to go into space and plead to the Dark lord of the universe Emperor Ming. He forces Flash and Dale to join him on his quest. when they arrive to Mongo the planet of Emperor Ming they are taken prisoner by his army. All three of them are broken up by Ming and each are sent to a certain doom. However Flash is rescued by Ming’s Daughter and is bought to the planet run by Price Barin, where Flash proves his worth, together they travel to the city ship of Price Vultan. After a brief fight, all three agree to join forces and take down Ming and his mighty empire.
One can’t help but compare the plot outline to the likes of Star Wars. There is so much in this film that relates to that of Star wars everything from the dark lord Emperor Ming who is the likes of Darth Vader, to Flash Gordon being just like Luke Skywalker. The ending of the film even has a celebration ceremony that ends with the characters on the steps of the universal palace. Sorry to give the ending away, but if you’ve seen Star Wars, this film is a lot like it, in many ways. I’m not sure if this was by all means the way screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. meant to write the comic adaptation. After all George Lucas has said that the Flash Gordon episodes when he was a kid were a real big inspiration for him creating Star Wars. So in a way it’s really not who copied off of who, but who got there first. Obviously Lucas and Star Wars won that bid first. But as for the screenplay for this film, it’s not bad. The dialogue is kind of cheesy but the story is just as fun as Star Wars.
As far as the acting goes in this film; lets just say with this script it’s very hard to take the performances seriously. With such cheesy dialogue it’s very hard not to laugh at some of the actors who deliver these lines. I think the only two people who actually sounded a least bit convincing were Max Von Sydow as Ming and Sam. J. Jones who played Flash, although admittedly Flash did have some pretty bad lines himself, I just though Jones fit the part well. However besides the odd lines the script had for the actors; I toughly enjoyed most of the performances in this film. Timothy Dalton and Brian Blessed in this film I thought were great in their respected roles as well as our female leads in Melody Anderson as Dale and Ornella Muti as Princess Aura.
The overall production value is some what complex. For it’s time, and the fact that it was released a few years before Star Wars and right before Empire Strikes Back; the technology in which Stars Wars introduced the motion picture industry too in it’s achievements for special effects, really must of had a effect on not only the effects that were used for Flash Gordon, but films of it’s kind. Like Star War, Flash Gordon’s effects team used a lot of motels of planets and spaceships to give us the feel that we are on another planet, however compared to that of Star Wars which spoiled us with great visuals, Flash Gordons visuals look similar to ones used in high budget Sci-fi films of the sixties and seventies. It’s not that their bad, but compared to the technology used in the nineteen eighties they are not as good compared to what the top films at the time were doing. The multi color skys in this film really bothered me a lot as well, I would of preferred the use of a dark space sky, but something tells me that the producers of this film used that to make the movie have the feel of the comic.
Beside visual effects one great thing Flash Gordon has is great costume design, beside the Lizard people who look like a group of drunk Kermit the frogs, the bright colors used to convey the feelings and emotions of the character in their costumes was used very well. The set design as well was very good for the time in which these films were produced.
Overall, I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t see this film when I was a kid, and it took me this long to finally find this gem. It’s no Star Wars but this new digitally re-mastered DVD available, you’ll be able to experience this space adventure in a whole new light. The Saviour of the Universe edition is well worth adding to any fan of the comic stripe or science fiction films to their collection. The box cover art is awesome and even comes with an original artwork press card. The disc also features some great bonus features with some great behind the scenes interviews and documentaries. There is one with a look into Alex Ross life and how he was inspired to create Flash Gordon. Another is a look at screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. and how he wrote the screenplay for the film. The disc also features one of the first episodes of the Flash Gordon series from 1936 as well as a sneak peak of the new Flash Gordon series coming to the Sci-fi Channel. Like I said above this is a must own disc for fans of Science Fiction. And if your a fan of Star Wars pick this one up, you’ll appreciate it as a science fiction film where the original series inspired that of Lucas to create his space epic.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
