Flash Gordon, Blu-ray (1980/2010)
Starring: Sam Jones, Melody Anderson, Max Von Sydow, Topol, Timothy Dalton
Studio: Universal 61112072 [6/15/10]
Music: Queen
Video: 2.35:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Comic artist Alex Ross on Flash Gordon; “Writing a Classic” – Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr.; 1st episode of original 1936 Flash Gordon serial; Theatrical trailer, BD-Live, more
Length: 1 hours 52 minutes
Rating: ****
If you’re a sci-fi fan of any stripe, you’ll probably have a ball with this super-campy space opera. It’s nothing like Star Wars or any low-budget sci-film film of the 50s. Neither is it really one of those “so bad it’s good” movies. It’s simply a totally tongue-in-cheek homage to one of the most popular comic character heros of all time. The opening titles make use of some of the Flash Gordon comic strip images, and one of the extras is the entire first episode of the original serial of Flash Gordon. The 1980 film really takes most everything from the old serial and updates, enlarges and unashamedly outdoes the original. (The latest Home Theater magazine features a reader’s custom home theater, built entirely around a Flash Gordon theme, with lightning bolts everywhere.)
The two interesting bonus features fill us in on the background to the film. It was produced by renowned Dino de Laurentis because he had a big collection of Flash Gordon comics and was nuts about the character. The set and costume designer for the movie was an Italian who didn’t speak any English and screenwriter Semple – who didn’t speak any Italian – had to work with him. At one point Semple communicated in broken French that they would have a problem because the set that was created didn’t come even close to following the script. The designer revealed that he never reads the script. The settings and costumes on the planet Mongo are pure camp, and even the special effects are hilariously corny but not amateurish-looking – just unbelievable. Brilliant colors abound, and many of the costumes reveal lots of skin. Gordon himself runs around half the time only in little shorts. (I recall there was a porno version called Flesh Gordon.)
Max von Sydow is of course perfect as Ming the Merciless, and Brian Blessed is fun as the stocky leader of the Hawkmen. The whole thing pays homage more closely in many ways to all those Saturday afternoon serials some of us recall than George Lucas did in all of his Star Wars. Only those serials had seriously inappropriate classical music of Wagner and others on the soundtrack and this one has Queen! Oh, the plot? Right. So does Flash – the unwitting New York Jets quarterback who suddenly becomes a spaceman, somehow playing a game of football in his first big scene in Ming’s palace – end up saving the earth? You ask.
– John Sunier
