Flash And Flesh Gordon

Today I'm in a rather unapologetic mood, so I'm going to unashamedly talk about one of history's most campy films; Flash Gordon. Also I'm going to prove how young I am by admitting that I saw this film as a fresh teenager in the cinema when it was released in Europe in 1981.

_{Sam J. Jones (on the right) - Image by Sidewalks Entertainment - source: Flickr}

Actually the film was released in 1980, but back in those days we had to wait at least a full year before Hollywood released their films overseas. Things were a lot slower when I was a teenager; no mobiles, no internet, no Amazon, and we were one of the lucky few who owned a videotape recorder. Remember VHS? Or Betamax, or Video 2000? If you do, I'm sure you also remember this film Flash Gordon. And if you don't like science-fiction and never heard of the movie, you must remember the iconic score by Queen...

Flash! Ah-ah
Savior of the universe

Flash! Ah-ah
He'll save every one of us

Flash! Ah-ah
He's a miracle

Flash! Ah-ah
King of the impossible

Still doesn't ring a bell? Then how about this:

_{QUEEN - FLASH GORDON THEME HQ SOUND}

Truly timeless music for a futuristic story from the past; perfect! Come to think of it, Queen's music for another favorite movie of mine, Highlander, is equally brilliant. Flash Gordon, the movie, was based on a comic strip series from the 1930s, and a three part film serial: Flash Gordon (1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). Originally, the 1980 remake that I saw as a teenager was supposed to be the first of a three part series to, but a falling out between Sam J. Jones and the producers helped to scrap the planned trilogy.

Flash Gordon travels to the planet Mongo, ruled by the evil emperor Ming, together with his beautiful girlfriend Dale Arden to save the earth; Ming considers our planet to be a threat to his rule and wants to destroy it. Dale Arden is played by Melody Anderson who is best known for her role as Brenda Maxwell in Battlestar Galactica, the original series. Also starring in Flash Gordon is a young Timothy Dalton, who later in his career played James Bond several times, and British powerhouse actor Brian Blessed. And let's not forget the unforgettable Max von Sydow as the evil emperor; this film had all the necessary ingredients to become that trilogy.

To this day I believe the film deserved better than the lukewarm reception it got at the box offices. Also, in these times when all we seem to get is remakes and reboots, I wonder why no one has tried to remake this film; with modern techniques the fantasy world of planet Mongo with it's diverse races could be properly brought alive. Re-watching the 1980 movie is a blast, but only if you're willing to ignore the terrible effects.

So, who is Flesh Gordon? Several years after watching the movie, freshly out of my teenage years, I discovered this title and was immediately intrigued. We had dial-up networking and I was member of a Bulletin Board System (remember those?), so I quickly found out that Flesh Gordon was a pornographic parody, not of the film, but of the 1930's film series. Flesh Gordon released in 1974, long before I discovered Flash Gordon! Flash becomes Flesh, emperor Ming becomes emperor Wang the Perverted, Dr. Hans Zarkov becomes Dr. Flexi Jerkoff and our protagonist travels to planet Porno to stop the evil Sex Ray... There is a trailer for this film, but I'll let you look that up yourself. I'd much rather close this post with Flash Gordon's trailer, even if only as an excuse to listen to Queen's iconic music once more:

_{Flash Gordon Trailer}

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