A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
- Nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards
- 2 wins & 14 nominations total
Max von Sydow
- The Emperor Ming
- (as Max Von Sydow)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFlash jumping towards the camera screaming "YEAH!" was improvised by Sam J. Jones. Nobody could figure out how to end the movie.
- GoofsAt the very beginning of the film, Ming and his henchman are discussing "an obscure body in the SK system", which the inhabitants refer to as the planet "Earth", pronounced as if the word is completely foreign to them. However, at that moment, Ming activates a button on his console labeled "Earth Quake".
- Quotes
Dale Arden: Ming's not unbeatable. With all his men, he couldn't even kill Flash.
Prince Vultan: [incredulous] Gordon's alive?
- Crazy creditsWhen the ending title appears, a hand picks up Ming's ring and Ming is heard laughing. A "?" appears, making it "THE END?"
- Alternate versionsThe Wide Screen VHS version released by BMG contains all the cut scenes in their complete and uncut version.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Queen: Flash (1980)
Featured review
A football player is tricked to travel the planet Mongo and finds himself forging friendships while fighting a tyrant, Ming the Merciless, to save Earth.
Lacking the production values and execution of the comparable Star Wars, Flash Gordon retains its comic-strip and Saturday morning matinée serial feel, possibly thanks to a troubled production and Lorenzo Semple Jr. screenplay.
Peter Wyngarde plays masked villain Klytus elegantly creepy (possibly and inspiration for He-Man's Skeletor) and with Mariangela Melato Kala's (oddly He-Man borrows another character this time Evil-Lynn) leads the assault while The Emperor Ming played subtly by Max von Sydow takes a back seat. It's this distance between the protagonist and antagonist that hampers the film but on the other hand it's works to its credit allowing an array of colourful characters to line the screen including Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan who's delivers a barrage of classic lines while Timothy Dalton to graces the screen as dashing Errol Flynn alike Prince Barin.
Flash's love interest Dale Arden is played by Melody Anderson Dale is the perfect 1950's style every day New Yorker. Flash lacks Charisma, history may have been different should Kurt Russell had committed. Either way Sam J. Jones Flash Gordon does the job. There's tones of familiar faces including UK's Richard O'Brien, Robbie Coltrane and Blue Peter's Peter Duncan. Sultry Ornella Muti is perfect as Ming's daughter Princess Aura nevertheless there's no doubt Topol steals every scene as unhinged science 'genius' Dr. Hans Zarkov.
While characters arcs change pacer than Queen's memorable pumping and notable soundtrack amongst themes of forging friendships, suicide, death, sacrifice and resurrection to name a few there's spaceships, poisonous creatures, red-clad guards and enough sequins to start a cabaret show all the things you'd expect from a science fiction. Beneath the bright and lustre costumes there's a dark and rebel subtext.
Director Mike Hodges gives us many stand out scenes including a battle to the death on a remote control tilting platform with retractable spikes, an American football inspired fight, a space shuttle assault, gooey spider-monster and girls cat fight. There's also some nice touches during Zarkov and prince escape that stay in the mind. The effects are a mixed bag with projection and composites heavy utilised, again it gives it's that hammy serial feel but hampers Flash's longevity as a rounded work of art. Even so it packs in so many memorable characters, lines and moments that it retains a must seem charm.
Flash Gordon is flawed as much as the actor title role, it never fully explores the characters, yet, it's well defined and still is a lot of fun. Gordon's alive!
Lacking the production values and execution of the comparable Star Wars, Flash Gordon retains its comic-strip and Saturday morning matinée serial feel, possibly thanks to a troubled production and Lorenzo Semple Jr. screenplay.
Peter Wyngarde plays masked villain Klytus elegantly creepy (possibly and inspiration for He-Man's Skeletor) and with Mariangela Melato Kala's (oddly He-Man borrows another character this time Evil-Lynn) leads the assault while The Emperor Ming played subtly by Max von Sydow takes a back seat. It's this distance between the protagonist and antagonist that hampers the film but on the other hand it's works to its credit allowing an array of colourful characters to line the screen including Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan who's delivers a barrage of classic lines while Timothy Dalton to graces the screen as dashing Errol Flynn alike Prince Barin.
Flash's love interest Dale Arden is played by Melody Anderson Dale is the perfect 1950's style every day New Yorker. Flash lacks Charisma, history may have been different should Kurt Russell had committed. Either way Sam J. Jones Flash Gordon does the job. There's tones of familiar faces including UK's Richard O'Brien, Robbie Coltrane and Blue Peter's Peter Duncan. Sultry Ornella Muti is perfect as Ming's daughter Princess Aura nevertheless there's no doubt Topol steals every scene as unhinged science 'genius' Dr. Hans Zarkov.
While characters arcs change pacer than Queen's memorable pumping and notable soundtrack amongst themes of forging friendships, suicide, death, sacrifice and resurrection to name a few there's spaceships, poisonous creatures, red-clad guards and enough sequins to start a cabaret show all the things you'd expect from a science fiction. Beneath the bright and lustre costumes there's a dark and rebel subtext.
Director Mike Hodges gives us many stand out scenes including a battle to the death on a remote control tilting platform with retractable spikes, an American football inspired fight, a space shuttle assault, gooey spider-monster and girls cat fight. There's also some nice touches during Zarkov and prince escape that stay in the mind. The effects are a mixed bag with projection and composites heavy utilised, again it gives it's that hammy serial feel but hampers Flash's longevity as a rounded work of art. Even so it packs in so many memorable characters, lines and moments that it retains a must seem charm.
Flash Gordon is flawed as much as the actor title role, it never fully explores the characters, yet, it's well defined and still is a lot of fun. Gordon's alive!
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Флеш Ґордон
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $20,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $27,107,960
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,934,030
- Dec 7, 1980
- Gross worldwide
- $27,185,209
- Runtime1 hour 51 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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