I seem to remember going to the theater on opening night on a double date with my pal Pat and our girlfriends. Honestly, I don't think I saw much of the movie that night, but I did go back the following weekend and watched it again. It is one of my favorite movies ever - big and loud and colorful and fun, filled with outrageous characters and a great cast. In fact, the only one who isn't great is Flash himself - as played by Sam Jones, he's not exactly the most rugged of space heroes, and he's certainly no Buster Crabbe. But everyone else - lovely Melody Anderson, sultry Ornelia Muti, imposing Max Von Sydow, delightful Brian Blessed, stiff-backed Timothy Dalton, quirky Topol - is just wonderful.
Add in the awesome miniature effects and rousing score by Queen and Howard Blake... well, it's just a great entertainment, that holds up even now, three decades on.
Awesome !!! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about the star being the weakest link in the film. Do you know any of the details about how or why he was chosen as Flash? It seems they could have done better...
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe it's been that long since Flash premiered at theaters! I went 5 evenings to my small town cinema, and stayed through both shows. So I managed to watch the flick 10 times during it's theatrical run, great fun if one doesn't take everything seriously.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading somewhere that Sam Jones was discovered on an episode of The Dating Game and was hired to play Flash Gordon simply because he looked the part! His sole acting credit prior to Flash was a brief, non-speaking part in the movie "10" (as Bo Derek's husband).
ReplyDeleteJust like with Disney's the Black Hole I have only read the comic adaption of the Flash Gordon movie, but never watched either film in it's entirety.
ReplyDeleteI remember finally convincing my neighbor/babysitter to take me and it was sold out. So we settled for Battle Beyond the Stars!
ReplyDeleteLoved this movie when it came out...Became a life long fan of Max Von Sydow because it...(and Deep Roy too lol)
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