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Flashy Flash Gordon
August 8, 2007

Between the comicbook-styled titillation of Barbarella (1968) and the Gaultier-glammed glitter of The Fifth Element (1997) lies Dino De Laurentiis’s juicily conceived 1980 production of Flash Gordon, which Universal quietly issued yesterday in a “Saviour of the Universe Edition.” I wish I could that the

content lives up to its name, but that’s not the case as it’s lacking a bunch of nice special features that turned up on the European Silver Anniversary Edition DVD. Said European edition offered commentaries by director Mike Hodges and actor Brian Blessed and a whole bunch of interviews, projection stills and conceptual art. None of this is included in the domestic edition. What we do get is an interview featurette with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and a piece featuring comicbook artist Alex Ross who waxes poetic for way too long about his love of the movie. (He also contributes a collectible B&W sketching as part of the package). The supplements are adequate, but they’re just not as good as those in the European version.

 

So, instead of dissecting the supplements, let’s talk about unique talent involved in this film. The bizarrely cast Flash Gordon is outfitted with a group respected international performers (Topol, Mariangela Melato, Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless) surrounding a pair of runway-pretty leading players who really can’t act all that well (Sam J. Jones as Flash and Melody Anderson as Dale Arden). Throw in performances by the era’s hottest Euro-starlet (Ornella Muti), a future James Bond (Timothy Dalton), a legendary playwright-cum-actor (John Osborne) and Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror, and you’ve got yourself one wacky ensemble night at the movies.

 

And how about the production credits? De Laurentiis poured so much into this baby!: A respectable director (maybe too respectable) in the form of Hodges of Get Carter fame, a screenplay by journeyman Semple Jr., whom DeLaurentiis obviously contracted NOT for his outstanding screenplays for such Seventies milestones as The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor but rather for his tongue-in-cheek treatments for the seminal Sixties TV send-up Batman. There’s also production ,costume and set designs by Danilo Donati who made his name working on such over-the-top Italian indulgences of the previous decade as the Felini’s Satyricon, Pasolini’s Salo and Bob Guccione’s production of Caligula. And then you’ve got Star Wars cinematographer Gil Taylor shooting the film like the glittery extravaganza that De Laurentiis was aiming for.

 

Let’s save the best for last, which in this case, of clurse, is the delightfully pulsating soundtrack by Queen.

 

Need I say more?

Posted by Laurence Lerman on August 8, 2007 | Comments (0)