Why I Love Flash Gordon 1980 - Movie Review with Spoilers - Retro Nerd Girl
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ธ.ค. 2020
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A few years back I made my early teen son watch this with us - "Awww Dad, this is gonna be crap...." and at the end, "That was awesome!!"
It's odd, it's camp, it's cheesy, and just plain ridiculous fun.
Aw, so sweet. Kid's get it somehow. Thanks for sharing this. 😊
Little Angel RNG is like a beauty queen from North Dakota or one of those cool states.
I recommend the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune." The movie (Dune) was never realized by its director (Alejandro Jodorowsky) but they spent 2 million in pre-production on concept art, character design, scripting, casting, etc. He needed additional funding so he took all of the pre-production and sent it to the major studios to find an investor. All the studios turned him down. However, subsequent sci fi productions drew heavy "inspiration" from Jodorowsky's pre-production notes. "Flash Gordon" was one of them. You will enjoy that documentary. Another fantastic review, by the way.
Ridley Scott was going to direct Dune himself after working on Alien, but ultimately left the project to direct Blade Runner instead.
I love the look and feel of a lot of older sci-fi movies. The modern stuff is cool, but there's something inspiring about creating strange new worlds and just swinging for the fences!
The 1980 version ain't got nothin' on the 2007 version! 2007 Flash Gordon is superior!
One thing of note in the film is the multi-colored gaseous nature of the skies in the movie. This is supposed to be aether, or, luminous aether, what some early sci-fi writers of the time believed one would see in space, or at least the upper atmosphere, before space travel, similar to the phlogiston described in the D&D Spelljammer books.
Thank you so much! I love learning new things! :)
fun thing: In the 1979 "Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century", in the first episode after the pilot, Buster Crabbie has a role in it, and his character's last name was...get this....Gorden :D
"Flash! Flash! I love you! But we only have 15 hours until the Retro Nerd Girl reviews our movie!" xx
You had me a Flash Gordon. I haven’t even seen the video and I already love it.
Ah, Flash Gordon. One of my favorite heroes. I was first introduced to him in the late 60s when Channel 56 used to run episodes of the Buster Crabbe serial sporadically (and out of order) when Creature Feature ran short. Also, at the same time, I discovered newspaper comics, which included Dan Barry's run on Flash Gordon (I came in right in the middle of the Robot World story in the Sunday strips).
So when the Flash movie came out in 1980, I went to see it-- and was pretty disappointed. I really didn't like the campy approach. I was expecting that Flash would get a more straightforward adventure, like Star Wars (or Indiana Jones, in a couple of years). An homage, not a parody.
But over the years, I've mellowed toward it and now I like it quite a bit. For one thing, it's kind of irresistable. For another thing, as Sci Fi has grown blander and more mainstream over the years, this movie really stands out for its colorful sets and costumes and graphics. It's more senseless wonder than sense of wonder, but it sure is gorgeous (even those non-spherical moons). Also, it's pretty faithful to the original source material, which is something I appreciate and something you rarely see these days.
Thanks again for another fantastic review, RNG. I love all the background you included for contemporary viewers who probably don't know any of it.
"For one thing, it's kind of irresistable."
For example....FLASH!!
Go ahead...DON'T say, "Ahhhh, ahhhh". I dare ya'. 🙂
This was a fun review! I haven’t seen this one in a long time and now I want to watch it again soon.
I loved Flash Gordon growing-up, another great review!
Aw, great review! I was saving watching this for a moment where I needed cheering up, as I've always loved the magnificent silly fun this film has to offer. It was worth the wait.
I think the Flash Gordon movie is one of the very few instances where the classic British tradition of pantomine - or panto - has found itself on screen. Big campy villains with ridiculous speeches. Dim-witted fresh-faced heroes. Swashbuckling. Gaudy costumes. Innuendo and jokes for parents that will fly over the youngster's heads. Even more camp. All it lacks is the audience shouting, "He's behind you!" as Flash casts about for the evil villain Ming capering about behind him. I think this is where hiring a British director who had the gumption to try and conjure up a giddy, strange adventure that kids could take seriously but which would prove sardonically entertaining for adults - and casting played a big hand in that. For all the Brit influence in the cast, music and direction I also love it for the Moebius inspired art direction the European crew brought to it, and the incredible costumes. It really shouldn't have worked, this collision of multiple worlds - but it did.
Once again you've delivered some fun facts I never knew! I didn't know Lobot and Sinister-Control-Robot-Guy were the same dude. I never knew that Sam Jones misguidedly bailed on the production at the end. And I didn't know the Queen was a fan! One suspsects that she would perhaps like to rule us like Ming does over Mongo!
And aaah. Ming. Max Von Sydow, take a bow. He's magnificent. Now I have to say, I'm not bothered about Ming the Merciless and his 'yellow peril' connections. It was undoubtably a racist origin for the chracter, and there were so many fictional asiatic drooping-moustache-twirling villains back then that I'm surprised they didn't find it awkward tripping over each other in their attempts at world domination."My apologies Fu Manchu, I had not realised you had booked the Death Ray ahead of me..." "Not all Ming my calculating friend..." However they are in their own way so quaint, out of date and other-worldly now in their depiction that I have no issue with these isolated relics being on screen and providing plenty of opportunity for respected thespians to serve up the ham. Far more damaging I'd find to be the modern day examples of racism or prejudice on screen, examples that are not camp relics and that more subtly and persuasively misrepresent peoples, creeds or religions. This day and age I find Ming to be pure panto, and long may he reign.
I love how Devil Girl From Mars popped in your rogue's gallery once again, by the way. She could have appeared in Flash Gordon and I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. I like to think that Ming on an idle whim once sent General Kala off to menace a remote Scottish pub once upon a time, in fact. :D
Once again, sorry about the essay but that was one awesome review! Patreon money well-spent! xx
Oh, THANK YOU! I can't tell you how much this makes my day. 😊 And I love your essay!
You know, I could see the pantomime connection now that I think about it, particularly when all the heroes emerge in front of the cheering crowd at the end of the film, basically the actors taking a bow before the audience. :)
One of my favorite flicks of 1980! I used to watch the 1930's serial on channel 5 when I was a kid in Hollywood. SO I ran to the theater to see this film when it came out. Saw it several times and loved it every time. And totally fell in love with Melody Anderson. I remember watching it thinking that the guy that plays Prince Baron would make a great James Bond! I've never seen this film as a STar Wars rip off either. It's strange since as you say, Flash influenced Star Wars so much i the same way that people say that Alan Quartermain ripped off Indiana Jones when in fact he came waaay before Indy. The music is iconic for sure. I of course included the theme in my music mix that I made for my library's comic con 2 years ago. How could I not? And first time I ever saw Brian Blessed! The guy is amazing!
KTLA!😎
@@charlesborden8111 Lol, I miss getting my news from Hal Fishman!
Requested and excited for this!
Yay! I hope it lives up to your expectations!😊
@@RetroNerdGirl You crushed it!Thank you on behalf of my current and 6 year old self who thought the villain’s full name was “Ming with the Ring”
Thank you! It was a pleasure to reflect on such an impactful film. BTW, Ming with the Ring = nailed it!😊
This was a very interesting review, I liked it very much. You say a lot of things that I agree with. What I liked about films like Flash Gordon and Barbarella was the use of colour, costumes and fantasy. Maybe because they have that 'Italian' style about them. I find the same feeling with the film 'Modesty Blaise', although being different as a spy film, it too has that colourful fun Italian ingredient. Another film I love which is not a fun film, and not adventurous, but once again has that Italian ingredient making it special, even though it is set in London, is Blow Up. It's a film I never get tired of watching. I really look forward to seeing another of your reviews. Take care.
Thank you for your kind words. I must say I've never seen Modesty Blaise or Blow Up, so thank you for introducing them to me. I'll be checking them out. 😊
NOTHING needs to be changed about Flash Gordon. It is simple and that is its strength. Ming was always a clever, slippery villain. Not really cartoonish in the sense that he could think and roll with the punches. Flash was the best of mankind. As Queen sang, "Just a man, with a man's courage."
Nearly forty minutes, but you did deep background and touched on other media, so that's fair. Thing is, I'm not the biggest fan of FG, as it recalls for me other wacky superhero near-parody, a bit like George Pal's version of Doc Savage starring Ron Ely. (Doc is well worth reviving, incidentally.) But it's all about threes with me, and FG has three factors which oblige me to admire it. First: the women. I dig Ornella Muti as Aura moaning "I love initiations ... !" Melody Anderson was pretty and capable, this may have been her best all-time gig. Next: the amazing supporting cast. Not so in love with Sam Jones, nothing about him says to me "Only he will do" -- I might have been willing to consider Dolph Lundgren stretching himself to play a likable American jock. But the others, wow. Topol? Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, as Dr. Hans Zarkov? Bizarre casting, but it wound up working. I've seen Brian Blessed in other work, but he had to be relatively subdued and that's a shame, it's like watching Pavarotti not get a chance to sing, whereas as Vultan he was permitted to go full Pavarotti. I've always thought Timothy Dalton was unjustly undervalued for his James Bond work and it was good to see him here. Finally, it was a bit sad, actually, to see Max Von Sydow as Ming, because for me he was a real life knight, we first saw him as a knight in The Seventh Seal (he plays chess with Death), and there was surely a kind of knightliness to his fighting Satan in The Exorcist, so seeing him do Ming felt like a bit of a demotion. But, as with Blessed, I think the main thing is that they were having fun. And the third and final factor? QUEEN. The movie itself could have failed to materialize and I like to think Queen's work would still have lived on. "Flash! AW-awww! King! Of! The! Impossible! He'll! Save! Ev! Ry! One of us! Flash! AW-awww!" (Not quite it, but you get the idea.) So those three factors elevate this movie for me. You raise good points and I'm not sure what to do with them. Buck Rogers himself first went up against the Red Mongols who conquered a future America, the seminal novel Armageddon: 2419 was itself very Yellow Peril, very Fu Manchu, in concept, so you would have to radically get away from that. (A planet named Mongo doesn't help, and in any case that recalls a character in Blazing Saddles.) Also, "rogue planets" suddenly showing up and messing with us are hard to account for, if they traverse the deep cold of interstellar space. The book and subsequent movie When Worlds Collide sort of accounted for that with the planet Zyra arriving as a companion of a star named Bellus, so you might have to work out something like that -- either that, or the planet might have the technology to warm itself up again after a long frozen sleep. Many old concepts are hard to justify, but we can keep trying. All right, RNG, thanks much -- and I like the crowd you attract, too. Excelsior!
I had about another 20 minutes I left out of the video to conserve time. I think that these old properties have the cruel problem of being a product of their time. I never had the pleasure of reading the book or saw the movie, When Worlds Collide, but I think it's becoming a necessity. 😊
Also, thanks for being a part of the premiere event. Your contributions and presence was much appreciated.😊
@@RetroNerdGirl When Worlds Collide is rather straightforward -- need Space Ark, build Space Ark, fly and land Space Ark, we survived, yay -- but it's worth a look. (Study the final artwork carefully and you spot signs of civilization on Zyra, as the novel had a sequel that went into that, but a movie sequel never came together.) Collide and 1964's Time Travelers might make a great John Hoyt double feature. In two entirely different movies, the same great actor, John Hoyt, directs the building of a Space Ark. In Collide he does it as an evil opportunist, in Travelers as a kindly scientist. It's one of the more fascinating instances of typecasting I can think of.
Still a kinda fun movie
LOVE...LOVE...LOVE THIS MOVIE!! A huge part of my childhood..
Like the perfect kid's movie (well, for the less sophisticated kids of the 80s). Spectacle and bombast with a breezy storyline. And the soundtrack just elevates it to another level.
I wouldn't worry too much about the racial implications. It's lighthearted enough to be little more than an obvious caricature rather than an indictment. In the right hands, it would be read as it was back then: camp.
I agree with you about the costumes & how people today (the 21st century!) should be wearing more interesting clothes than T-shirts & jeans. That's why I'm a fan of Lady Gaga. Her videos could almost be unofficial sequels to "Barbarella"! You know how they occasionally update Shakespeare to the present? I think it'd be cool if someone would take a contemporary drama (like Tennessee Williams) & have everybody dressed in outlandish futuristic costumes.
Ooh, I like your ideas!😊
Why should Lady Gaga have al the fun?
Finally, we get to know who dubbed Sam Jones's voice! Thank you!
For me, Klytus was the cherry on the cake! Wonderfully portraid by Peter Wyngarde!!!! 😊.
I totally agree!
There's two other films you may wish to consider from the 🇬🇧 vaults:
The Devil Rides Out, from the book by Denis Wheatley.
Night of the Demon.
Filmed in B&W I believe adds to the chilling & scary atmosphere generated...
It's up to you but get the pop corn and someone to cling to!
Thank you! I am adding them now to my list. :)
I've been watching a lot of Andy Warhol movies lately. According to IMDb, the actress Viva (one of his "Superstars") appears in this as a Cytherian Girl. I've looked & looked but can't find her. I'm thinking some other lady used that name not knowing it was already taken. Warhol's Viva has a prominent role in the crazy musical fantasy "Forbidden Zone", which also came out in 1980. I think you'd enjoy it.
Oh yes I've seen Forbidden Zone and enjoyed it like you suspected.😊
Interestingly, Sam J. Jones guest starred episode 9 of the 2007 version (which I prefer over the 1980 version tbh).
You're really good at this, and the vids are entertaining and educational in regards to the history of the film. Any chance you will do movie reviews again soon? And any chance you will cover Battlestar Galactica 1978 if you do? Looking forward to more great content. :)
Thank you. I'll be posting a new video on tomorrow. I'll put the Battlestar Galactica 1978 movie on my list to possibly review. It will take a long time though to get to it. Battlestar Galactica was one of my favorite TV shows growing up so it would be nice to revisit.😊
BTW, I typically post every other Sunday at 9am CST.
@@RetroNerdGirl Awesome! Thank you!
Wow l am so impressed with your prefect review of Flash Gordon.
I always been fan of Flash since first seeing 1930s version in 1976 , BBC TV was honoring United States 🇺🇸 200 year brithday and as a kid blow away with excitement and cliffhangers . Every Christmas and school summer hoildays BBC would show Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon trip to Mars and conquers the universe. I love them even how . Buck Rogers was just as good ..when the movie came out l quite execting about seeing it on the big screen , l wasn't disappointed l had a crush about Princess Aura 😍 . I brought the record of the soundtrack l played it all the time , l brought the novel and thought the movie was amazing. I still love it so much . About 1981 TV series of buck Rogers in 25th Century l enjoyed to my surprise Larry buster Crabb made quest starting role as General role 😀 that was incredible..
" Gordon is Alive !!!🚀😲 " I always laugh when l hear that quote, l can remember so many quotes . " Flash Gordon is Approaching "
" are your men on the right pills "
Brien blessed was born to play Prince Vultan 😃 love your review of Flash Gordon ❤
❤
Hi, Retro Girl! I remember a while back you did a live watch along of this, that was fun! Any chance you'd ever try the theatrical "Buck Rogers" with Gil Gerard?
I'll have to try to get a copy. :)
Another wonderful review!!! I learned so much watching this!!!
Thank you!😊
No way you showed a picture of devil girl from mars.. that film is a camp classic too.
Great review. Tad wordy at times but i guess you had a lot to say. I will be looking up those serials as I'd never heard of them, cheers!
I actually shaved off 20 minutes from the review. LOL! BTW, the serials aren't sophisticated at all, but they have some fast action with a ton of cliffhanger moments. They are a lot of fun and I hope you'll like them. 😊
If you ordered the perfect extra cheese pizza you would get Flash Gordon. This is movie is fun and over the top.
Sam Jones will be here next week at our Comic Con! 🤩
The bad guys and supporting good guys saved this movie. The European/British actors added weight to the story. Unfortunately Flash and Dale were horribly miscast ,written and directed. 1966 Batman camp worked because of great acting. Flash Gordon lacked the talent in the lead rolls. Basically the villains make this movie.
The inventiveness of the visuals and special effects were great. The Gloved Hand Gun that flips Flash after they land on Mongo was awesome, it set the tone for the campy technology.
Absolutely!😊
I just watched this again (I love this movie), and it finally hit me who dubbed Sam J. Jones voice. I am sure that it was Kurt Russell, but officially no one knows who it is.
I didn't like the movie but I love Queen's score.
Ming the Merciless fantastic Action Figure sculpture is green-tinted skin..So no need for the over-harping "politicallywrecked" angles..The Villain was of Asian-like features..no big deal..not for Retro Fans..Thank you for the Review! Never seen the film!🪐🚀
Thrilling!
I like your heart felt review of this movie. But I want to say that what makes Flash such a incredible character is the Moral factor that you called "Self righteous". But this wasn't so in the 1930's or even the 1980's. it was the ideal man and the ideal human. Flash is a regular man but what makes him a GREAT man is precisely this moral fiber within him. It was the idea of sacrifice of self for one or the Whole world. Flash is the man that will die for ALL! Or even die for his girl. That's what's so awesome about him. It elevates him to a higher way that only comes from selflessness not self righteousness. If he was being self righteous he wouldn't care like Ming. Now that's self righteousness. LOL. I think you've got a few values mixed up here.
Sucks the soundtrack didn’t get mentioned in the “Bohemian Rhapsody” movie
Most quotable movie of 1980? Shirley you can't be serious! :)
I am serious...and don't call me Shirley
I'm 2 years too late, but it's Klytus, not Kolydus.
lol!
Awesome review. Made me understand why I found it so uncomfortable when Star Trek: Discovery made their Chinese actor an evil murderess space Emperor.
Ming is pure evil. After all, he's merciless. And Kolitis sounds like a disease colitis. And he has the symbol of the Mason's on his tunic. The set kept the Art Deco style of its time. Love Queen's contributions to the score.
You never mentioned how there was a bawdy spoof of this movie, i really dont get how the Taika Whaititi adaptation never happened cause you've only got to watch his Thor Ragnarok movie see how he would have been perfect, for the exact kind of tone you would need to make something like Flash Gordon work for today's modern audience.
I do mention Flesh Gordon 1974 in my written review. I had to leave it out or the video would be an hour. If you want to read that, a link for that is in the description of the video. 😊
@@RetroNerdGirl Well i'd rather you do a video review of that plz, go on i dare you lol 😁
Sam J. Jones is excellent as flash Gordon. 😀👍
So true!😊
And inspired one Mister George Lucas
Great review. Please don't rewrite Flash Gordon. Ming is a fictional character. Just because there is a villain they don't automatically have to be a white, male, capitalist. Nearly 100 million people died in the 20th century died in the name of Socialism.
Back to Ming, let's just give people the benefit of a doubt. No rational person is going to see the fictional character and conclude that it's ok to hate Asian people. Everyone outside of LA,NYC, DC and SF know this and as a result they live mostly happy lives. So, please, lighten up and watch the show.
I've been engaged faster...
🤣
Wow you're so underrated.. I hope in the future you will get more subscribers 👍👍...love the content of this channel 😁😁
Thank you so much for your kind words! This really encourages me to keep going! Thank you. 😊
@@RetroNerdGirl 🤗