FLASH GORDON (1980) Savior Of The Universe!
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Costumes for the 1980 space opera film were designed by Italian Danilo Donati, who in addition to being a production designer, won the Academy Award for Best Costume twice (first for Romeo and Juliet in 1968 and Felini’s Cassanova in 1976).
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Flash Gordon is a 1980 space opera superhero film directed by Mike Hodges, based on the King Features comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Ornella Muti, Max von Sydow and Topol, with Timothy Dalton, Mariangela Melato, Brian Blessed and Peter Wyngarde in supporting roles. The film follows star quarterback Flash Gordon (Jones) and his allies Dale Arden (Anderson) and Hans Zarkov (Topol) as they unite the warring factions of the planet Mongo against the oppression of Ming the Merciless (von Sydow), who is intent on destroying Earth.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis, who had previously overseen two other comic book adaptations, Danger: Diabolik and Barbarella (both 1968), had held an interest in making a Flash Gordon film since the 1960s. After a directorial offer from George Lucas was declined (resulting in the creation of Star Wars) and a version that was to be directed by Federico Fellini did not enter production, De Laurentiis hired director Nicolas Roeg and Enter the Dragon writer Michael Allin to lead development on the film in 1977, but replaced them with Hodges and Lorenzo Semple Jr., who had scripted De Laurentiis' remake of King Kong, due to his dissatisfaction with Roeg's vision for the film.
Flash Gordon was primarily filmed in Britain, including on several soundstages at Elstree and Shepperton Studios, and uses a camp style similar to the 1960s TV series Batman (which Semple developed). Due to a dispute with De Laurentiis, Jones left the film prior to the end of principal photography, resulting in much of his dialogue being dubbed by actor Peter Marinker; the circumstances of Jones' departure from the project and his career in the aftermath of its release serve as the key subjects of the documentary Life After Flash. The film is notable for its musical score by the rock band Queen, featuring orchestral sections by Howard Blake.
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The film received overall positive reviews, holding an 83% approval rating at the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The film found appreciation with some film critics, such as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael. Kael described Flash Gordon as having "some of the knowing, pleasurable giddiness of the fast-moving Bonds... The director, Mike Hodges, gets right into comic-strip sensibility and pacing". Roger Ebert also praised Flash Gordon, stating "Flash Gordon is played for laughs, and wisely so... This is space opera, a genre invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Hugo Gernsback and other men of unlimited imagination harnessed to definitely limited skills. It's fun to see it done with energy and love and without the pseudo-meaningful apparatus of the Force and Trekkie Power... Is it fun? Yeah, sort of, it is".
Flash Gordon has since become a cult classic with fans of science fiction and fantasy. It is a favourite of director Edgar Wright, who used the film as one of the visual influences for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Acclaimed comic book artist Alex Ross names the film as his favorite film of all time. He painted the cover of the film's 2007 "Saviour of the Universe Edition" DVD release, and starred in a featurette to talk extensively about his affection for the film. In Seth MacFarlane's 2012 comedy Ted, the characters of Ted (MacFarlane) and John (Mark Wahlberg) are fans of Flash Gordon, and is referenced several times throughout the film. Jones (playing himself) also appears in the film during a manic party sequence and in the film's conclusion.[20] He also appears in the sequel Ted 2. Horror punk musician Wednesday 13 based the song "Hail Ming" on his album The Dixie Dead (2013) on the film.
Blessed's performance as Prince Vultan lodged the veteran stage and screen actor into the United Kingdom's collective consciousness for the utterance of a single line – "Gordon's alive?!" – which, 40 years later, remains the most repeated, reused, and recycled quotation from both the film and Blessed's career. - Wikipedia
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The Q&A in full from the 2015 FLASH GORDON REUNION! 35th Anniversary celebration from 195 Piccadilly home of BAFTA:
Behind the paywall, LIFE AFTER FLASH
Life After Flash is a 2017 British documentary film directed, produced and edited by Lisa Downs.
It chronicles the making of the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon and its eventual cult following, with particular focus placed on how the life and career of the film's lead, Sam J. Jones (who also served as an executive producer on this film), was affected by his falling-out with producer Dino De Laurentiis. Aside from Jones, the film features interviews with cast members Melody Anderson, Brian Blessed, Topol, Peter Wyngarde, Richard O'Brien, Deep Roy and Peter Duncan, composers Brian May and Howard Blake, De Laurentiis' widow Martha, comic book creators Stan Lee, Alex Ross and Mark Millar, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and actor Patrick St. Esprit.
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