Movie of the Day – Flash Gordon

FLASH, A-AH, SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!

I danced around wanting to write about this movie and after a string of bad good movies, I decided that it’s time to give Flash Gordon its due.  The 1980′s American-British film production is one of the best campy science fiction movies around.  It’s flashy, gaudy, stupidly fun, an amazing movie and one of the best soundtracks ever.  I am getting all tingly talking about it so lets jump in.  FLASH, A-AH!!!!!!

Ming (Max von Sydow) has developed a plan to destroy the Earth, and Flash (Sam J. Jones) and his attractive companion, Dale Arden (Melody Anderson), are called upon to stop him. Along the way, Flash must battle Ming’s goons and the temptations of a luscious space princess. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Boom, generic space opera plot line of hero needs to save Earth and battle and emperor and his men, all while sexing space females cause that’s what was exciting to people when the comic and television series was made.  But that simplistic plot and utterly hammy line delivery by the actors lets us enjoy the visual spectacle of a campy 50s era science fiction film.

I think what makes this so endearing to me is that there is a lot of time and care put into the whole glitzy design of the film.  From the over the top costumes, makeup, and set design is just so amazing to behold.  A lot of people crapped on the movie because they thought it was a terrible movie with ugly looking sets and just pure camp, but that is what the movie and series is all about.  If you ever read the comics, they had a lovely sci-fi pulp feel and even the television series was done in the same vain.  That takes a bit of care to mimic the feel of the series while still making a fun movie to watch.  So the whole feel of the movie is a space opera, so you can appreciate the look of the clothes, the cheesy monster and effects, and finally the Rock Opera sound of Queen.

I still think that this movie fucking rocks.  Everything about it is downright amazing from the actors and even Max Von Sydow is the fucking villain Ming.  How insane is that?!  But even with all the terrible fight scenes, hyper tone color lasers and just beautifully crafted sets that look like they came off the TV studio lot, the soundtrack is still the thing people talk about the most.  Rightfully so, the soundtrack by Queen is iconic.  You know what, lets just end the post with them doing the opening theme song.