Life After Flash

If you are a sci-fi nerd of a certain age, chances are 1980’s Flash Gordon is important to you. The art-deco-inspired rocketships and floating palaces; the skimpy, borderline fetishistic costumes; Flash and Dale as wholesome and bland as two of slices of Wonderbread; the terrifying, metal-faced villain Klytus; the wicked Ming the Merciless. Growing up, my brothers and I watched it dozens of times, renting it from Country Time Video in American Falls, Idaho almost weekly. It was so different from our other rockets-and-rayguns touchstone, Star Wars, but we loved it as much, just in a different way. Based on the weekly newspaper comic strip created by Alex Raymond, directed by Mike Hodges, produced by the infamous Dino Delaurentis, and featuring an incomparable soundtrack by Queen, Flash Gordon is a campy, over-the-top space opera. Its plot is so basic, it’s almost laughable. Ming, ruler of the universe and evil-for-evil’s sake bad guy, decides to destroy the Earth, simply because he’s bored and needs something to do. Flash Gordon, quarterback for the New York Giants, just happens to find his way onto a rocketship headed for Mongo where he intends to save his home planet and, indeed, the universe. 

The film initially wasn’t seen as a success. While it cleared its 20 million dollar budget by a good bit, compared to both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back which producers wanted to emulate, it was a dismal failure. Critically, it received mixed reviews and was generally seen as an uneven, love-it-or-hate-it oddity.

The ironic thing is that the only reason George Lucas made Star Wars in the first place is he couldn’t buy the rights to Flash Gordon. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader exist only because ol’ George couldn’t afford Flash and Ming. The other aspect of the Flash Gordon film that often goes underappreciated is how close it stays to the source material. Critics made a lot out of the outlandish set and costume designs and the bright, garish colors throughout. All of those things are part of what makes the film such a faithful adaptation. The original comic strips were beautifully bright and colorful, and Alex Raymond’s designs were sleek, sexy, and often kind of ridiculous. Flash Gordon is more faithful than almost any comic book adaptation from the last 15 years. 

 Just this year, the documentary Life After Flash got a wide release and is now available on streaming. Part nerd-hymn of praise, part behind-the-scenes expose, the film features interviews with Sam J. Jones the big slab of beef who played Flash along with Melody Anderson who played Dale Arden, and the actors who played Vultan, Klytus, a variety of tree men and hawk men, and even a brief bit with Brian May of Queen. Life After Flash is at its most entertaining when it examines Flash Gordon as a cultural artifact. The artists, filmmakers, and comedians who talk about the film’s impact are funny and insightful, and their affection for the movie just sort of runs out of the screen at you. Brian Blessed, the classically trained Shakespearian actor who played Vultan, king of the Hawkmen, is a complete riot. His bluster and joyful arrogance made me laugh out loud repeatedly.

Supposedly the film’s main concern is telling Sam J. Jones’s story. In 1980, he was handsome, famous, and rich, but excessive partying and on-set altercations cost him the career he might have had as well as his first marriage and a lot of peace of mind. Now in his mid-60s, Jones is a born-again Christian who operates his own security company and crisscrosses the country making appearances at comic book conventions. At peace with his past, he seems to take genuine pleasure in meeting fans of a movie he made almost 40 years ago. Honestly, Life After Flash sags the most when Jones is on the screen, but overall, it’s an enjoyable, watchable film that will hit a chord of nostalgia with sci fi nerds everywhere.