When Ming The Merciless begins playing around with Earth’s
weather--and by playing around, I mean mass destruction on an unheard of scale;
the type of nasty weather that can really ruin your day--Flash Gordon (Sam Jones),
Quarterback for the New York Jets, is called upon to save the day. Traveling on
a plane on his way to the Jets’ training camp, he meets travel agent Dale Arden
(Melody Anderson) aboard the private craft. When the plane encounters a freakish
storm that causes the pilots to disappear, Flash takes over the controls and
crash lands the plane right into the laboratory of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol).
Zarkov doesn’t mind too much, since he’s looking for a crew for his rocket ship,
which he plans to take to the stars to find out what’s up with the wacky weather.
And once this trio lands on Mongo, the fun really begins.
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Based on the 1930s movie serials--which themselves were based on the comic strip
by Alex Raymond--the 1980 reincarnation of Flash Gordon dusted off the
interstellar hero in the hopes of creating a new film franchise in the era of
Star Wars. Well, it didn’t exactly happen that way. I saw this film in the
theaters with friends when it first came out, and after seeing The Empire
Strikes Back that summer, we were all giddily expecting another SF blockbuster
in the same vein. Yet the moment an impromptu football game breaks out between
Flash and Ming’s troops, with Dale yelling "Go, Flash, go," on the sidelines
like a demented Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, I quickly lost all hope of seeing
another SF classic. God, how I hated this film!
And yet, something funny happened in the 27 years since Flash Gordon’s original
release: it actually became a classic film in its own right. I mean, sure, it’s
very campy, with a script by the king of camp himself, Lorenzo Semple Jr., and a
garishly colorful production design by Danilo Donati that looks like the Wizard
Of Oz on acid. But in seeing the film again for the first time in 27 years (jeez,
where has the time gone?), I saw Flash Gordon for what it truly was--a
light-hearted farce--and enjoyed the hell out of it. This new DVD edition of the
film comes with the first chapter of the original serial, and after watching
that unintentionally funny joyride, you realize just how true to the original
concept the remake was. The corniness of the original serial is well-served by
the high camp, overly comical presentation that director Mike Hodges serves up. 
And the production design--as goofy as it appears--looks gorgeous in the DVD
widescreen format. If nothing else, the movie is a marvelous visual feast. And
Melody Anderson as Dale, and the alluring Ornella Muti as Ming’s horny daughter
Aura, are also a feast to behold in their skimpy outfits. The rest of the
supporting cast turns out to be very impressive, acting-wise: Max von Sydow as Ming; Topol as Zarkov;
Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin; Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan; Richard O’Brien
as Barin’s right hand man Fico, and the late William Hootkins as Munson. 
The new
DVD, released in conjunction with the premiere of the Sci-Fi Channel’s new Flash
Gordon series, features a new cover and a mini-black and white poster inside by
famed comic artist Alex Ross, who talks passionately about his love for the film
in an interview. In another interview, screenwriter Semple’s recollections on
the wild goings-on during the making of the film are wonderfully blunt and very
funny. Fans of the movie will love this snazzy new presentation, and as for
everybody else: just accept Flash Gordon as the fun comedy that it is, enjoy
the soundtrack by Queen, and
you’ll have a grand time.
--SF