Flash Gordon

Earth is being hit by strange disasters. The cause is Ming the Merciless, ruler of the planet Mongo. Flash Gordon the footballer, the journalist Dale Arden and the scientist Zarkov end up in a rocket and land on Mongo, where they try to bring Ming's order down from inside. Mike Hodges directed. Sam J. Jones leads, with Melody Anderson and Max von Sydow. The music is by Queen and is the strongest thing the film has kept. The project's history is tangled. Dino De Laurentiis had chased the rights since the 1960s and wanted Federico Fellini first. When George Lucas could not get them he made his own film and Star Wars was the result. Nicolas Roeg spent a year in pre-production before De Laurentiis replaced him with Hodges, who brought in the screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. There was a rupture on the production too: Sam J. Jones left before post-production was finished and his dialogue was largely dubbed by the actor Peter Marinker, a fact kept from Jones for a long time. The reception was mixed. Pauline Kael wrote of its knowing, pleasurable giddiness, Roger Ebert liked its camp energy and Leslie Halliwell dismissed it as an expensive relic. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 83 percent and Metacritic at 58. It took 27.1 million dollars domestically and underperformed in most markets, while finding a strong audience in the UK and Italy. It became a genuine cult film, influenced directors including Edgar Wright and was the subject of the documentary Life After Flash. Who it is for: viewers who like garish colour, cardboard grandeur and Queen. Who it is not for: anyone after serious science fiction. The film mocks itself from beginning to end and makes no secret of it.