Gordon's Alive? (Flash Gordon (DVD))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Flash Gordon (DVD)
Date:	25/04/07 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intentionally and unintentionally funny, great soundtrack, silly but fun

Disadvantages: Just name it: story, acting, effects, dialogue...!

What’s it about?
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Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr Hans Zarkov set off in a spaceship to find out who or what is attacking Earth.

Who’s in it?
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Most of the cast is, frankly, appalling; the standard of acting somewhere just above the level you would expect of an amateur dramatics performance. Sam J Jones is the hero of the title and is only slightly less wooden than the trees on the planet of Arboria. Equally poor is Melody Anderson as Dale Arden. She manages to look pretty, but ruins the effect every time she opens her mouth, letting loose a shrill, whiny voice. Topol appears ill at ease as Zarkov and spends the whole film looking around, as though he’s trying to find his agent to fire him. Finally, Max Von Sydow appears as Ming the Merciless. He certainly looks the part and does a good pantomime villain job when on screen, but is given relatively little to do. Not exactly a promising start then!

Special mention must go to two characters. Peter Wyngarde is superb as Klytus, Ming’s chief minister. It’s often a bad sign when people spend the whole film with their face covered (as in V for Vendetta), as it’s very hard for the audience to get any sense of emotion. Here though, Wyngarde uses his voice to perfection – dripping with smarmy charm and barely hidden menace and so the mask ceases to be a problem.

Then, there’s Brian Blessed. Turning in a performance that’s about as subtle as a brick and which would make a pantomime veteran blush in shame. Hamming up every line (“Squadron 40 DIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEE!”), shouting and waving his arms around like a particularly excitable madman, he should make you want to put your foot through the screen. But this is Brian Blessed, and somehow, he pulls it off” The obvious fun he is having rubs off on you, and you’ll be laughing along at every line he delivers. A priceless performance!

Is it any good?
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On first glance, the answer to this question is no: it’s a terrible film. It has so many things wrong with it, that’s it’s difficult to know where to start!

I’ve already mentioned the poor acting, which should cripple the film from the start. This is coupled with characters who are incredibly one-dimensional – Flash Gordon is brave and good, Arden is girly and wimpy, Hans Zarkov is brainy, Ming is evil etc. This doesn’t exactly bode well for character development; and, sure enough, you get none.

The dialogue is so cheesy that you could sell it on a continental market stall and you start to feel embarrassed for the poor actors having to spout it. The most famous corny line, of course, is “Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!”, but there are plenty of other examples. Presumably, someone was paid to sit down and write this stuff, although if I were the producers, I’d be asking for my money back.

Then, there’s the plot. Or rather, then there isn’t the plot, because there isn’t one to speak of. Once Flash and friends land on the Planet Mongo, it’s simply a case of them trundling from moon to moon, trying to persuade the various inhabitants to team up and fight Ming. Taxing, it isn’t.

Or how about the special effects? Or, as I prefer to call them, the not-so-special effects. Bearing in mind that this film was released after Star Wars, there’s no comparison between the two. Flash Gordon was clearly a much lower budget affair, and it shows on screen. Backgrounds are mostly limited to funny coloured skies and the various moons look like they’ve been painted onto a canvas then used as a backdrop, in the same way that theatres do. Spaceships are ugly and look they’d struggle to get off the ground, and when they do, they look totally unconvincing in “flight”, wobbling around alarmingly. At every turn, there’s something to remind you that you’re watching a film – and not a particularly good one at that.

And yet…

Somehow, improbably, it works.

Much of this is to do with the huge sense of fun running through the film and the sense of humour it displays. Whilst most of the actors (Blessed aside) seem to think they are in a serious piece of drama, Director Mike Hodges, has other ideas. He mines the film for all the camp humour it is worth. In some respects, rather than being a sci-fi or action film, this is actually a great comedy! Sometimes this is intentional; sometimes it’s not – and the unintentional bits are even funnier! Whether you’re laughing with it or at it, it’s keeping you entertained!

The film also rolls along at a rollicking great pace, keeping you watching despite your better judgement. For the most part, it’s non-stop action and excitement. That said, the middle section is a little saggy and could, perhaps, have benefited from slightly tighter editing. Even so, you’re rarely bored.

Flash Gordon really captures the spirit of the old 1940s serials on which it is based, as well as the innocence and sense of fun from cheap 1950s B movies. You can see where frequent cliff-hangers have been deliberately and regularly built into the plot, to mark the transition from one “episode” to the next . Similarly, the cheesy dialogue, poor acting and dodgy special effects all reflect the wooden awfulness of its predecessors. Again, this is something which (even done knowingly) should render the film unwatchable, and yet, there’s a kind of morbid fascination is seeing just how bad, cheesy and unintentionally hilarious things can get!

Finally, of course, there is the blistering soundtrack by Queen. Like the film itself, this is ridiculous and overblown… and so entirely suitable to the film. It’s also very catchy and will have you singing “Flash… Ahha….” every time that bass line kicks in. Rarely has a soundtrack been so perfectly suited to the film it accompanies.

Conclusion
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Against all the odds, Flash Gordon succeeds. It manages to overcome poor acting, a lousy script, corny dialogue and diabolical special effects. By keeping a tongue in cheek attitude throughout and by paying affectionate homage to the 1940s serials, Flash Gordon overcomes its low budget B-movie status to become a camp classic! Who'd have thought that over 25 years after its release, we'd still be talking about what is, essentially, a disposable popcorn movie!

Basic Information
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Flash Gordon
1980
Director: Mike Hodges
Running time: approximately 111 minutes
Certificate: PG

Trivia
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Director Mike Hodges was the eighth choice – Nicolas Roeg and Federico Fellini (!) were amongst the others Producer Dino De Laurentiis hoped would come on board.

Copyright © SWSt 2007

Summary: A true camp classic