Defending Flash Gordon isn’t easy. It’s a film which I have to concede is neither big nor clever. If you need proof of this, look at the special effects and the script in general. To summarise the basic structure of the film, Earth is being attacked by an alien named Ming and Flash Gordon stops him. I’d tell you what happens in between but to be honest, it’s not the tightest of plots. Bear with me. If you can get past these hurdles, you’ll find a hilarious, camp and continually entertaining cult classic.
If you’re nervous about openly embracing the ‘so bad it’s good’ mantra of cult cinema, you might still be able to acknowledge some aspects of the film as formidable. It’s impressive alone for the myriad of sexual innuendo it manages to fit into 100 minutes of PG rated screen time. And I’m not talking about subtle allusions; I’m talking about references to necrophilia, one nymphomaniac princess and multiple sadomasochistic set pieces including an almost entirely random whip fight because, obviously, on an alien planet the whip would be the natural weapon of choice for a deathmatch.
But genuinely, Flash Gordon is a film with merit beyond the number of laughs it offers. It is now, more than ever a refreshing example of its genre. We seem to have hit a phase in the film industry which involves the churning out of apocalyptic films which, as important and chilling as they are, do tend to leave the average cinema-goer overcome with guilt and all kinds of other not so warm and fuzzy feelings. And Flash Gordon is the antithesis of that. The coming ruination of the planet and all its peoples is not self-inflicted; no one is trying to cast the audience as the perpetrators of a crime.
We have a simple all-American hero fighting a psychotic alien king and as much as we rave about the depth of character in cinema, there’s still something totally disarming about an old fashioned good guy versus bad guy. Sometimes we don’t want to explore the inner workings of a hero’s psyche or sympathise with our villains. Is it so wrong that we might occasionally just want a raging maniac who decides to throw ‘hot hail’ at Earth because he’s bored? And if that plot point hasn’t convinced you of the absurd brilliance that is Flash Gordon, I don’t know what will.
