“Who are you?”
“Flash Gordon! Quarterback, New York Jets!”
“Dale Arden…Your Highness. Live and let live…that’s my motto!”
“My name is Hans Zarkov. I kidnapped them both here to save our planet, Earth.”
(To Ming) “An obscure body in the S-K system; the satellite that has provided you so much amusement…recently.”
Arguably the quintessential cult movie of the 1980s, the Dino De Laurentiis production of Flash Gordon arrived already fully enveloped in, if not choked by, the shadow of the original Star Wars – a strange irony considering the rich back story and surpassing influence of both that property and its namesake hero. Legend tells that George Lucas only authored his sprawling sci-fi epic/epoch in response to being denied the rights to first adapt the story of Flash, gridiron hero turned intergalactic adventurer of Sunday comic and Saturday morning serial fame. In terms of both what was omitted and committed, we thus have one of the most consequential turns in film history. Continue reading “Movie review: “Flash Gordon” (1980)”
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