Over the years, many different comic books and graphic novels have been created. Many deal with some kind of superheroes, and those are probably the ones most people think of. There have also been some comic books and graphic novels that haven’t had any kind of superhero in them at all. Some of them, like A History of Violence, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and V for Vendetta, have had movie versions made. In 1980, another one of these comic books not dealing with any superheroes, Flash Gordon, was turned into a movie. I recently found the movie on one of the movie channels I get and watched it again.
The ruler of the planet Mongo, Ming the Merciless, had a machine that he could use to cause extreme weather problems on other planets. Earth fell in his sights, and he decided to unleash destructive weather before actually destroying the planet.
On Earth, the popular football player Flash Gordon was taking a small airplane on which the only other passenger was Dale Arden. The plane flew through a very strange storm and ended up crashing into a building owned by Dr. Hans Zarkov, a scientist that had been fired from NASA over his bizarre ideas. Hans was convinced that the Earth would be destroyed. He’d built a rocket and was so determined to go into space that he pulled a gun on Flash and Dale. The rocket ended up crashing on Mongo and the three were taken to Ming’s palace where they saw what type of ruler he was. The three ended up joining with Prince Barin and Prince Vultan to fight Ming. They even received help from Ming’s daughter, Princess Aura.
The character of Flash Gordon was first created for a comic strip drawn by Alex Raymond in 1934. The character also appeared in film serials in the 1930s and there was a television show in 1954. There have also been a few different cartoons. I haven’t seen any of those or read the comic strip even though I had heard of the character before I first saw the movie. For a while I was thinking that he and the Flash from DC comics were the same character because of the similar names. I have no idea what might have been changed about the characters from the original comic strip. I do think that the people who don’t know anything about the character can enjoy the movie provided they keep in mind that this movie was rather silly and cheesy. All of the characters had to say some really bad dialogue at some point. Some of the lines were so bad they made me laugh, especially with the way the actors said them.
Flash was a normal man that was thrust into a very bizarre situation after the plane he was on crash landed and he met Hans. Flash was a well known football player, so he did have some athletic ability. Most of the characters were humans or at least looked like humans even though they were from another planet. Prince Vultan was a hawkman who ruled over others like him. There were a few weird looking lizard like people shown in a scene or two as well. None of the characters really had any sort of super powers like I tend to expect characters from comic books to have. Ming did have a ring that emitted this light that he could use to control people or even kill them. Mongo was more technologically advanced and there were laser weapons. Special effects were used in several scenes for different scenes, like when the laser weapons were used. The effects look really dated now and I have a feeling they didn’t look much better when the movie first came considering that the first Superman and Star Wars movies had been released already. The effects in a few scenes looked worse than others and even made me laugh a bit at just how bad they were. I think effects of some kind were used to create the different areas of Mongo, including the shots that showed the outside of Ming’s fortress. The different areas of Mongo had unique looks, some that were stranger than others. Several scenes on Mongo featured weird swirling, psychedelic looking skies and backgrounds that were weird looking.
There was a decent amount of action scenes in Flash Gordon. The first one really happened when Flash and Dale were still on the small plane and they flew into the strange red storm that Ming had caused. Once they arrived on Mongo, Flash especially ended up in several other action scenes, including one sequence that looked a bit like he was playing football in Ming’s thrown room - at least I think it was a thrown room. Flash had to fight not only Ming’s guards but also Prince Barin at one point. The action scenes did help to keep things interesting and kept the pace moving along fairly fast. The plot was fairly simple and straight forward without some of the more complex issues that have turned up in more recent movies based on comic books. That didn’t bother me, but anyone expecting a more complex plot will be disappointed.
For a movie that was rated PG, there was a lot of talk about sex and even a few sexual situations. Ming decided he wanted Dale when he first saw her and had her taken away and dressed in a seductive outfit. She was called his concubine once and Ming decided that he would marry her. For him marriage met using Dale for sex until he was bored with her. There was some talk about Ming’s palace about how he acted in bed with women. Princess Aura frequently dressed in very skimpy, revealing outfits or very form fitting outfits. She was very sexual and from things she said, it seemed that she was sexually active with several different men, including Prince Barin. Flash and Dale first met on the plane and shortly after that the were on Mongo. They barely knew each other, but they were acting like they had been in a relationship for a long time. There were times when they were professing their love for each other like that just made me roll my eyes.
Flash Gordon featured several original songs that were written and performed by the group Queen. Even before I knew for sure that Queen had done the music for the movie, I thought the songs sounded like their music. All of the music fit in with the movie and what was going on when the songs were played. I don’t know all the words to any of the songs, but I know enough of the main theme for the song to get stuck in my head at times.
Flash Gordon had a rather large group of characters, most of which were from Mongo. Since there were so many characters, none of them were really developed a lot. Flash was a famous football player who felt protective of Dale even when they really didn’t know each other very well. Flash wanted to help the people of Mongo and set out to get them to work together to overthrow Ming. Sam J. Jones really wasn’t anything special as Flash and I don’t remember ever seeing him in any other movies. Dale wasn’t completely helpless and managed to do a few things to outsmart the guards watching her. She was a nice enough character. There just wasn’t enough shared about her to make her a stronger character. Melody Anderson was fine in the part. She had played parts in several television shows and movies. I think I’ve seen at least on of her television movies years ago.
Dr. Hans Zarkov had worked for NASA before his insistence that the Earth was going to be attacked by another planet got him fired. It turned out that he was right, but the guy was a bit crazed in his methods before arriving on Mongo. He acted like he was missing more than a few of his marbles and he was willing to do anything to get the rocket he built launched. He didn’t seem that nice at first, but he became more likable as the movie progressed. Topol, known by many for his role in Fiddler on the Roof, was good in the part, though he did go a bit over board at times.
Timothy Dalton turned up in several scenes as Prince Barin, the man who was supposed to be the rightful ruler of Mongo. Barin seemed to be a bit more normal than some of the other characters from Mongo. He was involved with Princess Aura, Ming’s only daughter. She didn’t always agree with things her father did but she was still shocked by one or two things he did. Ornella Muti handled the part well. Her performance was probably a bit overshadowed by the skimpy outfits she wore.
Prince Vultan was a very flat character. He wasn’t around too much until later in the movie when he became more important to what was going on. He went from feuding with Prince Barin to being willing to help him try to overthrow Ming in a very short time. Brian Blessed did a lot of loud talking and laughing in his portrayal of the character. Klytus worked for Ming and did a lot of his dirty work. He also wore a mask, so Peter Wyngarde was limited in what he could do with the character. Kala was a woman that worked for Ming and seemed to really like torturing Ming’s captives. She was not a nice character.
Ming was a ruthless leader who really didn’t care about the people of Mongo. Anyone that opposed him was locked up or even executed. He took what he wanted, including women. He had some sort of machine or computer that allowed him to target other planets and caused all sorts of extreme weather. He did that for amusement just because he could. Ming did make a very good villain. Max von Sydow was good in the part and managed to avoid over acting for the most part.
Main Cast
Melody Anderson - Dale Arden
Brian Blessed - Prince Vultan
Timothy Dalton - Prince Barin
Sam J. Jones - Flash Gordon
Mariangela Melato - Kala
Ornella Muti - Princess Aura
Topol - Dr. Hans Zarkov
Max von Sydow - Ming the Merciless
Peter Wyngarde - Klytus
Mike Hodges - Director
Flash Gordon is available on DVD. I have never seen that version so I don’t know if there are any special effects included on it or not. I’ve only seen the movie on television, most recently on a movie channel. When I was double checking some information about the movie online, I did discover that a new Flash Gordon movie is currently in development and has a tentative release date of 2008 even though there is no cast and I think the script is still being worked on.
Flash Gordon was very cheesy for the most part, but it still managed to be entertaining and worked. Anyone that is familiar with the character may like the movie. It really wasn’t a superhero movie since Flash was a normal man, but it was based on comics, so people that have liked other movies based on comics may also like this one as long as they don’t expect too much from it.
I would have rated this one three and a half stars if I had the option. Since I don't, I rounded up to four because it managed to be so entertaining despite the flaws.
This review is part of elvisdo’s Canadian Write-off. Melody Anderson is from Alberta Canada.
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