Flash Gordon (1980)

Regisseur:

Mike Hodges

Drehbuchautoren:

Alex Raymond (characters)
Michael Allin (adaptation) ...

Premierendatum:

5. Dezember 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Abenteuer | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Werbezeile:

He'll save every one of us!

Plot:

A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyrant, Ming the Merciless, to save Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Castle In The Sky | Electronic Music Score | Robot | Emperor | Eaten Alive

Filmpreise:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 win & 8 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

It all works in this case

Besetzung

Sam J. Jones	...	Flash Gordon
Melody Anderson	...	Dale Arden
Max von Sydow	...	The Emperor Ming / Ming's Floating Servant (as Max Von Sydow)
Topol	...	Dr. Hans Zarkov
Ornella Muti	...	Princess Aura
Timothy Dalton	...	Prince Barin
Brian Blessed	...	Prince Vultan
Peter Wyngarde	...	Klytus
Mariangela Melato	...	Kala
John Osborne	...	Arborian Priest
Richard O'Brien	...	Fico
John Hallam	...	Luro
Philip Stone	...	Zogi, the High Priest
Suzanne Danielle	...	Serving Girl
William Hootkins	...	Munson

Länge:

111 Min

Produktionsland:

USA | UK

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe (Technicolor)

Seitenverhältnis:

2.20 : 1

Tonverfahren:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Altersfreigabe:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | UK:A (theatrical rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Drehorte:

Airstrip, Breakish, Skye, Highlands, Scotland, UK

Firma:

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)

Dies und das:

In the original script, when Flash is sentenced to death by Ming, Dale bursts out that Ming is "absolutely merciless". Ming is enthralled with the description, and immediately starts calling himself "Ming the Merciless".

Pannen:

Abfolgefehler: When one Ming's guards looks through a porthole of the ship, it seems that he is just outside. The next shot reveals a crowd of guards, but they are behind the ship and far away from the capsule.

Dialogzitate:

[first lines]
The Emperor Ming: Klytus, I'm bored. What play thing can you offer me today?
Klytus: An obscure body in the S-K System, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in Night Screams (1987)

Soundtrack:

Flash

It all works in this case

Some people aren't too fond of this version; it failed at the box office and many fans hate the camp, which, for me, works in this case. Unlike the Christopher Reeves SUPERMAN and others, the camp makes fun of the heroes, and not the villains (some of us like to take our villains seriously, and do not like them to made to look silly, thank you very much).

The filmmakers were obviously aware of, and aimed to incorporate, everything attached to Flash Gordon---from Raymond's comic strip, to the old Universal serials, to the semi-pornographic parody "Flesh Gordon," to even the post-STAR WARS mythology that audiences in the eighties would expect. Surprisingly, for such a diverse melange, it actually works.

Unlike the other space movies of the time, this film emphasized sets and costumes rather than visual effects, and as a result its overall look dates less than many spaceoperas of the late seventies/early eighties. For those who dismiss it--and there are many--be aware that there are also many of us who love it and have re-watched more than you. It's deligtfully rewatchable and nowadays is an indisputable example of what is termed a cult film.