1
00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:07,760
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, we have a

2
00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:10,719
Speaker 1: fun one here for you today. This episode originally published

3
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,000
Speaker 1: two sixteen, twenty twenty four. It is our episode on

4
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:20,160
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties Flash Gordon. This movie is an extravaganza, so

5
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,840
Speaker 1: we're gonna dive right in, listen to a little Queen

6
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,720
Speaker 1: and rock out with its cosmic Shenanigans.

7
00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:35,800
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

8
00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:44,000
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb and.

9
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:45,640
Speaker 3: This is Joe McCormick.

10
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:45,839
Speaker 2: In.

11
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:50,000
Speaker 3: Today's film on Weird House Cinema is the cheeky nineteen

12
00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:55,720
Speaker 3: eighty science fiction adventure Flash Gordon, allegedly starring Sam J.

13
00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,680
Speaker 3: Jones and Max Foncito. But I would say more more

14
00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:04,480
Speaker 3: like arring Brian Blessed and Queen, and boy, what a

15
00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:06,880
Speaker 3: film this is, you know. I was just thinking about

16
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:10,720
Speaker 3: how we cover all kinds of movies on Weird House Cinema.

17
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,760
Speaker 3: We do good movies, conventionally bad movies, well known movies,

18
00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,360
Speaker 3: obscure gems, big and small, loud and quiet. But lately

19
00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:20,720
Speaker 3: I think we've kind of been on a streak. We

20
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:25,960
Speaker 3: have featured a lot of very big, very loud type

21
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,800
Speaker 3: movies extravaganzas, if you will, specifically movies like this from

22
00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:34,440
Speaker 3: the early nineteen eighties that are kind of a weirdness overload.

23
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:36,920
Speaker 3: So we did The Apple from the year nineteen eighty,

24
00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,320
Speaker 3: we did Zoo Warriors from the Magic Mountain from nineteen

25
00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:43,360
Speaker 3: eighty three, and now we're back with another movie of

26
00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:46,120
Speaker 3: this type yet again from the year nineteen eighty and

27
00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,280
Speaker 3: its Flash Gordon. In the tradition of the other two

28
00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,720
Speaker 3: I just mentioned, this movie is a lot. It is

29
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:57,080
Speaker 3: almost overwhelming in its thrilling and hilarious flamboyance.

30
00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so much here. This is the film seen

31
00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 1: many times over the years, and yet going into it again,

32
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:05,480
Speaker 1: you know, watching it maybe for the first time in

33
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:10,920
Speaker 1: oh maybe ten years, there's so much I'd forgotten. So

34
00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:13,720
Speaker 1: there were the big things that I was eager to

35
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:17,760
Speaker 1: re experience, and then equally overwhelming things that had slipped

36
00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:20,760
Speaker 1: my mind, and things that were maybe a little more

37
00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,520
Speaker 1: subtle that are also just as weird and wonderful. So

38
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 1: it's quite an experience. You know.

39
00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 3: There are a lot of things I want to talk

40
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,520
Speaker 3: about with this movie, but one thing that really struck

41
00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 3: me about it is that, and of course it's not

42
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:36,720
Speaker 3: the only movie of this sort, but it felt really

43
00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:38,760
Speaker 3: strong here is that this is a movie made with

44
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:44,520
Speaker 3: a palpable sense of nostalgia. It feels interesting because this

45
00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:47,079
Speaker 3: now is a movie that's like forty three, forty four

46
00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,480
Speaker 3: years old. Probably a lot of current adults have nostalgia

47
00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,000
Speaker 3: foreseeing the nineteen eighty Flash Gordon movie as a kid.

48
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,639
Speaker 3: But it's also a project where you can feel how

49
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 3: the filmmakers were trying to with some ironic distance, just

50
00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,680
Speaker 3: like shamelessly indulge in nostalgia for a type of storytelling

51
00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,120
Speaker 3: they themselves had loved as children, maybe forty years or

52
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:13,960
Speaker 3: so before that.

53
00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:17,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, getting into Flash Gordon's origins as a Depression

54
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,160
Speaker 1: era comic book, it's passed as a part of these

55
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,560
Speaker 1: various action serials and so forth. It was a very

56
00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:31,880
Speaker 1: influential series, a very influential fiction on a number of

57
00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,680
Speaker 1: future filmmakers, future writers, future comic book authors and illustrators, etc.

58
00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,680
Speaker 3: Now, this movie is not overtly a comedy. I guess

59
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 3: you would say that the genre is science fiction adventure.

60
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 3: But it is a deeply funny movie. And you could

61
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:51,280
Speaker 3: look at movies like that that are, you know, not

62
00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,400
Speaker 3: overtly comedies but are very funny, as the kind that

63
00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:56,600
Speaker 3: are intentionally funny and the kind that are not so

64
00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,480
Speaker 3: intentionally funny, maybe the latter category, you know, ed wood

65
00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:04,520
Speaker 3: films such this movie, though, is very intentionally funny, even

66
00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,320
Speaker 3: though comedy is not its overt category. One way I

67
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,600
Speaker 3: would describe this is a defining sensation in watching Flash

68
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:18,159
Speaker 3: Gordon is the thin clacking sound of plastic pieces of

69
00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:21,640
Speaker 3: costume armor hitting one another in the battle scenes. Like

70
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:24,560
Speaker 3: it feels like a significant choice that there was not

71
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 3: an attempt to edit out that plastic clacking sound or

72
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,680
Speaker 3: to like folly in a weightier sound. It's just part

73
00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:33,960
Speaker 3: of the magic of Flash Gordon. You are supposed to

74
00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,080
Speaker 3: hear the plastic on plastic grind.

75
00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point about that. The plastic armor. Gosh,

76
00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:43,039
Speaker 1: there's so much plastic armor. Yeah. It is an extravagant

77
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:48,520
Speaker 1: campy updating again of this old comic book, this old

78
00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,520
Speaker 1: series into a kind of late seventies cinematic vision comes

79
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,040
Speaker 1: out in nineteen eighty, but you know very much the

80
00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 1: late nineteen seventies trajectory getting this film made and it

81
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,480
Speaker 1: is out it out yet another sci fi film of

82
00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:05,840
Speaker 1: this era that was chasing the hit that was Star

83
00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,880
Speaker 1: Wars MM, which is ironic, of course, because George Lucas

84
00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 1: was heavily inspired by the old Flash Gordon comic books

85
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,520
Speaker 1: and actually wanted to make a film adaptation at one point,

86
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,800
Speaker 1: but the rights were too expensive, so he began an

87
00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,800
Speaker 1: alternate journey that would result in Star Wars and the

88
00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:27,480
Speaker 1: Star Wars franchise that would spill out of it. In

89
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:31,000
Speaker 1: the wake of the success of Star Wars, however, famed

90
00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:33,880
Speaker 1: Italian producer Dino de Larentz, who've talked about on the

91
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,279
Speaker 1: show before, picked up the film rights and set out

92
00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:38,360
Speaker 1: to produce the picture.

93
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,679
Speaker 3: That is funny and Yeah, I was wondering about exactly

94
00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:43,720
Speaker 3: that kind of thing, because for a long time I've

95
00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:47,799
Speaker 3: understood that part of the animating spirit behind the creation

96
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:52,160
Speaker 3: of Star Wars was an excitement for this type of

97
00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,520
Speaker 3: storytelling that George Lucas remembered from when he was a kid, Yeah,

98
00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:58,440
Speaker 3: like the adventure serials and stuff, and he wanted to

99
00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,040
Speaker 3: recreate that feeling with his own movie. I don't think

100
00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:04,080
Speaker 3: I realized that he directly wanted to do an update

101
00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:07,840
Speaker 3: of the Flash Gordon comics but but that would make

102
00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:10,320
Speaker 3: a lot of sense. Ultimately we got Star Wars, which

103
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:12,920
Speaker 3: is a you know, more new, original kind of thing,

104
00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,360
Speaker 3: which is wonderful in its own right. And then yeah,

105
00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,599
Speaker 3: like so you're saying that the Star Wars that George

106
00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:21,159
Speaker 3: Lucas had to make because he couldn't make he couldn't

107
00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:24,279
Speaker 3: get the rights to Flash Gordon ultimately inspired them to

108
00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:26,080
Speaker 3: make a new Flash Gordon movie.

109
00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Essentially, Star Wars is an evolution of the

110
00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:33,719
Speaker 1: basic concept. So in a way, what you know, Dealer

111
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,000
Speaker 1: Interesting sets up to do is kind of it almost

112
00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,200
Speaker 1: feels kind of backwards by comparison, Let's go back to

113
00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:42,000
Speaker 1: the thing that inspired the amazing new thing and see

114
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,599
Speaker 1: what we can create. And you know, to their credit,

115
00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,839
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel as much in its substance like a

116
00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:51,760
Speaker 1: Star Wars ripoff. It doesn't feel like you're chasing Star

117
00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 1: Wars so much, certainly not as much as other pictures

118
00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: we've talked about. But yeah, with this film have come

119
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,680
Speaker 1: into being without Star War being the success that it was,

120
00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,440
Speaker 1: he can make a strong argument that it would not. Now,

121
00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,680
Speaker 1: of course, Dino de Lorento's was not going to direct this.

122
00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,160
Speaker 1: You know, it's a predominantly, it's always been a producer

123
00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,800
Speaker 1: puts the pieces together right. At one point he had

124
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,880
Speaker 1: none other than Nicholas Rogue attached, who of course directed

125
00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,840
Speaker 1: The Man Who Fell to Earth, which we previously discussed

126
00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:24,240
Speaker 1: on the podcast.

127
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,760
Speaker 3: I love Flash Gordon the way that it is, but

128
00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,440
Speaker 3: I wish we could have seen the Nicholas Rogue version.

129
00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,920
Speaker 3: I'm imagining it would be a lot sadder and more

130
00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,560
Speaker 3: psychologically complex and would have like fifty times more full

131
00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:38,960
Speaker 3: frontal nudity.

132
00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:43,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's there's actually a whole special feature about

133
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,440
Speaker 1: this project that never came to be on the Arrow

134
00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,240
Speaker 1: Blu ray of Flash Gordon, which I watch for this

135
00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:53,720
Speaker 1: this episode rendered from videodrome. Of course, Rogue apparently wanted

136
00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:56,080
Speaker 1: to make a big Hollywood picture, and a lot of

137
00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,000
Speaker 1: work went into writing and storyboarding his vision for Flash,

138
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,400
Speaker 1: and they point out that Rogue was notoriously protective of

139
00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:07,240
Speaker 1: his vision for a picture. In the end, however, Dino

140
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,200
Speaker 1: didn't think that his vision was fun or funny enough.

141
00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:15,480
Speaker 1: It was apparently like pretty serious and you know, just

142
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:18,280
Speaker 1: like you'd imagine, it wasn't as campy as what we

143
00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,520
Speaker 1: end up getting, and so he Dino de Lerence is

144
00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,600
Speaker 1: get ends up going in a different direction, someone perhaps

145
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,200
Speaker 1: more suited in his view for the vision that he

146
00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,280
Speaker 1: sees for Flash Gordon. And also, according to some of

147
00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,440
Speaker 1: the commentators that they talked to in this feature, atte

148
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 1: someone who's maybe a little a little more willing to

149
00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:41,000
Speaker 1: play the game with a producer like Dino. So, yeah,

150
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,440
Speaker 1: it's always fun to imagine, you know, pictures that could

151
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:48,360
Speaker 1: have been, especially with some of these big, big films

152
00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,440
Speaker 1: like this. But you know, it's hard. It's hard to

153
00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,199
Speaker 1: imagine another version of Flash Gordon being as fun as

154
00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:55,680
Speaker 1: this one is.

155
00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,199
Speaker 3: I think that would fully depend on whether they got

156
00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,560
Speaker 3: Brian Blessed or not. And it's sounds like the rogue

157
00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,280
Speaker 3: version of this film, Brian Blessed's presence would not make

158
00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:05,000
Speaker 3: as much sense.

159
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:08,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is the atlas holding up this picture. I

160
00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:10,760
Speaker 1: don't have an elevator pitch for Flash here, Joe, I

161
00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:11,760
Speaker 1: don't know if you if you do it, I mean,

162
00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:13,760
Speaker 1: it's Slash Gordon. What can I tell you?

163
00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:15,199
Speaker 3: Here's the elevator pitch.

164
00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,840
Speaker 1: I love you, but we only have fourteen hours.

165
00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:19,120
Speaker 3: To say the.

166
00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:25,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, all right. Let's

167
00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,400
Speaker 1: listen to the original trailer audio here because and if

168
00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:30,640
Speaker 1: you haven't seen the film, and there's a lot to see,

169
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:40,400
Speaker 1: but still the sonic experience of the trailer is pretty convincing. Clides,

170
00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:44,680
Speaker 1: I'm bored. What play thing can you offer me today?

171
00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:48,040
Speaker 3: An obscure body in the SKA system of your majesty.

172
00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:52,280
Speaker 3: The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth.

173
00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:59,360
Speaker 1: I like to play with things. While before annihilation pathetic earthly?

174
00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:02,360
Speaker 3: Who can save you?

175
00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:12,559
Speaker 1: Now? Drange object imaged in the Imperial Botic?

176
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,080
Speaker 3: He said, who.

177
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:28,000
Speaker 1: The art woman? They paid half for a pleasure? Don't

178
00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:37,120
Speaker 1: killing yet? Father? I want him to flesh to.

179
00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:54,240
Speaker 3: F can out.

180
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:30,000
Speaker 1: Side. All right, Well, if you want to go out

181
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,480
Speaker 1: and watch nineteen eighties Flash and Gordon, there are multiple

182
00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:35,240
Speaker 1: places to see the film these days. It wasn't always

183
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,280
Speaker 1: the case. I remember a period of time when I

184
00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:39,760
Speaker 1: wanted to pick the movie up and I don't think

185
00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:42,560
Speaker 1: it was available on disc gett. But again, I watched

186
00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:45,200
Speaker 1: it on the excellent Arrow Blu ray. That Blu ray

187
00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:50,240
Speaker 1: also includes the full length documentary Life After Flash, amid

188
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:51,679
Speaker 1: a bunch of other extras.

189
00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,400
Speaker 3: I just streamed it on one of the major services

190
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,360
Speaker 3: and the quality was good, So yeah, it's out there, all.

191
00:11:57,320 --> 00:11:59,280
Speaker 1: Right, let's talk about the people involved here. Okay. So

192
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:02,280
Speaker 1: the director ist Nicholas Rode. The director that Dino Dealer

193
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,679
Speaker 1: NTO has ended up going with is Mike Hodges, who

194
00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,920
Speaker 1: lived nineteen thirty two through twenty twenty two. English director

195
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,800
Speaker 1: and writer, whose first big film hit was nineteen seventy

196
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:16,840
Speaker 1: one's Get Carter starring Michael Kine, followed by seventy two's Pulp,

197
00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:20,440
Speaker 1: seventy four as the Terminal Man, and seventy eight's Damien

198
00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:21,440
Speaker 1: Omen two.

199
00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,360
Speaker 3: Ah, that's the Omen movie with the like the all

200
00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,679
Speaker 3: Boys Prep School. Okay, have you seen that one?

201
00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:29,360
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that. I know you went through a

202
00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 1: tear with your Omen movies a while back.

203
00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:35,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, a couple of years ago, or either last year

204
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 3: or the year. Maybe it was just last year. Rachel

205
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,160
Speaker 3: and I watched all of the Omen movies. We enjoyed

206
00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:41,679
Speaker 3: the second one. I don't know if i'd say it

207
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:42,920
Speaker 3: was good, but we enjoyed.

208
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:47,840
Speaker 1: I just subsequent credits after Flash included eighty five Morons

209
00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,560
Speaker 1: from Outer Space, eighty nine's Black Rainbow, and two thousand

210
00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:54,600
Speaker 1: and threes I'll Sleep when I'm Dead. Also, he did

211
00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,120
Speaker 1: some TV, including a nineteen eighty six action movie called

212
00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,800
Speaker 1: Florida Straits with Roald Yulia in the lead role. And

213
00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:04,800
Speaker 1: he also did two music videos for Queen Flash, which

214
00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,400
Speaker 1: is of course is one of them. The songs from

215
00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,319
Speaker 1: this film as well as body language.

216
00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:14,960
Speaker 3: Weird coincidental or I would assume coincidental double Panos Cosmatos

217
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,559
Speaker 3: overlap This guy is a movie called Black Rainbow, and

218
00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,679
Speaker 3: in Flash there's a planet called Arborea, which is the

219
00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,960
Speaker 3: name of the center in Beyond the Black Rainbow by

220
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:25,960
Speaker 3: Panos Casmonos.

221
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:29,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, those connections are there. I one has to believe

222
00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,280
Speaker 1: they have meaning. Now, apparently Hodges had the right energy

223
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,520
Speaker 1: for this project, which, according to some of the bits

224
00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:38,480
Speaker 1: I was watching on the Blu ray, involves a lot

225
00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:40,360
Speaker 1: of sort of going with the flow on such a

226
00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:46,120
Speaker 1: large and at times it sounds like maybe slightly chaotic project,

227
00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:47,920
Speaker 1: you know, because you know, a lot of moving pieces,

228
00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:51,480
Speaker 1: and I think there were definitely some places where they

229
00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:53,720
Speaker 1: say that, you know, they had to kind of make

230
00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:55,480
Speaker 1: things up on the fly to figure out how to

231
00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:56,920
Speaker 1: piece everything together.

232
00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:01,439
Speaker 3: I think with one advantage of doing a big extravaganza

233
00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:05,319
Speaker 3: movie like this is that the success of the film

234
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,120
Speaker 3: doesn't hang so much on the on the story being

235
00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:13,400
Speaker 3: executed in a coherent way, so like you can have

236
00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:15,360
Speaker 3: you can have a lot of things kind of like

237
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,240
Speaker 3: get pieces get moved around and things get messed with,

238
00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:20,760
Speaker 3: and still over all the experience will kind of work.

239
00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't have to be perfect with Flashboard,

240
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,360
Speaker 1: which is not to discount the talent that went into

241
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,760
Speaker 1: this film, like so much about the the just the

242
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,320
Speaker 1: visual flare of the film, and we're not even gonna

243
00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 1: be able to get into all the names involved there.

244
00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:37,880
Speaker 1: But yeah, so many pieces do come together perfectly. It's

245
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,760
Speaker 1: just that you can definitely tell there moments where things

246
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:45,280
Speaker 1: feel like certain scenes have been rushed in terms of

247
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,760
Speaker 1: the overall vision for the picture and the flow of

248
00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,600
Speaker 1: the plot. Uh huh, all right. The screenplay credit goes

249
00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:58,040
Speaker 1: to Lorenzo Simple Junior Live nineteen twenty three through twenty fourteen,

250
00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,120
Speaker 1: American writer whose credits include one hundred and twenty episodes

251
00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,800
Speaker 1: of the original Batman series, which I think is telling,

252
00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:08,280
Speaker 1: but also films like nineteen seventy three's Papillon, seventy four's

253
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:11,280
Speaker 1: The Parallax View, seventy fives, Three Days of the Condor,

254
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,440
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy six, King Calling Movie, nineteen eighty three's

255
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:19,120
Speaker 1: Never Say Never Again, and nineteen eighty four Shena. The

256
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:23,920
Speaker 1: other writer that's credited is Michael Allen, whose other credits

257
00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:27,760
Speaker 1: include Enter the Dragon and also a half dozen other titles,

258
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,520
Speaker 1: but Flash being the biggest by far, and it's where

259
00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,240
Speaker 1: we also should point out that the character Flash Gordon

260
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,880
Speaker 1: was created by Alex Raymond, who lived nineteen oh nine

261
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,360
Speaker 1: through nineteen fifty six, an American cartoonist an illustrator who

262
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,240
Speaker 1: created Flash for King Features Syndicate back in nineteen thirty four.

263
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:48,880
Speaker 1: And I believe it was essentially an attempt to like, like, Okay,

264
00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:52,200
Speaker 1: the competitor has Buck Rogers, we need a Buck Rogers too.

265
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,240
Speaker 1: Let's make him. Okay, what are we gonna call him? Well,

266
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,920
Speaker 1: we can't call him Buck. How about Flash? We can't

267
00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: call him Rodgers? How about Gordon? There you go make

268
00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:12,160
Speaker 1: it work. And it grew from that. All right. Now,

269
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,520
Speaker 1: getting into the cast here, I'm gonna try and divide

270
00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:17,240
Speaker 1: it up among our core factions. You know, it's sort

271
00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:19,960
Speaker 1: of like Game of Thrones here, we have different factions involved.

272
00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:23,320
Speaker 1: We're gonna start with the Earth Links, all right. First up,

273
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:27,080
Speaker 1: we have Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon born nineteen

274
00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:31,720
Speaker 1: fifty four, former US marine model and American football player,

275
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,000
Speaker 1: who was cast in this film over various hot commodities

276
00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:37,840
Speaker 1: in Hollywood due to his debut in the nineteen seventy

277
00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:43,600
Speaker 1: nine Blake Edwards ten. His professional life after Flash, which

278
00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:45,440
Speaker 1: is again is the subject part of the subject of

279
00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:49,040
Speaker 1: his twenty seventeen documentary, consisted of a lot of TV

280
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,360
Speaker 1: work as well as films like eighty five's Jungle Heat,

281
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,640
Speaker 1: ninety two's Maximum Force, and a lot of just you know,

282
00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:01,440
Speaker 1: general action television action films not necessary like The Cream

283
00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,040
Speaker 1: of the Crop, you know. But he worked a lot

284
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,040
Speaker 1: more recently. He was in both Ted and Ted two,

285
00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:09,040
Speaker 1: and he remains active to this day.

286
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,760
Speaker 3: It's easy to see why he was cast when you

287
00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:15,200
Speaker 3: think about this movie as a comic book adaptation, because

288
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,480
Speaker 3: he has such a comic book illustration look about him,

289
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:22,240
Speaker 3: more so than most biological humans.

290
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,159
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no denying has a great look. Also no

291
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,200
Speaker 1: denying that he's rather green. But at the same time,

292
00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:36,080
Speaker 1: it's it's almost unfair to compare his acting to other

293
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,240
Speaker 1: actors in the film, because you know he and also

294
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:41,119
Speaker 1: is co star Melody Anderson, who will talk about in

295
00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:43,000
Speaker 1: a minute. I mean, they're in there with just an

296
00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:47,360
Speaker 1: international cast that features not only like very tenured actors,

297
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,719
Speaker 1: but also generational talents, and so it's you know, how

298
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,160
Speaker 1: can you compare one to the other. And then also,

299
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,520
Speaker 1: and I think this is more important he gets there's

300
00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,560
Speaker 1: a fair amount of fun that's made at the expense

301
00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:02,160
Speaker 1: of this character and to a certain degree of this performance.

302
00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,920
Speaker 1: But I think it's pretty perfect, right, I mean, what

303
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,040
Speaker 1: more do you want from the role of Flash Gordon here?

304
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:10,919
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, come on, let's be nice to Sam J. Jones.

305
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:15,600
Speaker 3: He does Flash great. You know what, what would you change?

306
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:17,080
Speaker 3: What kind of notes are you going to give him?

307
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:20,159
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean if we were talking about Nicholas Rogues

308
00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,680
Speaker 1: flash Gordon, yeah, okay, maybe that's a different animal we're envisioning.

309
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,359
Speaker 1: But this vision, this Flash Gordon, I think there's nobody

310
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,560
Speaker 1: else you put in there. I've read that people like

311
00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,600
Speaker 1: Arnold and even Kurt Russell, who would have been interesting

312
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:35,520
Speaker 1: in this role. You know that they were up for it,

313
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,240
Speaker 1: but it just I can't imagine it wouldn't be the same,

314
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:40,240
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the same. I'd go as far as to

315
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:42,439
Speaker 1: say that Arnold even at the time, would have been

316
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:43,480
Speaker 1: wrong for this role.

317
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:46,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm an Arnold defender. You know, a lot of

318
00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:49,399
Speaker 3: people make fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting, but I think

319
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,160
Speaker 3: he's actually a better actor in a lot of ways

320
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,480
Speaker 3: than people give him credit for. But I don't know

321
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:56,960
Speaker 3: if he's who I want. Is Flash?

322
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:00,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm definitely not In nineteen eight Now I

323
00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 1: mentioned Melody Anderson. This is the actress playing Dale Arden.

324
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:08,000
Speaker 1: This is the other key Earthling. This is his I

325
00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,639
Speaker 1: guess it's not his girlfriend at the beginning, but becomes

326
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:12,760
Speaker 1: essentially the Flash Gordon love interest.

327
00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:13,280
Speaker 3: Yes.

328
00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:15,159
Speaker 2: So.

329
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,560
Speaker 1: Anderson was born in nineteen fifty five Canadian actress who

330
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,080
Speaker 1: started off on TV with small parts and shows like

331
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:26,080
Speaker 1: Welcome Back Catter, the Logan's Run TV series Battlestar Galactica.

332
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:29,639
Speaker 1: She also had a supporting role in John Carpenter's nineteen

333
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 1: seventy nine Elvis TV movie.

334
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 3: Oh Interesting, Did that have Kurt Russell in it? Yeah?

335
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:36,080
Speaker 1: That was Kurt Russell as Elvis.

336
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:36,560
Speaker 3: Okay.

337
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,960
Speaker 1: She followed up Flash with a nineteen eighty one horror

338
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,680
Speaker 1: movie Dead and Buried nineteen eighty six is Firewalker, and

339
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:48,240
Speaker 1: various TV shows she retired from acting in the mid nineties.

340
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:50,680
Speaker 3: You know, I think Melody Anderson's a lot of fun

341
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 3: in this She has the right you could tell she

342
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,920
Speaker 3: has the right sense of humor in approaching this role.

343
00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so I like her in this role as well.

344
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,480
Speaker 1: All right, So that's two out of three Earthlings. The

345
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:10,119
Speaker 1: important third is doctor Hans Zarkoff played by Topol Topel

346
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,879
Speaker 1: lived nineteen thirty five through twenty twenty three Israeli actor, singer,

347
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,439
Speaker 1: and illustrator, best known for his starring role in nineteen

348
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,480
Speaker 1: seventy one's Fiddler on the Roof and his supporting role

349
00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,800
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one's For Your Eyes Only. It's been

350
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:24,480
Speaker 1: a while since I've seen For Your Eyes Only. He's

351
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:26,320
Speaker 1: not the villain in that Bond movie.

352
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,720
Speaker 3: He's like, no, he plays ally. Yeah, he plays a

353
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:35,360
Speaker 3: criminal that Bond ends up joining forces with to take

354
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:37,440
Speaker 3: out the villain in the end. He's sort of like

355
00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:39,480
Speaker 3: a lovable rascal smuggler.

356
00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. Other projects of note include the starring role in

357
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,680
Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy five Galileo movie, and he also shows

358
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,560
Speaker 1: up in one episode of Tales of the Unexpected. And

359
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,600
Speaker 1: I have to say, it's easy to forget about this

360
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,919
Speaker 1: performance in a movie that features both you know, Brian

361
00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 1: Blessed and Max Foncido just aim for the rafters with

362
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:06,159
Speaker 1: their performances, but Topaul hits the ground running with some

363
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:12,000
Speaker 1: just great a ridiculousness, just also just really chewing up

364
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 1: the scenery well also later on the picture, you know,

365
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:19,280
Speaker 1: breathing varying degrees of not only ham but also thoughtfulness

366
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,800
Speaker 1: in some of the scenes. So it's he does a

367
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: great job.

368
00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:24,880
Speaker 3: And you know, for this picture, Yes, I'm gonna say

369
00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:29,680
Speaker 3: this character in Topoul's performance is all over the map.

370
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 3: It's inconsistent, but it's mostly very good. Like he's zany

371
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 3: in some scenes, and he brings a very good, convincing zaniness.

372
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 3: There is one scene I want to talk about later

373
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:46,280
Speaker 3: that I think is just wildly tonally inappropriate for the

374
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 3: movie in that it gets very serious and even emotionally

375
00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,120
Speaker 3: moving in a way that does not exactly feel welcome

376
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:58,119
Speaker 3: in the context. But it's mostly because of him that

377
00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,960
Speaker 3: it works out that way, and it's quite powerful. Strangely,

378
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,119
Speaker 3: I think you know what I'm talking about, Like the

379
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:05,480
Speaker 3: mind conditioning scene.

380
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:07,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good one to talk about,

381
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 1: all right, let's get into Ming's court though, this is

382
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,479
Speaker 1: like the centerpiece of the film. And of course, as

383
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,440
Speaker 1: we mentioned already, we have Max Foncido playing Ming the Merciless.

384
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 1: Foncito lived nineteen twenty nine through twenty twenty.

385
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:23,640
Speaker 3: So one of the things that has not aged well

386
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 3: about this movie is that I think it's pretty undeniable

387
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:30,159
Speaker 3: that there are some elements of racial caricature in the

388
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 3: way Ming the Merciless is imagined.

389
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is important to note that the character Ming

390
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,360
Speaker 1: is along with the likes of fictional characters like Fu

391
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,600
Speaker 1: Manchu and more than a couple of characters from like

392
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: Marvel Comics and so forth. There are examples of the

393
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,199
Speaker 1: quote yellow menace trope, and it's also a character here

394
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 1: that's steeped in orientalism and racial stereotypes. Various later adaptations

395
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: of Flash have sought to distance the character from these origins,

396
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: and I don't know. In this picture we see kind

397
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: of like a mixed approach there where certain things are done,

398
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: but also you could make a strong argument that not

399
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 1: enough is done, certainly by modern standards.

400
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, So from what I understand, I'm not deep on

401
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 3: a Flash Gordon lore. From what I understand the character

402
00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 3: is is an alien, so it's not like he is

403
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 3: from a country on Earth. But it's just that in

404
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,200
Speaker 3: the way he is depicted, it relies a lot on

405
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 3: like on visual and thematic cues associated with stereotypical Asian villains,

406
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:33,919
Speaker 3: mainly Fu Manchu.

407
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,920
Speaker 1: Right right, So that's that's undeniable with this particular film.

408
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:42,360
Speaker 1: For a long time, I always felt like, Okay, well,

409
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:47,239
Speaker 1: Meeing here feels more Satanic. He feels more like they

410
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: patterned him after the Church of Satan's founder Anton Leavy.

411
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,480
Speaker 1: But I was looking into that more recently, and I

412
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,560
Speaker 1: saw folks online pointing out that Leavey may have patterned

413
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:03,000
Speaker 1: his personal look on Ming the Merciless, Oh, because he

414
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 1: would have grown up with the old flash comics and

415
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:10,159
Speaker 1: and I assume the older film adaptations and serials and

416
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,880
Speaker 1: so forth. So on one hand, though, if they did

417
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: do that, if they did say, let's make Meing more

418
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: like Anton Lavay, well, if Anton Lavay was mimicking Ming

419
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 1: the Merciless from the old comic books, then then what

420
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: are you doing? Just going in a circle at this point.

421
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say that in this movie some visual

422
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 3: elements that I think are still being borrowed from the

423
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,920
Speaker 3: racial caricature version of this character. Are there on the

424
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:39,359
Speaker 3: way on the way that Max Foncido is dressed and stuff,

425
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 3: but it is not there in Vonsido's performance. Like he's

426
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 3: not performing a racial caricature, if that makes any sense.

427
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: Right, He's not doing a voice. He's playing it and

428
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,119
Speaker 1: he's playing it pretty straight, and really he brings a

429
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 1: certain grandeur to the role, like it's it's you know,

430
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: these issues aside, it's a very fun performance. It's a

431
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 1: very you know, over the top and entertaining villain role.

432
00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree. So it's just it's just a

433
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,160
Speaker 3: bummer that these elements are still somewhat there.

434
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, as for Max foncidoa legendary Swedish French actor,

435
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 1: I think everyone has seen something he was in. If

436
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 1: you have watched these movies at all, you stand a

437
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: really good chance because he was active for like seventy years,

438
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 1: as his career spanned that long. His Swiss credits go

439
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,639
Speaker 1: back to nineteen forty nine. Igmar Bergman's nineteen fifty seventh

440
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 1: film The Seventh Seal was his real like international breakthrough role,

441
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: expanding his career to include a host of European and

442
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,159
Speaker 1: American films. His many films include nineteen seventy three is

443
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,439
Speaker 1: the Exorcist, nineteen eighty two's Conan the Barbarian, eighty three's

444
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: Strange Brew just to you know, mix it up a

445
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: little bit, eighty four's Dreamscape, eighty four's Dune. He is

446
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: in Ghostbusters too. He's the uncredited voice of Vigo the Carpathian,

447
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 1: the real villain of that piece.

448
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know that.

449
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, nineteen nineties Awakenings, nineteen ninety three's Needful Things. He's

450
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: in the ninety five Judge Dread Movie, two thousand and

451
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: two's Minority Report two thousand and nine, Solomon Kane. He late,

452
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,640
Speaker 1: very late in his career. He pops up in twenty

453
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:22,479
Speaker 1: fifteen Star Wars, The Force Awakens, and TV's Game of Thrones.

454
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:25,840
Speaker 3: Wait, I feel like I see more Dino connections here.

455
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,159
Speaker 3: Didn't Dino de Laurentis produce the eighty four Dune directed

456
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:29,880
Speaker 3: by David Lynch.

457
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:32,919
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think he must have been a favorite, uh

458
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: of Dinos? Yeah? Interesting, but it's he's he's again one

459
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,399
Speaker 1: of these actors who drop him in just about anything.

460
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 1: Be it something like very serious or something more on

461
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: the campy, you know, or even blockbuster scale, and he

462
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: brings he brings a certain grandeur to the role. He

463
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 1: brings a certain power in presence.

464
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 3: He improves anything he's in.

465
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so that's Meing the merciless. But Meing

466
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: has a daughter, and this is Princess r played by

467
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:06,160
Speaker 1: Ornella Muti born nineteen fifty five. This is the evil princess,

468
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: evil seductive princess, very sort of typical role that you

469
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: might imagine if you haven't seen the film. Muti is

470
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: an Italian actress's who has worked extensively in Italian TV

471
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 1: and film, so a lot of her credits are not

472
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,439
Speaker 1: things I'm not familiar with, but her early credits include

473
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 1: Romberto Lindsay's Oasis of Fear that's from nineteen seventy one.

474
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 1: Ray Lovelocke is in that We've touched on Ray love

475
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: Locke before, but she went on to appear in such

476
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 1: films as Tales of Ordinary Madness in nineteen eighty one

477
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,120
Speaker 1: and the nineteen seventy nine Russo Italian movie Life Is Beautiful.

478
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 3: She does also some wonderfully comical overacting in this, which

479
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 3: again I think is intentional, like the way she's ogling

480
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon in the first scene where he comes into

481
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:53,879
Speaker 3: the palace throne room is hilarious.

482
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: Now, an, this is essentially our b villain. This is

483
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: a mean, immediate underling that like Lord's over his secret Police.

484
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: This is the character Clytis, who is kind of a

485
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,120
Speaker 1: If you're familiar with this character, think Doctor Doom except

486
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,879
Speaker 1: gold Mask, and that's essentially who this character is.

487
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 3: Yeah.

488
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:20,679
Speaker 1: Great villain, extremely over the top, perfect sardonic vocal performance

489
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:24,680
Speaker 1: by the actor here, and also a physical performance which

490
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 1: seems unnecessary given how heavy these costumes all apparently were. Like,

491
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,240
Speaker 1: even if they are made of plastic instead of metal,

492
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 1: these were apparently really weighty.

493
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 3: Yeah. And he also is just like a comical depiction

494
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 3: of evil in that he frequently makes statements of disgust

495
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 3: whenever someone expresses love or selflessness in any way. You know,

496
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 3: somebody is like, Flash, I love you, and he's like pathetic. Yeah,

497
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 3: this is a fun performance. The actor here is Peter Wingard,

498
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 3: who of nineteen twenty seven through twenty eighteen British television,

499
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 3: stage and film actor, best known without the mask for

500
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 3: playing the fictional Jason King and a pair of British

501
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 3: TV shows.

502
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: His other credits include sixty ones The Innocence and nineteen

503
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: sixty two's Night.

504
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 3: Of the Eagle Top Shelf hinge Yes.

505
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 1: But then there's another hint, and this is kind of

506
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: Clytus's Hinchman or hinchwoman, and that is Kala played by

507
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 1: Marian Glimlato, who lived nineteen forty one through twenty thirteen,

508
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: an Italian actress whose other credits include nineteen seventy three's

509
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: Love and Anarchy and nineteen seventy four Swept Away. Both

510
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 1: of these were directed by Lena Vertmula. And we're co

511
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: starring gian Carlo Janini, who, of course great Italian actor

512
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: who's been in a lot of big international films.

513
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 3: Yeah she, I guess we're gonna have to say this

514
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 3: about a lot of actors in this movie. But she

515
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 3: also is doing some very pleasing overacting, just like really

516
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 3: punctuated over annunciation of her lines, if you know what

517
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 3: I'm talking about. Yeah, uh, it's it's really good stuff.

518
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 3: She has a lot of really good lines that get

519
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 3: singled out and appear in the Queen tracks. I guess

520
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 3: we'll get to that in a minute. But like when

521
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 3: dialogue is sampled from the movie. A lot of the

522
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 3: dialogue is either Brian Blessed or her saying lines like

523
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 3: what do you mean flash Gordon approaching?

524
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's Flash of Gordon. Go big or

525
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: go home? Shoot for the rafters. Don't leave your subtle

526
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 1: acting at home, because that's whatnot that's what That's not

527
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: what this movie is about.

528
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:30,960
Speaker 3: And yet the very next actor we're going to talk about,

529
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 3: I would say, gives one of the sort of straightest,

530
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 3: cleanest performances in the movie. And yet is I would say,

531
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 3: quite good.

532
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we're getting into the faction of the Arboians,

533
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: who are I guess you describe them as space elves

534
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: kind of like what if the Ewoks were British dudes?

535
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly right, Yeah, if the Ewoks were just humans

536
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 3: dressed like Robin Hood.

537
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: Yes, there's space Robin Hood's yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we

538
00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: have Prince Baron. Is Baron here Baron? They just say Baron, Yeah, Baron.

539
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: Prince Baron played by the great Timothy Dalton.

540
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 3: In this role, he is handsome, swave, dangerous. He's great

541
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 3: when he's one of the bad guys, and he's great

542
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 3: when he's one of the good guys. I really like

543
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 3: him in this.

544
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's got that swashbucklan mustache. So it's a

545
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: great look for this film that is ultimately hinging on

546
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: a lot of nostalgia for the like old action serials

547
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 1: and so forth. Totally yeah, so yeah, future James Bond here.

548
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: At the time, he already had some really impressive credits,

549
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: including sixty eight's The Line in Winter, seventies Cromwell, a

550
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy adaptation of Worthering Heights. Of course, he plays

551
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: the lead in that. What's his name not Garfield, the

552
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: other one Heathcliff. Yeah, and he followed Flash up with

553
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: a number of period pieces for TV before taking up

554
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 1: the role of Double O seven for nineteen eighty seven's

555
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 1: The Living Daylights.

556
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 3: Funny thinking about Wuthering Heights because Heathcliff is a classic

557
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 3: byronic hero, and Baron in this movie is kind of

558
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 3: a byronic hero.

559
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: That's true.

560
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, you need a character like that in a movie

561
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 3: where your other like romantic lead lead guy is just

562
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 3: a football beef.

563
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 1: Man, you know. And I think maybe this comes back

564
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 1: to his casting in the James Bond franchise. He only

565
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: did the two films, the other one being Licensed to

566
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: Kill from eighty nine the follow up. But he was

567
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: kind of like a pivot to a more dangerous Bond,

568
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 1: right getting away from the Roger Moore series, which I

569
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 1: mean a lot of love for Roger Moore, but I

570
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: think at the time people had kind of maybe had

571
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: enough of the hammier comic side of Bond, and they

572
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 1: wanted something a little harder, which is kind of an

573
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: up and down trajectory you see throughout the entire franchise.

574
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 3: Roger Moore is a very languid, dry humored Bond, you know,

575
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 3: he's just he's a very raised eyebrow and quip kind

576
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 3: of Bond. Timothy Dalton. Yeah, they brought in to be

577
00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:02,760
Speaker 3: a much darker, meaner, more emotional and dangerous feeling James Bond.

578
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, kind of unpleasant Bond, if you will.

579
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 3: But in a way that's an interesting place to take

580
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 3: the character.

581
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And and I remember I was quite

582
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: a fan of him back in the day because when

583
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 1: I was a kid during like my Key Bond movie

584
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 1: appreciation period, like he was the new Bond, he was

585
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: the current Bond, and I remember feeling a bit betrayed

586
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:25,800
Speaker 1: when we changed bonds after only two films. I was like, no,

587
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: this is not You're not supposed to switch out after

588
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: two You're supposed to keep it, keep him going for

589
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 1: just years and years and years.

590
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 3: Yeah. I could see what you mean, especially because after

591
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 3: after him doing two movies, they switched to Pierce Brosden,

592
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 3: which was basically a reversion to the Roger Moore bond. Yeah,

593
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 3: it's more again the raised eyebrow and the quip.

594
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: And then going dangerous again with the with the harder bond.

595
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: So I think we're due for a comic bond. I'm

596
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: people keep talking about, Oh, which which, which handsome fella

597
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 1: or or or lady or what have you is gonna

598
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: play bond next? But really the pattern shows we need

599
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 1: somebody funny. We need somebody with that dry wit and.

600
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 3: Like a bond who doesn't sweat.

601
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: You know.

602
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:10,399
Speaker 3: This is the thing about the funnier bonds, like Pierce

603
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 3: Brosnan and Roger Moore just seems like they move less.

604
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 3: They're more just stationary, you know.

605
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, we'll see what they put together, all right.

606
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 1: So that's the Prince of the Arborians. They are a

607
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: bunch of Arborians. But the only other one that really

608
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: matters for just our quick discussion here. We may touch

609
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 1: on some others later on, but we have Richard O'Brien

610
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 1: playing the character Fikoh.

611
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 3: I didn't catch him at first. It took me a

612
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,439
Speaker 3: bit to realize, like, well, wait a minute, that bold

613
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 3: guy's Richard O'Brien.

614
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Born nineteen forty two, the mastermind behind

615
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,399
Speaker 1: the Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which he also played

616
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: riff Raff, the future Mister Hand in nineteen ninety eight's

617
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:52,200
Speaker 1: Dark City. So it's a very small role, of fun role,

618
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 1: and we'll come back to rich O'Brien another time.

619
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 3: Are we done with the cast yet?

620
00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 2: No?

621
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 1: No, because the next faction we can't forget the Hawkmen.

622
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and we cannot, absolutely cannot forget the Prince

623
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 1: of the Hawkmen, Prince Voltan, played by Brian Blessed.

624
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 3: Brian Blessed, did you say.

625
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 1: That's right? Oh my god? This has any actor ever

626
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 1: made such a feast of his lines as Brian Blessed

627
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:25,280
Speaker 1: in this film.

628
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 3: Maybe I've said this before, but he is vomiting digestive

629
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 3: enzymes all over the scenery so he can slurp it

630
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 3: up like a spider.

631
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is like the galactus of consuming the scenery

632
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 1: for sure. Oh my god, every moment Brian Blessed is

633
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: on screening, this is just amazing, just I mean, a

634
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: booming actor for starters. Even if you didn't see him,

635
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,320
Speaker 1: if oh, you've only heard him, if he were voicing

636
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: a puppet, it would be overpowering. And it's just so intense.

637
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 1: But on top of that, you get to see him

638
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: and he has this, you know, just intense eyes and

639
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 1: a laugh that somehow manages to allow you to see

640
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: all of his upper teeth at once.

641
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. One way I was thinking about it was,

642
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 3: you know when there's an actor in a movie who

643
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 3: only has one line and they're like a little bit part.

644
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 3: They have one line, but they're trying to be really memorable,

645
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 3: so they go way over the top. He's like that,

646
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,760
Speaker 3: except he has like fifty lines and he treats every

647
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 3: one of them like that.

648
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 1: He does Oh my god, like the famous one that

649
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,200
Speaker 1: will come back to being Gordon's alive. I can't even

650
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: do it the way he does, like the way he

651
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: says it. He just complains, you've heard it. It's just

652
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,280
Speaker 1: how does he do it? I don't know, it's amazing.

653
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:41,879
Speaker 3: He looks like he has bitten people's fingers off, you know. Yeah,

654
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,360
Speaker 3: and just imagine somebody got too close and he just chomped.

655
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, just amazing physical presence that would be clear.

656
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:52,040
Speaker 1: The Hawkmen is well described. But they are wearing like

657
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:57,759
Speaker 1: sort of like leather pants and like and belts, and

658
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 1: they have big like helmets on with horns, and then

659
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,960
Speaker 1: they have full sized like eagle wings. So there's a

660
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,240
Speaker 1: lot going on here in the visual presentation of Prince Fulton.

661
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 3: A lot of leather straps and stuff, and they've got

662
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:14,839
Speaker 3: these clubs that have a hook on the end. It's

663
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 3: a very nasty looking weapon.

664
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, some sort a vicious cudgel. And then I think

665
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 1: they all have spraytn on as well. Yes, all right,

666
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: so we'll keep talking about Brian Blessed. But yeah, he

667
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: is a legendary actor of stage, screen and TV. A

668
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,879
Speaker 1: lot of his early roles were on TV shows, such

669
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 1: as the nineteen sixty three Musketeers series, in which he

670
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 1: of course played Porthos. He was also on The Avengers

671
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 1: a few times. Other TV roles include I Claudius in

672
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 1: seventy six. He was on multiple episodes of black Adder

673
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 1: in eighty three. He was in an eighty three adaptation

674
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:53,840
Speaker 1: of the Hound of the Baskervilles. He was on Doctor

675
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 1: Who in eighty six. He was on the series Crossbow

676
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: in eighty seven, and he made a big splash of course,

677
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: Henry the Fifth in nineteen eighty nine, directed by and

678
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:04,320
Speaker 1: starring Kenneth Brona.

679
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 3: Oh did he play Exeter.

680
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: I had to look it up, but yes, yes, that

681
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: was the role he played in The Nice Perfect He'd

682
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 1: ultimately appear in four of the five Shakespeare films directed

683
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,399
Speaker 1: by Kenneth Brona, the others being Much Ado About Nothing

684
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 1: in ninety three, Hamlet in ninety six, and As You

685
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 1: Like It in two thousand and six.

686
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 3: I can just really imagine him getting mad about tennis balls.

687
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:32,040
Speaker 1: So really too many things to list here, but we

688
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 1: do have to mention that he provided the voice of

689
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,360
Speaker 1: Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace and continues to do

690
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,600
Speaker 1: just a lot of voice work, So he's still still active,

691
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:40,799
Speaker 1: at least as a voice actor.

692
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 3: Has anybody ever interviewed him about like what he was

693
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,640
Speaker 3: thinking going into this role, Like what why did he

694
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 3: choose to act to the level that he did.

695
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,600
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't see anything offhand. I'm sure someone

696
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 1: has asked him about it, but I mean I don't know.

697
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: I almost like, why would I question the man? Like, yes,

698
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:07,320
Speaker 1: he nailed it, you know. I mean, this is a

699
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: very like loud, boisterous character, and he's just played as

700
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:16,359
Speaker 1: loudly and boisterously as possible. Okay, all right, now at

701
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:18,839
Speaker 1: this point we're we're gonna skip ahead a little bit again.

702
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 1: I'm skipping over so many talented people involved with the

703
00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: visual look of the picture. But we've got to get

704
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:25,640
Speaker 1: to the music.

705
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 3: Oh lord, the music. That's one of the real stars

706
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 3: of the film.

707
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:32,879
Speaker 1: That's right, because now we have sort of two things

708
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:34,839
Speaker 1: going on with the music here. We have the more

709
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 1: traditional swashbuckling orchestra music in this picture, and it's very

710
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:44,319
Speaker 1: effective and again fitting since you know, swashbuckling and so forth.

711
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:47,400
Speaker 1: But this is the work of Howard Blake born nineteen

712
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: thirty eight, whose scores include nineteen seventy Seven's of the Duellists,

713
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: That's the Ridley Scott picture, eighty three's Amityville three D.

714
00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: And he was nominated for a BAFTA for his work

715
00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:01,880
Speaker 1: on this film. But the rest of the music is

716
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: famously the work of the legendary rock band Queen.

717
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,560
Speaker 3: I knew the song the theme song from Flash Gordon,

718
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 3: before I knew there was a movie Flash Gordon, Like

719
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 3: way back when I was letting like middle school, I

720
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 3: somehow was able to download an MP three of the

721
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 3: Queen song Flash and not even realize that it was

722
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 3: connected to a movie. I just thought there were these

723
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,479
Speaker 3: wacky lines people were saying in the song.

724
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the track as is featured on the soundtrack

725
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,040
Speaker 1: for the album, which is available you know, anywhere you stream,

726
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 1: anywhere you find Queen music, you can find this. It

727
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:43,439
Speaker 1: has all these samples from the picture, which in their

728
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 1: tremendous samples, like any they managed to fit like so

729
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: many great lines into the track.

730
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 3: We get Flash gordons alive, we get what do you mean,

731
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon approaching, We get I think Dispatch, Dispatch, war Rocket,

732
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:56,880
Speaker 3: Ajax to bring back his body.

733
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 1: Yes, so many great lines. So this movie in nineteen

734
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,120
Speaker 1: eighty six is Highlander. Are the only films that Queen

735
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 1: ever really worked on in this sort of exclusive capacity,

736
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, in both cases creating tracks exclusively for these films,

737
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: with Flash being the only film where Queen contributed not

738
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: only to the soundtrack but also to the score. This

739
00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:23,040
Speaker 1: is something I don't think I quite appreciated as much

740
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 1: until recently. But yeah, some of the most stirring and

741
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 1: just vibe defining tracks in the score for Flash Gordon

742
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: are Queen compositions.

743
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:34,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So there is the main theme, which we

744
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 3: can talk about, I mean that has like singing in lyrics,

745
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:40,319
Speaker 3: but there also is a lot of just great sort

746
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:44,279
Speaker 3: of mood music, you know, setting the scene for things

747
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 3: happening in the plot. That is part of the Queen score.

748
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,840
Speaker 3: You know, these great these drum tracks when they're like

749
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,800
Speaker 3: approaching the Imperial Vortex and the you know, the the

750
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 3: pulsing synthesizers and all that that are just doing the

751
00:41:57,680 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 3: you know, the regular work that a film score needs

752
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 3: to do to put you in the in the right

753
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,359
Speaker 3: frame of mind for a scene. But it's it's part

754
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 3: of what Queen contributed.

755
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So the writing credits are broken up a bit,

756
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 1: but Freddie Mercury is credited for Ming's theme. This is

757
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: a blistering synth number that plays whenever, especially the first

758
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:19,000
Speaker 1: scene when we see Ming, you know, enter the throne room.

759
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 1: And then Brian May is credited on Flash's theme, John

760
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: Deacon is credited on execution of Flash, and Roger Taylor

761
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: is credited on in the space capsule the love theme.

762
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 3: It's amazing how well Queen fits the subject matter. And

763
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 3: so we were talking about this on chat before we

764
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 3: came into the to the session here. But I was

765
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:45,080
Speaker 3: thinking about how part of Brian May's signature guitar sound

766
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 3: is that like that harmonized double lead thing where he would,

767
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 3: you know, he would multi track lead guitar lines and

768
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 3: solos in harmony together, and that it just sounds like

769
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon. But he was doing this from before the

770
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon soundtrack. He does that on you know, much

771
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 3: earlier albums.

772
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,360
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, yeah, it's I have to have to

773
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:07,839
Speaker 1: admit with Queen, I've I've been a Queen fan since

774
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:09,800
Speaker 1: I was a kid, but I've always been a Queen's

775
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 1: Greatest Hits Queen fan, So like, there were a lot

776
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: of tracks I missed out on and had to like

777
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,719
Speaker 1: re explore later on. And I've never been like like

778
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: super tuned into like their trajectory from one album to

779
00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: the next. But I was reading an article by an

780
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 1: author by the name of Ryan Reid. This was on

781
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:29,879
Speaker 1: Ultimate Classic Rock dot com. It came up in search

782
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 1: titled how Queen embraced the synthesizer on Play the Game,

783
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:37,040
Speaker 1: and this article points out that Queen first embraced the

784
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: synth on their nineteen eighty album The Game, just six

785
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:41,720
Speaker 1: months prior to this film score.

786
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,320
Speaker 3: Mmm, yeah, okay, so they had said I think on

787
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 3: earlier albums that they were not really interested in synthesizers

788
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 3: like that. They even had one album that in the

789
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 3: liner notes it had a little dig that said something

790
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:58,279
Speaker 3: like no one on the synthesizer. But then they I

791
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 3: guess they came around to it, and you know they

792
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:01,080
Speaker 3: use it. Well.

793
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely Again, that ming track Meing's theme alone is

794
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 1: just so great and just sets the tone.

795
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 3: I was trying to think of another non musical movie,

796
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 3: meaning like a movie where the characters don't sing, that

797
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 3: has an original soundtrack with music that has lyrics about

798
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: the characters and plot, which the title track here Flash

799
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:26,960
Speaker 3: does have and doesn't just play in the credits that,

800
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 3: by the way, plays within the movie. There are the

801
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,400
Speaker 3: parts where you hear them singing about Flash. Is there

802
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:34,880
Speaker 3: another I can't think of another thing like that?

803
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, And to be clear. It needs to be a film.

804
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,720
Speaker 1: It doesn't not a film that is based on a ballad,

805
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 1: but a film that has essentially a ballad that was

806
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: created to be the theme song for the picture about

807
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 1: the main character.

808
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:53,000
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. It'd be like if there was like a

809
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,040
Speaker 3: Captain America movie that had a song that played what

810
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,720
Speaker 3: in a scene in the movie with lyrics about Captain America?

811
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,759
Speaker 1: Who? I guess the main example that comes to mind

812
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: is the theme song to Shaft.

813
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,960
Speaker 3: Oh, okay, there you go? Or I can't remember. Does

814
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:10,480
Speaker 3: that only play over the credits or that plays in

815
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:11,359
Speaker 3: the film as well?

816
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:13,359
Speaker 1: I don't remember, you know, I don't know that I've

817
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 1: ever seen Shaft, but I mostly just heard the theme song.

818
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:19,799
Speaker 3: Okay, we gotta go back and confirm that. Listeners, if

819
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 3: you can think of examples of songs like this, let

820
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 3: us know, contact a stuff to blow your mind dot com.

821
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's get into the plot of this baby.

822
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of stuff that happens.

823
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 3: We're not gonna be able to do the entire thing

824
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,520
Speaker 3: in exquisite detail the kind of detail deserve. We'll have

825
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,279
Speaker 3: to skip over some things, but we'll do our best.

826
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 3: So it begins with the star field, and we hear

827
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 3: the humming of the engines of a starship, and then

828
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 3: we hear the voice of Max Foncido, who's again playing

829
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 3: the villain Emperor Ming, who says he says, Clitis, I'm bored.

830
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 3: What plaything can you offer me today? And the voice

831
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 3: of Clyta says, an obscure body in the s K system,

832
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 3: your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth,

833
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:18,800
Speaker 3: and then we see giant Sci fi crosshairs zooming in

834
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 3: on the planet Earth as it rotates in space, and

835
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:26,239
Speaker 3: Ming says, how peaceful it looks. And then we see

836
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 3: a close up of a gloved hand with this elaborate

837
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 3: chunky ring and the ring lights up, seemingly activating some

838
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,840
Speaker 3: kind of machinery. Then we see a console with flashing

839
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:43,759
Speaker 3: indicators that say things like earthquake, tornado, hot hail, typhoon.

840
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:45,680
Speaker 3: What is hot hail? I don't know?

841
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:47,560
Speaker 1: Will we find out ya?

842
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 3: And then just here laughter, and Clita says most effective,

843
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 3: your majesty, Will you destroy this Earth? And Ming says later,

844
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,279
Speaker 3: I like to play with things a while before annihilation,

845
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:04,359
Speaker 3: and then we begin the pulsing of the theme song

846
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 3: by Queen the title screen Flash Gordon, which is written

847
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 3: in this great I don't know what you call this

848
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 3: kind of font, but it's a it's kind of swooping

849
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:18,360
Speaker 3: script with red and gold letters. And then over the credits,

850
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 3: we occasionally see television feeds of natural disasters occurring on Earth,

851
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 3: intercut with hand drawn imagery from the Flash Gordon comics

852
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 3: and the sound of Max Foncito laughing again. He's just back.

853
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 3: They're going, Oh, these tornadoes are hilarious. And after the

854
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:39,360
Speaker 3: credits finish, we go down to the surface of Earth

855
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 3: and we are at some deserted rural airfield where we

856
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 3: meet Flash Gordon. Now you might expect him to be

857
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 3: doing some heroic or impressive stunt at first encounter, but

858
00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:53,400
Speaker 3: instead he is sitting in a station wagon reading a newspaper,

859
00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 3: listening to football on the radio, and watching the hot

860
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:59,960
Speaker 3: hail come come down around the car while he's waiting

861
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 3: for a flight. So maybe he's more active when he's

862
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 3: not waiting for a flight.

863
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: This whole section of the movie, it's it's interesting to

864
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,480
Speaker 1: look at because this movie knows it needs to get

865
00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 1: into outer space as soon as possible. It knows that

866
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: any time spent on Earth in a mundane setting is

867
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,800
Speaker 1: wasted time for this film. But they've got to do it.

868
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,759
Speaker 1: They've got to set these characters on Earth before you

869
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:26,799
Speaker 1: can place them in this other world. But the clock

870
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:28,359
Speaker 1: is ticking and you got to get them there before

871
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 1: you lose the audience. And I think it's commendable. They

872
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 1: try and keep the pace up.

873
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:34,200
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it moves right along. By the way, I

874
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 3: shouldn't mention that Flash Gordon is wearing a T shirt

875
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 3: that says Flash.

876
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:40,960
Speaker 1: He's got a brand he's got to represent, you know exactly.

877
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:44,239
Speaker 3: We see another passenger who's going to be on the

878
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:46,920
Speaker 3: same flight as she arrives in a transport van from

879
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 3: a local resort. This is Melody Anderson playing Dale Arden,

880
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:54,880
Speaker 3: who we learn is a travel agent, and they exchange

881
00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 3: a meaningful glance as she passes by his car, and

882
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,360
Speaker 3: then they both get on the airplane. It seems to

883
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 3: be some kind of private flight. It's not a commercial flight.

884
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:06,280
Speaker 3: They're like no other passengers, just the two pilots, Flash Gordon,

885
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:10,720
Speaker 3: Dale Arden. So the plane takes off soars into the sky. Meanwhile,

886
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 3: the ming induced weather gets worse. We see hot coals

887
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:17,720
Speaker 3: raining down from the sky and just plunking into bodies

888
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:22,160
Speaker 3: of water, leaving these trails of steam and what. In

889
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 3: the airplane, the pilots are talking about their famous passenger.

890
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:27,960
Speaker 3: One of them says, well, I sure hope Flash Gordon

891
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:30,200
Speaker 3: had a great vacation. He's going to have to work

892
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:33,359
Speaker 3: hard to top last season. And he's also holding an

893
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 3: issue of People magazine with Flash Gordon on the cover.

894
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 3: So we learned that Flash Gordon is a famous football player.

895
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,280
Speaker 3: And I was watching this with Rachel and we were wondering,

896
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 3: is Flash Gordon already known to be some kind of

897
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 3: hero or savior of the world at the beginning of

898
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:54,319
Speaker 3: this movie. Is this like another one of his adventures,

899
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 3: or at this point is he simply a famous football

900
00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:00,959
Speaker 3: player and this movie depicts the first of his world

901
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 3: saving adventures. I think it is the latter.

902
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 1: I think so. Yeah, I think he's football famous at

903
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:06,319
Speaker 1: this point.

904
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:09,560
Speaker 3: Anyway, the plane starts jerking around in the air, and

905
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:13,399
Speaker 3: we hear Max Foncito just bellowing laughter again, echoing through

906
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:17,240
Speaker 3: every corner of space time, and the turbulence is clearly

907
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 3: upsetting Dale, the travel agent, because she is afraid of

908
00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:24,320
Speaker 3: flying the irony of this is noted, and then Flash

909
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:26,759
Speaker 3: goes up to check with the pilots to see if

910
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 3: anything is wrong, and he suggests that the air might

911
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:35,920
Speaker 3: be smoother at a higher altitude. This amazing early example

912
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,880
Speaker 3: of arrowsplaning. I think all flights should allow passengers to

913
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:41,880
Speaker 3: come up to the cockpit and tell the pilots what

914
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:46,960
Speaker 3: they're doing wrong. Anyway, Dale, who appears to be extremely

915
00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:49,880
Speaker 3: uncomfortable and anxious, yells up to Flash to tell him

916
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,400
Speaker 3: to leave the pilots alone. So he comes back, and

917
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 3: he starts telling her that the plane is bouncing because

918
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 3: of turbulence. He's like explaining how turbulence works, and they

919
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:03,040
Speaker 3: start chatting and hitting it off. A Flash confesses that

920
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 3: he saw Dale at the hotel the night before and

921
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,360
Speaker 3: ask the matre d who she was, because he was.

922
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:10,880
Speaker 3: He's clearly he's smitten. He's like, I couldn't believe a

923
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:14,840
Speaker 3: girl like you was alone, and she's, you know, impressed.

924
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 3: They're flirting and stuff. Flash talks about how he's taking

925
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:22,000
Speaker 3: flying lessons, more about how turbulence works, and then out

926
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 3: of the windows the skies turn red clouds of blood

927
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 3: block out the sun and somehow ming the merciless appears

928
00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:32,239
Speaker 3: bodily in the form of a giant meteor in the

929
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 3: sky and abducts the two pilots. I didn't quite understand

930
00:51:36,239 --> 00:51:38,680
Speaker 3: this part. It doesn't seem to fit with anything else.

931
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: This is never explained, But this is what appears to happen.

932
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,359
Speaker 3: Yes, But also like Ming seems confused when they show

933
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:47,200
Speaker 3: up later, So it's not like Ming is trying to

934
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 3: retrieve the specific plane of Flash Gordon. He doesn't know

935
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:51,520
Speaker 3: who Flash Gordon is.

936
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:55,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems to be a questionable choice.

937
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:57,760
Speaker 3: So Flash and Dale they go up to the cockpit

938
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 3: and pilots are missing, so they try to takeover flying

939
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 3: the plane, but it is clear we are headed for

940
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 3: a crash landing. Meanwhile, elsewhere, we check in at some

941
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 3: kind of remote atmospheric monitoring facility where two scientists are stationed.

942
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 3: One of them is doctor Hans Zarkov played by Topol,

943
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:20,160
Speaker 3: and we learn from TV reports he is a researcher

944
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:24,240
Speaker 3: formerly affiliated with NASA who has been ridiculed and dismissed

945
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:27,800
Speaker 3: by the scientific establishment for basically suggesting that all the

946
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 3: bad weather is being caused by alien intervention instead of

947
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 3: regular physical forces. Zarkov's partner gets woken up when flaming

948
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,360
Speaker 3: rocks crashed through the skylight and set his blankets on fire.

949
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 3: He wakes up Zarkov. They look at their feeds and

950
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:48,319
Speaker 3: stuff and figure out what's going on, and the scientists

951
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:51,480
Speaker 3: observe that the sun is blotted out due to an

952
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:56,000
Speaker 3: unscheduled eclipse. H that's not supposed to happen. The Moon

953
00:52:56,080 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 3: has been spiraling into the Earth, and Zarkov takes of

954
00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:02,840
Speaker 3: this situation. He concludes, this is it. This is the

955
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:07,239
Speaker 3: alien attack. It's begun. All my fringe theories are finally vindicated.

956
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 3: So he's got some kind of scheme where he has

957
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:14,360
Speaker 3: constructed a secret rocket ship that will be used to

958
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:18,040
Speaker 3: fly up into space and counterattack the evil that is

959
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:21,360
Speaker 3: causing the moon to spiral into the Earth. But the

960
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 3: rocket ship needs at least two people to operate it.

961
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 3: I don't know why he built it that way, but

962
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:30,240
Speaker 3: that's what he did. Zarkov tries to get his partner, Munson,

963
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 3: into the ship, but Munson doesn't want to do this.

964
00:53:32,719 --> 00:53:35,800
Speaker 3: He freaks out and runs away. Zarkov tries to appeal

965
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 3: to his spirit of humanity. He's like, yes, they will

966
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:41,520
Speaker 3: probably die on this mission, but they alone have a

967
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:45,560
Speaker 3: chance to save the human race. Anyway, this conflict is

968
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 3: interrupted by a plane crash. Flash and Dale, their plane

969
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:56,000
Speaker 3: crashes into Zarkov's laboratory. Does the plane crash kill Munson? Unclear?

970
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 3: We just never see him again.

971
00:53:57,880 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 1: Yeah. I took it to mean that Munson had just

972
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 1: taken it off, but oh, Okay's unclear.

973
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 3: But Flash and Dale survived the landing. They're fine. They

974
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:07,480
Speaker 3: climb out of the plane and meet Zarkov and they're like,

975
00:54:07,880 --> 00:54:12,719
Speaker 3: can we use your phone? And Zarkov is like, oh, yes, yeah,

976
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:15,320
Speaker 3: good to see you. You're well, yeah, the phone is

977
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:19,440
Speaker 3: right here inside this rocket ship. So they go and

978
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:23,240
Speaker 3: they go inside and then Zarkov confronts them with a revolver,

979
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 3: explains his plan, locks them inside, and they blast off.

980
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:30,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, Zarkov is just in full mad scientist mode of

981
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,360
Speaker 1: this whole this whole initial meeting, Like we were saying earlier,

982
00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:37,320
Speaker 1: this performance, this character is all over the place. But

983
00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 1: that's where we are now with him.

984
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:41,160
Speaker 3: He is a mad scientist, but he's like a benevolent

985
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 3: mad scientist. He's very committed to like sacrificing his life

986
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:45,879
Speaker 3: to save the planet Earth.

987
00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: Yes, and his and his plan to save the planet Earth.

988
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:53,040
Speaker 1: As we'll find out, he's basically go into space with

989
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:56,600
Speaker 1: a pistol and take out who's responsible.

990
00:54:56,840 --> 00:55:00,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, confront the leader of whatever aliens are caused the

991
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:03,120
Speaker 3: hot hail and just and shoot them. I guess.

992
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:03,799
Speaker 1: Yeah.

993
00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:06,760
Speaker 3: So anyway, the rocket launches into space and our heroes

994
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 3: pass out from the g forces that we see Dale

995
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:11,960
Speaker 3: and Flash join hands as they lose consciousness, so they

996
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:14,719
Speaker 3: are quickly like they're they're basically already in love there,

997
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:17,719
Speaker 3: you know, love story are complete at this point.

998
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're finally like rid of the Earth. At

999
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 1: this point, we are successfully in space. We don't have

1000
00:55:24,239 --> 00:55:27,040
Speaker 1: to worry about the real world anymore. It's just going

1001
00:55:27,080 --> 00:55:28,960
Speaker 1: to be aliens and craziness from here on out.

1002
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:32,319
Speaker 3: Disgusting Earth, get it out of here. There's a shot

1003
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 3: where they're in Earth orbit and we could see like

1004
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:38,239
Speaker 3: a dozen planets hanging in the background. What what are

1005
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:39,880
Speaker 3: all these extra planets? I don't know.

1006
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:42,040
Speaker 1: Everything's been thrown into disarray.

1007
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:45,040
Speaker 3: So our heroes are unconscious and we see their space

1008
00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:50,000
Speaker 3: capsule drift through space towards this vast spiraling portal. It's

1009
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 3: kind of like a whirlpool of color in the void,

1010
00:55:54,239 --> 00:55:57,120
Speaker 3: and then we see a close up of some alien

1011
00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 3: creature in like a command room somewhere. Humanoid face, pale skin,

1012
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 3: bald head, cold voice, with computerized goggles over his eyes

1013
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 3: that have all these creepy gold displays on them, and

1014
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:14,120
Speaker 3: the aliens has strange object imaged in the Imperial Vortex.

1015
00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 3: One thing I noticed. It's out of frame in the

1016
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 3: screenshot I have for you to look at, Rob, but

1017
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:21,000
Speaker 3: did you notice the little hood ornament on the top

1018
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 3: of their goggles has a free Mason symbol on it.

1019
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 3: It's got the little square encompass.

1020
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:28,359
Speaker 1: I didn't notice it as much here, but I think

1021
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: Clydus perhaps has some symbolisms on him that look like

1022
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:33,640
Speaker 1: Freemason imagery.

1023
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:35,400
Speaker 3: So yeah, I don't know what to make of that.

1024
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:39,440
Speaker 3: Somebody snucks them in there. Maybe it's a coincidence, but

1025
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 3: it seems like they're suggesting that the aliens are Freemasons. Anyway,

1026
00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:47,719
Speaker 3: the spaceship tumbles into the vortex, and this part I

1027
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:51,880
Speaker 3: thought was just awesome, Like the feeling it creates is

1028
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:56,320
Speaker 3: so exciting. The score is heavy with synth, bass and drums,

1029
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:58,160
Speaker 3: and I like the sound of the drums. It's like

1030
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 3: a very cool like dry top sound with this marching,

1031
00:57:02,719 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 3: galloping beat, and in the background, space is represented as

1032
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 3: this chaotic fusion of colors, like different shades of paint

1033
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:14,399
Speaker 3: or spilled together and mixing on panes of glass. It's

1034
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:14,959
Speaker 3: very cool.

1035
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:17,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a psychedelic liquid light show, like a

1036
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 1: Joshua light show thing going on. Like that's this movie's

1037
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:24,600
Speaker 1: vision for what space is. And I have to say

1038
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:26,200
Speaker 1: I really like it. One of the things that I've

1039
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 1: liked about like the Spacier Marvel Cinematic Universe movies is

1040
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:36,360
Speaker 1: that they two varying degrees embrace this kind of like

1041
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:40,360
Speaker 1: a colorful fantasy space setting for their pictures.

1042
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. I mean it's not like your movie

1043
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:46,520
Speaker 3: needs to be realistic anyway. It's unrealistic in other ways,

1044
00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:47,680
Speaker 3: so why not make it beautiful?

1045
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:50,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this goes even beyond anything. If you've seen

1046
00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:53,520
Speaker 1: MCU films and you haven't seen Flash Gordon like in this,

1047
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:55,560
Speaker 1: like you don't even see any darkness of space. There

1048
00:57:55,600 --> 00:58:00,240
Speaker 1: is no darkness in space. Everything is colors and psychedelic intensity. Right.

1049
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:04,320
Speaker 3: So we hear Alien Mission Control talking about this object

1050
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 3: with Clytis. They are instructed to bring the craft through

1051
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,720
Speaker 3: the sea of fire and land it safely at the palace,

1052
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 3: and the effect shots here involve a lot of miniature

1053
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 3: models and sets. As we see the ship approaching on

1054
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 3: the Ming planet, I think it is the planet called Mango.

1055
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 1: I think I believe so. Or that's the city I

1056
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:24,560
Speaker 1: can't remember as the planet or the city.

1057
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:28,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, or they also say Mingo about something I don't know.

1058
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:34,200
Speaker 3: So they're moving through these little models sets and miniature

1059
00:58:34,280 --> 00:58:39,240
Speaker 3: sets and it's great, stuffed to some degree, intentionally corny looking,

1060
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:44,040
Speaker 3: I think, trying to invoke a nostalgia for earlier films

1061
00:58:44,080 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 3: and serials with corny special effects, but at the same

1062
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,200
Speaker 3: time a spell binding pleasure for the eyes. It is

1063
00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:54,040
Speaker 3: equal parts corny self parody and genuine finesse.

1064
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:57,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of like have excellent craft went

1065
00:58:57,480 --> 00:59:00,680
Speaker 1: into creating these models and sets, for sure.

1066
00:59:01,320 --> 00:59:06,280
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. So flash Dale and Zarkov they crash land,

1067
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:09,600
Speaker 3: they're taken prisoner by the Emperor Ming's evil guards, and

1068
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:12,240
Speaker 3: they are escorted to the heart of the palace and

1069
00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 3: there's like a giant state room that they pass through

1070
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:18,280
Speaker 3: that has this red and gold motif with these giant

1071
00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:22,160
Speaker 3: statues of Ming's head Some of the soldiers are covered

1072
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:26,520
Speaker 3: in gold armor that seems slightly Samurai inspired. Others look

1073
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 3: like old school sardok car and they've got like red

1074
00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:33,640
Speaker 3: robes with hoods with the faces completely hidden behind gas masks.

1075
00:59:34,520 --> 00:59:37,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the gas masky guys that we see. They

1076
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 1: also have kind of a mobious look to them and

1077
00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:41,439
Speaker 1: remind me of They also look like something that could

1078
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:43,360
Speaker 1: be a villain from like Super Mario Brothers too.

1079
00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:46,240
Speaker 3: They look like they may well be following the smoke

1080
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:47,480
Speaker 3: to the rift filled land.

1081
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1082
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,640
Speaker 3: So, as the heroes are walking through the middle of

1083
00:59:53,720 --> 00:59:57,240
Speaker 3: this massive room full of alien soldiers, Flash and Dale

1084
00:59:57,400 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 3: comment that this place looks like quote a police date,

1085
01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:03,440
Speaker 3: and Zarkov says that that could be to their advantage

1086
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:07,360
Speaker 3: because it will mean they can easily find allies. Zarkov says,

1087
01:00:07,440 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 3: look at them, the poor wretches are just waiting for

1088
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:12,680
Speaker 3: someone to lead them in revolt. And Dale is like,

1089
01:00:12,760 --> 01:00:15,440
Speaker 3: will you stop talking about revolts? I just want to

1090
01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:15,880
Speaker 3: go home.

1091
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:17,120
Speaker 1: Oh.

1092
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:20,040
Speaker 3: Another thing we should mention here is this flying robot

1093
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 3: that occasionally vaporizes people. I think this is called the

1094
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:27,440
Speaker 3: Imperial Globe. It's like this floating gold thing that has

1095
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:30,440
Speaker 3: spikes on it, and sometimes it it shoots people with lasers.

1096
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,920
Speaker 3: The globe commands the prisoners to follow it, and on

1097
01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 3: the way to meet with the Emperor, the globe executes

1098
01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 3: another escaping prisoner, a lizard man, and it removes the

1099
01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:45,040
Speaker 3: revolver from Zarkov's pocket. Also, should we take a minute

1100
01:00:45,080 --> 01:00:47,800
Speaker 3: to mention the lizard man in this movie. They are

1101
01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 3: a sort of unexplained faction. But they've got like they're

1102
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:55,080
Speaker 3: like snakeheads with open mouths that have fangs and their

1103
01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:57,520
Speaker 3: faces are inside the snake mouth.

1104
01:00:57,960 --> 01:01:02,560
Speaker 1: It's incredible, like it it's not situation. Oh, it's complex,

1105
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 1: like it works on several different levels because it's sort

1106
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:07,600
Speaker 1: of like you have a crappy costume of a lizard

1107
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:11,400
Speaker 1: in which the person's face is in the mouth, but

1108
01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:14,480
Speaker 1: then they've taken that concept and evolved it to where no,

1109
01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:18,720
Speaker 1: there's like red flesh inside the lizard's mouth and it

1110
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:23,360
Speaker 1: has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Yeah, it's

1111
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:23,960
Speaker 1: so weird.

1112
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:27,400
Speaker 3: So it's not like a person's face hiding back there.

1113
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 3: There's like a face represented in the mouth as part

1114
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 3: of the costume.

1115
01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, and it's it's equal parts goofy but also

1116
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:38,760
Speaker 1: like it gets here, your wheels turning, Like, what's going

1117
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:41,320
Speaker 1: on here? Do these things like manifest the mouth? Is

1118
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 1: this just for communicating with the humanoid world? Like, what's

1119
01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:46,960
Speaker 1: going on? It's so weird?

1120
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:50,880
Speaker 3: No idea. Anyway, they move on. The Zarkov says here

1121
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:55,360
Speaker 3: that he's going to sacrifice himself to kill They haven't

1122
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:57,640
Speaker 3: met Ming yet, so he doesn't even know who Ming is.

1123
01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:00,360
Speaker 3: I guess whoever the boss is of the bad guys.

1124
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:03,280
Speaker 3: He's gonna do it. He says, it's a quote, it's

1125
01:02:03,320 --> 01:02:07,200
Speaker 3: a rational transaction, one life for billions. But the globe

1126
01:02:07,240 --> 01:02:09,480
Speaker 3: overhears this and destroys Zarkov's gun.

1127
01:02:10,120 --> 01:02:11,960
Speaker 1: Oops, now we're back to square one.

1128
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:14,680
Speaker 3: The globe is a real tattletale. This will come up

1129
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:17,840
Speaker 3: again in the next scene. So we pass on to

1130
01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:20,960
Speaker 3: the Throne room, which is just an avalanche of all

1131
01:02:21,000 --> 01:02:27,160
Speaker 3: these different like characters and aliens, costumes, designs. One type

1132
01:02:27,280 --> 01:02:30,120
Speaker 3: of character in that stands out to me are these

1133
01:02:30,160 --> 01:02:33,200
Speaker 3: guys in red hoods who have the golden skull masks,

1134
01:02:33,240 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 3: but they look like sad skulls, so like you know,

1135
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:40,760
Speaker 3: the eyebrow ridges of the gold skulls are sloped downward

1136
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 3: as they received from the bridge of the nose, which

1137
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:45,760
Speaker 3: you know, when the eyebrows are tilted that way, we

1138
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:49,520
Speaker 3: naturally interpret that as a sad face. So for some reason,

1139
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,040
Speaker 3: these rigid gold masks are sad.

1140
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:55,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're kind of like sad muppet skulls, but made

1141
01:02:55,480 --> 01:02:55,880
Speaker 1: of gold.

1142
01:02:57,400 --> 01:03:00,720
Speaker 3: Interest weird choice, I don't know. And there's so many

1143
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:03,880
Speaker 3: other types of aliens assembled here. They're like these people

1144
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:07,200
Speaker 3: who are like they have like black and white motifs

1145
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:10,240
Speaker 3: split down the middle of their costume. There seem to

1146
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:13,640
Speaker 3: be like delegations from the many different planets that are

1147
01:03:13,680 --> 01:03:17,960
Speaker 3: subjugated by the emperor here. But the Emperor demands fealty,

1148
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 3: and one thing that's for sure is everybody's got to

1149
01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:23,520
Speaker 3: show that they're loyal to him. So when Emperor Ming

1150
01:03:23,600 --> 01:03:26,920
Speaker 3: shows up, everybody starts screaming his glory. They say, Hail Ming,

1151
01:03:27,160 --> 01:03:30,720
Speaker 3: Hail Emperor of the galaxy. And here finally we see

1152
01:03:30,880 --> 01:03:35,160
Speaker 3: Max Foncido as Emperor Ming. He emerges from red fog

1153
01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:39,320
Speaker 3: as if he were the Devil incarnate, and he's bald,

1154
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:43,800
Speaker 3: he has a goatee, he's very arched eyebrows, and he's

1155
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:46,560
Speaker 3: wearing this big like red robe with a high collar.

1156
01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:51,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again that the queen music that synthesize their

1157
01:03:51,200 --> 01:03:54,200
Speaker 1: track is just blaring and it's fabulous.

1158
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:58,120
Speaker 3: Here we also meet Ornella Mooti as Princess Aura, the

1159
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:01,000
Speaker 3: daughter of Ming, and when we first meet her, she

1160
01:04:01,120 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 3: looks like a walking jewelry display case. It's just like

1161
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:07,440
Speaker 3: a bikini made of gold and diamonds, and this like

1162
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:10,680
Speaker 3: crown on the head that's sparkling. From the moment the

1163
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:13,760
Speaker 3: Earthlings enter the room, she's ogling Flash Gordon. So I

1164
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:16,479
Speaker 3: think we know what's going to happen here. She wants

1165
01:04:16,560 --> 01:04:17,200
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon.

1166
01:04:17,680 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 1: One of the interesting things about all of the especially

1167
01:04:20,680 --> 01:04:24,440
Speaker 1: like Ning's Court, there are places where they reference the

1168
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:28,640
Speaker 1: idea that the human mind is much more limited, it

1169
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:32,760
Speaker 1: doesn't have the same capacity for thought that these other

1170
01:04:32,880 --> 01:04:36,640
Speaker 1: alien characters have. But these other alien characters, for the

1171
01:04:36,760 --> 01:04:41,240
Speaker 1: most part, don't seem to be displaying like heightened awareness

1172
01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:46,040
Speaker 1: and heightened cognition, Like they're just focused on pursuits like

1173
01:04:46,200 --> 01:04:49,520
Speaker 1: romantic pursuits and pursuits of the flesh and so forth,

1174
01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:51,600
Speaker 1: as opposed to any other kind of like higher functioning

1175
01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 1: that I guess they're supposed to be doing here.

1176
01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:56,920
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe they have extremely standard carnal desires.

1177
01:04:57,000 --> 01:04:59,520
Speaker 3: Basically all the aliens do. None of them are really

1178
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:03,080
Speaker 3: shown to be, like, I don't know, considering the philosophy

1179
01:05:03,160 --> 01:05:04,400
Speaker 3: of deep space or whatever.

1180
01:05:04,920 --> 01:05:06,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, maybe they're doing all that in the background,

1181
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:09,720
Speaker 1: and that's why everything else is dumped down a bit.

1182
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:13,320
Speaker 3: In this scene, we also meet Peter Wingard as Clytas.

1183
01:05:13,440 --> 01:05:15,120
Speaker 3: This is the figure in the black hood with the

1184
01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:18,560
Speaker 3: spiked shoulder pads, also wearing a rigid gold mask. This

1185
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:21,200
Speaker 3: mask does not look sad. Instead, it looks kind of

1186
01:05:21,360 --> 01:05:22,520
Speaker 3: coldly curious.

1187
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:26,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's his total like vibes of doctor Doom,

1188
01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:29,520
Speaker 1: of destro from g I Joe, that sort of thing.

1189
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:32,280
Speaker 1: Great presentation here, a golden death.

1190
01:05:32,720 --> 01:05:35,480
Speaker 3: You know, I was waiting for his big unmasking scene,

1191
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 3: but I don't think it ever comes, or if it did,

1192
01:05:38,040 --> 01:05:40,000
Speaker 3: I must have missed it was there. Any time we

1193
01:05:40,040 --> 01:05:40,800
Speaker 3: see him without the.

1194
01:05:40,880 --> 01:05:43,080
Speaker 1: Mask, we see some stuff leak out of the mask.

1195
01:05:44,040 --> 01:05:46,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it, all right. We're not done meeting characters.

1196
01:05:46,840 --> 01:05:48,640
Speaker 3: In the scene. We meet a couple of princes. We

1197
01:05:48,760 --> 01:05:51,800
Speaker 3: meet Brian Blessed as Voltan, the Prince of the Hawkmen.

1198
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:56,120
Speaker 3: We meet Timothy Dalton as Baron, the prince of the Arboreans,

1199
01:05:56,200 --> 01:05:57,000
Speaker 3: I think the tree.

1200
01:05:56,880 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 1: People, yep.

1201
01:05:58,760 --> 01:06:01,480
Speaker 3: And when we first meet these to they are fighting

1202
01:06:01,560 --> 01:06:04,120
Speaker 3: with each other. They're arguing about who gets to present

1203
01:06:04,280 --> 01:06:07,600
Speaker 3: the fabled ice Jewel of Phrygia to Emperor Ming as

1204
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:11,040
Speaker 3: a tribute. Voltan tries to present it first, but then

1205
01:06:11,120 --> 01:06:13,800
Speaker 3: Barn comes into the room and says, you stole that

1206
01:06:13,960 --> 01:06:16,480
Speaker 3: from me. I unearthed it to give to Ming as

1207
01:06:16,520 --> 01:06:19,280
Speaker 3: a tribute. I saw it first, but then Voltan stole

1208
01:06:19,320 --> 01:06:22,040
Speaker 3: it and they get mad at each other. They're about

1209
01:06:22,040 --> 01:06:24,640
Speaker 3: to duel, but then Clydas shuts it down. He says,

1210
01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:27,320
Speaker 3: no one in the palace dies without a command from

1211
01:06:27,360 --> 01:06:30,920
Speaker 3: the Emperor. And oh boy, Brian Blessed looks so eager

1212
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:36,280
Speaker 3: to fight. He also, his beard looks so wild. It's

1213
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:40,600
Speaker 3: very like, I don't know, it's very like not smoothed out.

1214
01:06:40,680 --> 01:06:42,960
Speaker 3: It has the look of like when a cartoon character

1215
01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:46,960
Speaker 3: gets like electrified and like their hair stands on end.

1216
01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:49,280
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it's rare to see a picture of

1217
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:51,840
Speaker 1: him without a full glorious beard, but this one I

1218
01:06:51,880 --> 01:06:55,200
Speaker 1: feel like, Yeah, they made it more bushy than usual. Here.

1219
01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:58,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, now we gotta have a scene here in this

1220
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:02,360
Speaker 3: big gathering where we witness Ming's cruelty. So we see

1221
01:07:02,520 --> 01:07:05,680
Speaker 3: the prince of one of the assembled peoples here, the

1222
01:07:05,720 --> 01:07:10,200
Speaker 3: Prince of Ardentia named Thun and he's dressed in sparkling gold,

1223
01:07:10,320 --> 01:07:14,080
Speaker 3: and he approached it. He's called up before Ming and

1224
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:17,560
Speaker 3: he's like, we have suffered greatly since you blasted our kingdom.

1225
01:07:18,120 --> 01:07:20,120
Speaker 3: He says, they don't have any riches to offer, but

1226
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:22,560
Speaker 3: the Ardentians can offer their loyalty.

1227
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:25,800
Speaker 1: You pointed out that I'd forgotten to mention them in

1228
01:07:25,880 --> 01:07:28,200
Speaker 1: the crew. I mean, there are a lot of actors

1229
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:30,640
Speaker 1: in this film. We can't mention them all. But this

1230
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:34,720
Speaker 1: is George Harris playing Thun Born nineteen forty nine. Fans

1231
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:38,000
Speaker 1: will definitely recognize him as Katanga in Raiders of the

1232
01:07:38,080 --> 01:07:41,200
Speaker 1: Lost Art small part, but a memorable one, and he

1233
01:07:41,240 --> 01:07:43,880
Speaker 1: also played Kingsley shackle Bolt in the Harry Potter films.

1234
01:07:44,280 --> 01:07:48,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Prince, he goes up before Ming and he's like, okay,

1235
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:50,919
Speaker 3: we can offer you loyalty. That's all we got after

1236
01:07:51,000 --> 01:07:54,200
Speaker 3: you attacked us. And Ming commands him to show his

1237
01:07:54,360 --> 01:07:58,800
Speaker 3: loyalty by falling on his sword. So Prince he tries

1238
01:07:58,920 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 3: to do it, do a smart double cross, Like he

1239
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:03,640
Speaker 3: tries to look like he's gonna fall on the sword

1240
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:06,920
Speaker 3: but then strike out and kill Ming, but the globe

1241
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:09,360
Speaker 3: robot gets in the way. It like freezes him in

1242
01:08:09,440 --> 01:08:12,400
Speaker 3: place before he can do it, and then Ming kills

1243
01:08:12,480 --> 01:08:13,480
Speaker 3: him with his own sword.

1244
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:16,640
Speaker 1: Purple blood right or blue blood? I can't remember, but

1245
01:08:16,760 --> 01:08:18,519
Speaker 1: some sort of crazy alien colored blood.

1246
01:08:18,800 --> 01:08:21,840
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, The aliens in this movie have many different

1247
01:08:22,040 --> 01:08:25,160
Speaker 3: colors of blood, except for Timothy Dalton, who appears to

1248
01:08:25,240 --> 01:08:28,720
Speaker 3: have regular He's got like red blood, which makes you wonder,

1249
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:31,800
Speaker 3: is Timothy Dalton just an Earthling who has been transplanted

1250
01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:32,920
Speaker 3: to Arborea? Don't know?

1251
01:08:33,240 --> 01:08:35,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, you think they would have green blood because it's

1252
01:08:35,840 --> 01:08:37,880
Speaker 1: just you have aliens with all different colored bloods, and

1253
01:08:38,120 --> 01:08:40,200
Speaker 1: I guess you probably have that whole situation going on

1254
01:08:40,320 --> 01:08:43,360
Speaker 1: here where sensors famously are okay with blood if it's

1255
01:08:43,439 --> 01:08:46,479
Speaker 1: not red, you can have as much as possible if

1256
01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:49,120
Speaker 1: it's green, but if it's red and they're like, okay,

1257
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:49,599
Speaker 1: it's too much.

1258
01:08:50,120 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 3: Yeah anyway, So our Earthlings watch Ming just murder this guy,

1259
01:08:54,920 --> 01:08:58,240
Speaker 3: and then Flash mutters to Dale, this Ming's a psycho.

1260
01:08:59,160 --> 01:09:02,479
Speaker 3: Then the glow robot overhears him in tattles. It like

1261
01:09:02,680 --> 01:09:05,920
Speaker 3: blares out on the speakers. This Ming is a psycho

1262
01:09:07,680 --> 01:09:10,759
Speaker 3: and they're like, who said that? And now all eyes

1263
01:09:10,960 --> 01:09:14,400
Speaker 3: are on the Earthlings, including Princess Aarra, who is still

1264
01:09:14,479 --> 01:09:18,640
Speaker 3: aggressively ogling Flash Gordon from afar. Gordon does notice this,

1265
01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:21,280
Speaker 3: and he like looks back at her and Dale gets jealous.

1266
01:09:23,240 --> 01:09:23,360
Speaker 1: Oh.

1267
01:09:23,479 --> 01:09:26,560
Speaker 3: Also, they've never explained this really, but Princess Aura just

1268
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:28,439
Speaker 3: has like a guy on a leash.

1269
01:09:29,760 --> 01:09:32,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm pretty sure this is Deep Roy, an

1270
01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:34,760
Speaker 1: actor who's come up on the show before. Again, very

1271
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:39,000
Speaker 1: very deep Gast on this picture. Among other things, Robbie

1272
01:09:39,040 --> 01:09:42,360
Speaker 1: Coltrane shows up at the airport scene early on in

1273
01:09:42,439 --> 01:09:44,799
Speaker 1: the picture. Hits a blink and you miss it situation,

1274
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:46,120
Speaker 1: But there's Robbie Coltrane.

1275
01:09:46,200 --> 01:09:57,040
Speaker 3: I didn't even notice anyway. So the humans come forward

1276
01:09:57,120 --> 01:10:00,479
Speaker 3: and Ming is like, who are you? Flash says Flash Gordon,

1277
01:10:00,560 --> 01:10:03,920
Speaker 3: quarterback New York Jets. I didn't expect we were going

1278
01:10:03,960 --> 01:10:08,639
Speaker 3: to get a specific team, mentioned, Dale says, Dale, Arden

1279
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:11,280
Speaker 3: your Highness live and let live. That's my motto. And

1280
01:10:11,400 --> 01:10:14,200
Speaker 3: then Zarkov says, my name is Hans Zarkov. I am

1281
01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:17,120
Speaker 3: a scientist. I kidnapped them here in an effort to

1282
01:10:17,200 --> 01:10:19,960
Speaker 3: save our planet Earth, and Zarkov goes on to say,

1283
01:10:20,000 --> 01:10:22,560
Speaker 3: you know, we're interested only in friendship. Why did you

1284
01:10:22,600 --> 01:10:26,040
Speaker 3: attack our planet? And the Emperor Ming explains his mindset.

1285
01:10:26,120 --> 01:10:30,400
Speaker 3: He says, this is a quote why not pathetic Earthlings

1286
01:10:30,760 --> 01:10:34,200
Speaker 3: hurling your bodies out into the void without the slightest

1287
01:10:34,360 --> 01:10:37,920
Speaker 3: inkling of who or what is out here? If you

1288
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:40,639
Speaker 3: had known anything about the true nature of the universe,

1289
01:10:40,800 --> 01:10:44,240
Speaker 3: anything at all, you would have hidden from it in terror.

1290
01:10:45,439 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 3: Oh that's a kind of I didn't expect it to

1291
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:49,759
Speaker 3: go in that direction, but that's that's kind of creepy.

1292
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:51,840
Speaker 3: It has some cosmic horror going on.

1293
01:10:52,479 --> 01:10:55,400
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, there are moments like this in the picture

1294
01:10:55,439 --> 01:10:57,880
Speaker 1: where yeah, it'll get really serious and like, oh man,

1295
01:10:58,040 --> 01:11:01,920
Speaker 1: this meaning is terrifying, and then you know a football

1296
01:11:01,960 --> 01:11:02,760
Speaker 1: game may break out.

1297
01:11:03,280 --> 01:11:07,120
Speaker 3: That's right. So well, first, Ming like he looks at

1298
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:11,280
Speaker 3: Dale Arden and he is suddenly filled with lust and

1299
01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:14,400
Speaker 3: he's like, ah, yes, you are my new imperial concubine now,

1300
01:11:15,080 --> 01:11:18,519
Speaker 3: and he hypnotizes her with his ring and like makes

1301
01:11:18,560 --> 01:11:21,640
Speaker 3: her do this weird slow dance. It is an unusual

1302
01:11:21,840 --> 01:11:25,160
Speaker 3: vibe and Ming, I guess he's happy with what he

1303
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:28,519
Speaker 3: sees and he's like, okay, she's mine. Now sees her

1304
01:11:28,640 --> 01:11:31,560
Speaker 3: and Flash Gordon says forget it, ming Dale's with me,

1305
01:11:32,280 --> 01:11:35,120
Speaker 3: and then we commenced the football fight. This had to

1306
01:11:35,160 --> 01:11:37,960
Speaker 3: be one of my favorite moments of the movie, where

1307
01:11:38,760 --> 01:11:42,040
Speaker 3: the fight breaks out and the form the fight takes

1308
01:11:42,240 --> 01:11:46,519
Speaker 3: is football more so than you're probably imagining here. So like,

1309
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:50,720
Speaker 3: at first there, Flash Gordon starts fighting the soldiers and

1310
01:11:50,840 --> 01:11:55,920
Speaker 3: he's having trouble defeating them until Zarkov snatches like an

1311
01:11:56,160 --> 01:11:59,280
Speaker 3: egg from one of the aliens in the room and

1312
01:11:59,720 --> 01:12:02,640
Speaker 3: the egg is basically football shaped and he throws it

1313
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:07,439
Speaker 3: to Flash Gordon and then this apparently like activates his

1314
01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:11,760
Speaker 3: football brain so he can tackle the bad guys. Rob,

1315
01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:13,320
Speaker 3: I don't know what you want to say about the scene.

1316
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:16,400
Speaker 3: There is a lot going on and it is really funny.

1317
01:12:16,960 --> 01:12:19,920
Speaker 1: Your note on it being more football theme than you

1318
01:12:19,960 --> 01:12:22,120
Speaker 1: can possibly imagine if you haven't seen the film is

1319
01:12:22,560 --> 01:12:25,360
Speaker 1: totally on point, because yeah, it is like a straight

1320
01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:27,599
Speaker 1: up football game that breaks out to the point where

1321
01:12:27,640 --> 01:12:30,560
Speaker 1: there's a There's this one moment where Clyde has like

1322
01:12:30,680 --> 01:12:33,599
Speaker 1: gets some of the cronies and again these are okay,

1323
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:37,519
Speaker 1: two things. First of all, The aliens who are engaging

1324
01:12:37,560 --> 01:12:40,599
Speaker 1: in the football fight are of like a different type.

1325
01:12:40,960 --> 01:12:45,360
Speaker 1: They have different armor that strongly resembles like football padding.

1326
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:47,879
Speaker 3: Yes, they're dressed up like football players.

1327
01:12:48,120 --> 01:12:50,519
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then when they when they're getting their butts

1328
01:12:50,560 --> 01:12:53,120
Speaker 1: kicked by Flash, Clydus jumps in and he's like, all right,

1329
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:55,960
Speaker 1: huddle up. He like does like a football coaching thing

1330
01:12:56,000 --> 01:12:57,840
Speaker 1: where it's like you need to do like this, do

1331
01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:00,720
Speaker 1: this play. And they go out and try it, and

1332
01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:04,880
Speaker 1: it is. It is tremendous fun. It is just absolutely goofy,

1333
01:13:05,360 --> 01:13:07,559
Speaker 1: and it can come as a shock, Like I say,

1334
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:09,640
Speaker 1: if you kind of like we're buying into ming a

1335
01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:11,880
Speaker 1: few seconds earlier and you're like, oh man, this bad

1336
01:13:11,920 --> 01:13:12,919
Speaker 1: guy's pretty terrifying.

1337
01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:16,439
Speaker 3: We go from cosmic horror to football fight in like

1338
01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:17,599
Speaker 3: eighty seconds.

1339
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:18,400
Speaker 1: Yea.

1340
01:13:18,479 --> 01:13:21,759
Speaker 3: And also in this fight, Dale is doing cheerleader cheers.

1341
01:13:21,920 --> 01:13:26,760
Speaker 3: She's like, go Flash, Go Flash. Also, Brian Blessed likes

1342
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:29,400
Speaker 3: what he's seeing. He keeps just like watching the fight

1343
01:13:29,520 --> 01:13:35,040
Speaker 3: and grinning gigantic toothy grin, casually intervening here and there

1344
01:13:35,520 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 3: to help out Flash.

1345
01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:39,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, tripping a few aliens us, I think he uses

1346
01:13:39,479 --> 01:13:40,800
Speaker 1: the cudgel on them. A little bit too.

1347
01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:43,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he's doing it like on the sly. I

1348
01:13:43,360 --> 01:13:47,800
Speaker 3: guess they didn't get caught. But unfortunately this fight ends

1349
01:13:47,840 --> 01:13:51,599
Speaker 3: with Flash getting knocked unconscious. I think Zarkov like screws

1350
01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:54,520
Speaker 3: up and it's his fault. And so Ming is victorious

1351
01:13:54,560 --> 01:13:57,800
Speaker 3: over the Earthlings. And Aura goes up to Ming and

1352
01:13:58,120 --> 01:14:00,840
Speaker 3: she begs him to give Flash to her, even though

1353
01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:04,200
Speaker 3: she's already engaged to be married to Prince Baron Timothy Dalton.

1354
01:14:04,280 --> 01:14:06,400
Speaker 3: She's like, no, give me this other husband as well.

1355
01:14:06,439 --> 01:14:10,439
Speaker 3: I will marry both of them. But Ming refuses. So

1356
01:14:10,680 --> 01:14:13,840
Speaker 3: Zarkov is taken away by Clytis to be conditioned for

1357
01:14:13,960 --> 01:14:18,320
Speaker 3: the Imperial Secret Police. Flash is to face public execution

1358
01:14:18,680 --> 01:14:20,960
Speaker 3: later that night for his defiance of Ming.

1359
01:14:21,760 --> 01:14:23,439
Speaker 1: The football rebellion is over.

1360
01:14:23,880 --> 01:14:28,200
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so yeah, they're they're imprisoned and condemned. So

1361
01:14:28,280 --> 01:14:30,760
Speaker 3: we get one. One scene that comes up soon is

1362
01:14:30,880 --> 01:14:33,240
Speaker 3: this little well. First, there's a there's a moment with

1363
01:14:33,439 --> 01:14:37,120
Speaker 3: Prince Prince Baron and Princess Ara where he says he

1364
01:14:37,200 --> 01:14:39,479
Speaker 3: doesn't trust her, but she convinces him to go back

1365
01:14:39,520 --> 01:14:41,800
Speaker 3: to Arboria tonight and she will come and meet him

1366
01:14:41,840 --> 01:14:45,560
Speaker 3: there with a surprise and then we see Flash in

1367
01:14:45,720 --> 01:14:49,120
Speaker 3: prison in Ming's dungeon here wearing one of the best

1368
01:14:49,360 --> 01:14:52,240
Speaker 3: helmet mask things I've ever seen. It looks like a

1369
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:56,400
Speaker 3: like a giant die of some kind, and it's got

1370
01:14:56,600 --> 01:14:59,240
Speaker 3: spikes shooting out of it where his face would be.

1371
01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:01,880
Speaker 3: I don't is if that's like to prevent anybody from

1372
01:15:01,920 --> 01:15:04,000
Speaker 3: getting close to his face. I don't know.

1373
01:15:04,560 --> 01:15:07,000
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's because if he runs away, he'll like

1374
01:15:07,120 --> 01:15:08,920
Speaker 1: stick into the wall and then he can't move. I

1375
01:15:08,960 --> 01:15:10,840
Speaker 1: don't know. It looks impressive, though.

1376
01:15:12,479 --> 01:15:15,000
Speaker 3: So as a final request before his execution, he tells

1377
01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:17,519
Speaker 3: Clydas that he wants to see Dale, and they're given

1378
01:15:17,560 --> 01:15:20,880
Speaker 3: a moment together, and Clydas, of course regards it as

1379
01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:24,680
Speaker 3: pathetic that they are in love. And Dale comes in

1380
01:15:25,040 --> 01:15:29,400
Speaker 3: in her emperor's concubine uniform and the first thing Flash

1381
01:15:29,479 --> 01:15:31,719
Speaker 3: Gordon says when he sees her is you look great?

1382
01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:39,000
Speaker 3: That about adis rolling on the floor. You look great anyway.

1383
01:15:39,120 --> 01:15:41,439
Speaker 3: They say that they hope this is only a bad dream.

1384
01:15:41,760 --> 01:15:44,920
Speaker 3: You know, soon they'll wake up, and Flash tells her,

1385
01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:46,880
Speaker 3: you know, after he's dead, she's gonna have to meet

1386
01:15:46,920 --> 01:15:49,599
Speaker 3: up with Zarkov to find a way to save the earth.

1387
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:52,800
Speaker 3: So we go to the execution and it's going to

1388
01:15:52,880 --> 01:15:55,400
Speaker 3: take place in this chamber that's like a hat. It's

1389
01:15:55,479 --> 01:15:58,479
Speaker 3: like a glass hemisphere with this chair where this like

1390
01:15:58,640 --> 01:16:01,720
Speaker 3: yellow smoke comes out out that is apparently some kind

1391
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:05,000
Speaker 3: of poison that will kill Flash Gordon. The execution scene

1392
01:16:05,320 --> 01:16:08,640
Speaker 3: set is actually gorgeous, with these clouds blooming in the

1393
01:16:08,680 --> 01:16:12,599
Speaker 3: sky and all these bizarre costumes. It's really again one

1394
01:16:12,680 --> 01:16:15,200
Speaker 3: of the many feast for the eyes scenes here.

1395
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:18,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a cross between church and a gas

1396
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:20,040
Speaker 1: chamber exactly.

1397
01:16:20,760 --> 01:16:24,840
Speaker 3: And the Imperial Surgeon is a character we meet in

1398
01:16:24,920 --> 01:16:27,280
Speaker 3: this scene. He's dressed in like white robes. He looks

1399
01:16:27,400 --> 01:16:30,840
Speaker 3: very boring compared to everybody else around him. He's like

1400
01:16:30,960 --> 01:16:34,160
Speaker 3: the square in Ming's palace. And we see him slip

1401
01:16:34,280 --> 01:16:37,479
Speaker 3: Flash Gordon some kind of secret medicine before the execution.

1402
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:40,200
Speaker 3: And there's a great moment in the scene where I

1403
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:43,360
Speaker 3: think we see Dale and Zarkov and they're watching Flash

1404
01:16:43,439 --> 01:16:47,240
Speaker 3: Gordon be prepared for execution and they're crying, and Princess

1405
01:16:47,360 --> 01:16:50,880
Speaker 3: Ara says to Ming, look, water is leaking from her eyes.

1406
01:16:51,439 --> 01:16:54,000
Speaker 3: In Ming says it's what they call tears. It is

1407
01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:55,400
Speaker 3: a sign of their weakness.

1408
01:16:56,400 --> 01:16:58,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is I mean ultimately an important theme in

1409
01:16:58,920 --> 01:17:03,600
Speaker 1: the film is that what humanity offers is is compassion

1410
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:09,200
Speaker 1: and reason and that's what that's what's ultimately going to

1411
01:17:09,240 --> 01:17:12,599
Speaker 1: win the day, and that's that's ultimately what Flash has.

1412
01:17:13,479 --> 01:17:16,360
Speaker 1: That is his superpower, but it's not helping him out

1413
01:17:16,360 --> 01:17:17,080
Speaker 1: a lot right now.

1414
01:17:17,600 --> 01:17:19,960
Speaker 3: Right well, No, in fact, what helps him out right

1415
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:23,160
Speaker 3: now is that he is good looking, and Aura is

1416
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:26,960
Speaker 3: obsessed with him because she, in fact has gotten the

1417
01:17:27,760 --> 01:17:30,799
Speaker 3: Imperial Surgeon to give him an antidote that will protect

1418
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:33,920
Speaker 3: him from this yellow smoke that is supposed to poison him.

1419
01:17:34,400 --> 01:17:36,400
Speaker 3: So he just like gets knocked out by it, and

1420
01:17:36,800 --> 01:17:39,639
Speaker 3: we come back to him later in this room where

1421
01:17:39,680 --> 01:17:42,280
Speaker 3: his coffin is laid out next to like a stylized

1422
01:17:42,360 --> 01:17:47,280
Speaker 3: custom tombstone that says Flash Gordon Earthling executed by.

1423
01:17:47,280 --> 01:17:52,040
Speaker 1: Ming oh man. That's so good it's its branded.

1424
01:17:52,880 --> 01:17:55,920
Speaker 3: So they wake him up and the Imperial Surgeon is like,

1425
01:17:56,000 --> 01:17:58,680
Speaker 3: I'm a fool doing everything you ask for Aura, and

1426
01:17:58,880 --> 01:18:01,240
Speaker 3: she kisses him and she's like, Yep, you're a fool.

1427
01:18:01,320 --> 01:18:04,160
Speaker 3: You're gonna do everything I say, and so he scurries

1428
01:18:04,240 --> 01:18:08,559
Speaker 3: off and Flash awakens wearing weird plastic underwear, and Aura

1429
01:18:08,720 --> 01:18:11,599
Speaker 3: kisses him and tells him she has revived him with magic,

1430
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:14,240
Speaker 3: and she's like, quick, put on this uniform before the

1431
01:18:14,320 --> 01:18:15,920
Speaker 3: lizard men arrive to bury you.

1432
01:18:17,040 --> 01:18:19,679
Speaker 1: Everyone is if you're executed by Ming, you are buried

1433
01:18:19,720 --> 01:18:21,960
Speaker 1: in hotpants. That seems to be the tradition.

1434
01:18:22,360 --> 01:18:25,760
Speaker 3: Yes, and as oh, by the way, I mentioned this

1435
01:18:26,080 --> 01:18:29,879
Speaker 3: scene coming up. As Aura and Flash are escaping the palace,

1436
01:18:30,320 --> 01:18:33,160
Speaker 3: they pass by a room where doctor Zarkov is strapped

1437
01:18:33,160 --> 01:18:35,960
Speaker 3: to a table with some giant beam emitter aimed at

1438
01:18:36,000 --> 01:18:39,479
Speaker 3: his head and she's like, oh, it's only conditioning, come on,

1439
01:18:39,680 --> 01:18:42,360
Speaker 3: And so they leave. Aura and Flash leave the palace,

1440
01:18:42,400 --> 01:18:45,280
Speaker 3: but then we zoom in on this room where Ming

1441
01:18:45,640 --> 01:18:49,800
Speaker 3: and doctor Zarkov are talking, and Ming explains his whole plot.

1442
01:18:49,920 --> 01:18:53,800
Speaker 3: He says, quote, every thousand years, I test each life

1443
01:18:53,880 --> 01:18:57,640
Speaker 3: system in the universe. I visit it with mysteries, earthquakes,

1444
01:18:57,800 --> 01:19:02,360
Speaker 3: unpredicted eclipses, strange in the wilderness. If these are taken

1445
01:19:02,439 --> 01:19:06,280
Speaker 3: as natural, I judge that system ignorant and harmless. I

1446
01:19:06,400 --> 01:19:09,720
Speaker 3: spare it. But if the hand of Ming is recognized

1447
01:19:09,760 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 3: in these events, I judge that system dangerous to us.

1448
01:19:13,840 --> 01:19:16,760
Speaker 3: I call upon the Great God Diezan and for his

1449
01:19:17,000 --> 01:19:21,679
Speaker 3: greater glory and for our mutual pleasure, I destroy it utterly,

1450
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:26,000
Speaker 3: and so Zarkov realizes. He says, you're saying it's my fault.

1451
01:19:26,120 --> 01:19:29,760
Speaker 3: The earth is being destroyed, and Imperi Ming says, precisely,

1452
01:19:30,479 --> 01:19:33,960
Speaker 3: it's a real bad twist. But then they explain, okay,

1453
01:19:34,000 --> 01:19:36,880
Speaker 3: they're going to empty his memory as we might empty

1454
01:19:36,960 --> 01:19:39,840
Speaker 3: your pockets. They're going to steal all his memories out

1455
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:43,160
Speaker 3: of his mind. And then we get this brain wiping

1456
01:19:43,280 --> 01:19:46,920
Speaker 3: scene where we see, like, as this beam is beaming

1457
01:19:47,000 --> 01:19:50,920
Speaker 3: at his head, we see on a television screen Zarkov's

1458
01:19:50,960 --> 01:19:55,200
Speaker 3: whole life playing like in super speed in reverse. We

1459
01:19:55,280 --> 01:20:00,200
Speaker 3: see all these formative memories, personal tragedies, family struggles. So

1460
01:20:00,479 --> 01:20:04,000
Speaker 3: in the middle of this goofy movie, this sequence is

1461
01:20:04,439 --> 01:20:08,240
Speaker 3: strangely powerful, mostly because of the way Topaul performs it.

1462
01:20:08,760 --> 01:20:12,040
Speaker 3: We see him like losing his wife in a horrible accident,

1463
01:20:12,400 --> 01:20:16,040
Speaker 3: we see his family suffering under the Nazis, and finally

1464
01:20:16,200 --> 01:20:20,639
Speaker 3: he regresses to being a baby and he just says, Papa, Papa.

1465
01:20:21,520 --> 01:20:23,400
Speaker 3: I don't know what to make of this. I would

1466
01:20:23,439 --> 01:20:27,160
Speaker 3: say it is wildly tonally inappropriate for the for the film,

1467
01:20:27,280 --> 01:20:30,880
Speaker 3: but it's also quite strong. It's strangely moving.

1468
01:20:31,400 --> 01:20:34,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is exactly how I've always felt about this,

1469
01:20:34,400 --> 01:20:35,920
Speaker 1: or that's the way I feel about it now. I

1470
01:20:36,000 --> 01:20:38,439
Speaker 1: remember seeing this when I was a kid, and this

1471
01:20:39,000 --> 01:20:41,920
Speaker 1: scene was like kind of disturbing, you know, because it's

1472
01:20:42,439 --> 01:20:46,439
Speaker 1: it's you're used to seeing characters vaporized by lasers. We've

1473
01:20:46,439 --> 01:20:49,160
Speaker 1: seen it already in this picture, you know, run through

1474
01:20:49,240 --> 01:20:51,960
Speaker 1: with swords. But this is just this is this is

1475
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:55,519
Speaker 1: rather poignant and disturbing. And yeah, we just had a

1476
01:20:55,560 --> 01:20:59,080
Speaker 1: football fight, now we're having this. So it seems like

1477
01:20:59,200 --> 01:21:01,559
Speaker 1: something that maybe he should have been cut or maybe

1478
01:21:01,640 --> 01:21:03,760
Speaker 1: should have been saved for another movie. But again, the

1479
01:21:03,840 --> 01:21:06,360
Speaker 1: performance is so solid. What can you do? And and

1480
01:21:06,600 --> 01:21:09,280
Speaker 1: and the way they the images are cut together with

1481
01:21:09,439 --> 01:21:13,479
Speaker 1: other like random images of like cats and faces, it's yeah,

1482
01:21:13,680 --> 01:21:14,479
Speaker 1: it's quite troubling.

1483
01:21:14,760 --> 01:21:17,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say it's like really good, but it

1484
01:21:17,479 --> 01:21:18,559
Speaker 3: doesn't belong here.

1485
01:21:18,720 --> 01:21:22,240
Speaker 1: It's so weird, like this belongs in the Nicholas Rogue

1486
01:21:22,280 --> 01:21:25,439
Speaker 1: movie that he didn't get. This needs to be in

1487
01:21:25,520 --> 01:21:26,719
Speaker 1: that alternate reality.

1488
01:21:27,280 --> 01:21:29,640
Speaker 3: So back to the goofy stuff. We see Flash on

1489
01:21:29,800 --> 01:21:33,200
Speaker 3: Aura's rocket ship. They're going to ar Borea, and this

1490
01:21:33,400 --> 01:21:35,600
Speaker 3: is the scene where he like, you know, he'd like

1491
01:21:35,840 --> 01:21:38,599
Speaker 3: endangers the ship in order to convince her to allow

1492
01:21:38,760 --> 01:21:41,760
Speaker 3: him to use the thought Amplifier, which is like a

1493
01:21:41,920 --> 01:21:47,559
Speaker 3: telepathic communicator machine, to contact Dale telepathically and let her

1494
01:21:47,680 --> 01:21:50,680
Speaker 3: know he is still alive. She's hanging out with I

1495
01:21:50,760 --> 01:21:54,280
Speaker 3: guess Ming's other concubines, and she she's just like she

1496
01:21:54,439 --> 01:21:57,600
Speaker 3: thinks he's dead, but this conversation lets her know that

1497
01:21:57,800 --> 01:22:01,320
Speaker 3: he's alive, and she she sort of gets the idea, Okay,

1498
01:22:01,320 --> 01:22:04,639
Speaker 3: I got to escape here and do something now, Flash

1499
01:22:04,680 --> 01:22:07,160
Speaker 3: and Aura. They go to this place ar Borea. This

1500
01:22:07,320 --> 01:22:10,439
Speaker 3: is like a moon or a planet characterized mainly by trees.

1501
01:22:10,640 --> 01:22:12,800
Speaker 3: It's sort of an Ewok village, as we were saying,

1502
01:22:12,800 --> 01:22:15,839
Speaker 3: but full of people, including Timothy Dalton and Richard O'Brien,

1503
01:22:16,760 --> 01:22:19,639
Speaker 3: and we witness this interesting ritual when they first arrived

1504
01:22:19,680 --> 01:22:22,160
Speaker 3: there where like a young man, he says, I am

1505
01:22:22,240 --> 01:22:25,360
Speaker 3: now of age, greenfather, I ask for the test of manhood,

1506
01:22:25,479 --> 01:22:28,200
Speaker 3: and this ritual commences where he has to go around

1507
01:22:28,320 --> 01:22:31,080
Speaker 3: this like tree root and reach into one of many

1508
01:22:31,160 --> 01:22:33,400
Speaker 3: holes in it. If he reaches into the wrong hole,

1509
01:22:33,840 --> 01:22:37,200
Speaker 3: he will be stung by this weird tree beast. It's

1510
01:22:37,280 --> 01:22:39,960
Speaker 3: like a scorpion inside the tree that has a venom

1511
01:22:40,400 --> 01:22:43,600
Speaker 3: that tortures people with madness until they die, and he

1512
01:22:43,760 --> 01:22:46,679
Speaker 3: does get stung. So this kid is like Timothy Dalton,

1513
01:22:46,760 --> 01:22:50,120
Speaker 3: you must end it now, and Timothy Dalton Mercy kills him.

1514
01:22:50,720 --> 01:22:53,960
Speaker 3: And this is apparently they're they're very harsh initiation into

1515
01:22:53,960 --> 01:22:55,360
Speaker 3: adulthood and their society.

1516
01:22:56,000 --> 01:22:59,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, the tree Beast sequences are very memorable. In fact,

1517
01:22:59,680 --> 01:23:02,200
Speaker 1: I was watching this with my wife last night. She'd

1518
01:23:02,240 --> 01:23:05,160
Speaker 1: seen it before, and I was at one point we

1519
01:23:05,320 --> 01:23:07,400
Speaker 1: reached we reached a point in watching the film where

1520
01:23:07,400 --> 01:23:08,360
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, do you want to go to

1521
01:23:08,439 --> 01:23:10,720
Speaker 1: bed and I can finish it in the morning, And

1522
01:23:10,800 --> 01:23:13,400
Speaker 1: she's like, no, I need to stay up at least

1523
01:23:13,520 --> 01:23:15,760
Speaker 1: until the tree Beast scene happens, at least until they

1524
01:23:15,760 --> 01:23:19,519
Speaker 1: started sticking their arms into the big stump. So we

1525
01:23:20,280 --> 01:23:22,439
Speaker 1: ended up watching the whole thing. But that was nice,

1526
01:23:22,760 --> 01:23:23,800
Speaker 1: one of her favorite scenes.

1527
01:23:24,200 --> 01:23:26,439
Speaker 3: It is quite mean. They're actually a couple of these scenes.

1528
01:23:26,800 --> 01:23:29,160
Speaker 3: So we see this other guy failed to test early on,

1529
01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:34,080
Speaker 3: and then Aura dumps dumps flash on this planet. He's like, Barn,

1530
01:23:34,479 --> 01:23:36,640
Speaker 3: take care of him. I've got to go back and

1531
01:23:36,800 --> 01:23:39,560
Speaker 3: do other things. I'll be back and Barron does he

1532
01:23:39,800 --> 01:23:42,640
Speaker 3: like this? Of course not. This is like my fiance's

1533
01:23:42,720 --> 01:23:45,120
Speaker 3: other boyfriend just has to hang out with me. Now.

1534
01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:47,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's gonna instantly orchestrate his death.

1535
01:23:48,160 --> 01:23:51,120
Speaker 3: Right, So they like put him into this cage that

1536
01:23:51,240 --> 01:23:54,760
Speaker 3: gets lowered into the green swamp below the trees, and

1537
01:23:54,880 --> 01:23:57,200
Speaker 3: he's there with these other prisoners. Oh, it's a very

1538
01:23:57,920 --> 01:24:00,439
Speaker 3: it's a very unpleasant set piece. They're like up to

1539
01:24:00,520 --> 01:24:04,559
Speaker 3: their shoulders just barely trying to keep their heads above water. Meanwhile,

1540
01:24:04,600 --> 01:24:08,880
Speaker 3: there's a there's a great escape scene where Dale she's like, Okay,

1541
01:24:08,920 --> 01:24:10,960
Speaker 3: I gotta get out of here. So she orchestrates an

1542
01:24:11,080 --> 01:24:14,880
Speaker 3: escape where she they bring her this kind of like drug,

1543
01:24:15,640 --> 01:24:18,800
Speaker 3: this like drugged beverage, and they're like take it, you know,

1544
01:24:18,880 --> 01:24:22,080
Speaker 3: it makes everything feel good, And so she's she gets

1545
01:24:22,120 --> 01:24:25,840
Speaker 3: the servants to drink it instead, they fall unconscious. She

1546
01:24:25,960 --> 01:24:30,960
Speaker 3: swaps uniforms with them, escapes the escapes the palace by

1547
01:24:31,080 --> 01:24:33,800
Speaker 3: like doing some real moves. I didn't expect Dale to

1548
01:24:33,840 --> 01:24:36,120
Speaker 3: become such an action hero in the movie, but she's

1549
01:24:36,200 --> 01:24:38,840
Speaker 3: like running around beaten up and blasting a bunch of

1550
01:24:38,880 --> 01:24:40,200
Speaker 3: the soldiers on her way out.

1551
01:24:40,880 --> 01:24:43,840
Speaker 1: No explanation whatsoever for it, but that it's fun.

1552
01:24:44,120 --> 01:24:47,720
Speaker 3: Great. Yeah, it's like halfway through the movie they just decided, wait,

1553
01:24:47,840 --> 01:24:49,960
Speaker 3: what is she not just a damsel in distress like

1554
01:24:50,040 --> 01:24:53,040
Speaker 3: she you know, she she's kicking butt too. As you said,

1555
01:24:53,080 --> 01:24:55,679
Speaker 3: it is not explained, but okay, great, Yeah.

1556
01:24:56,160 --> 01:24:58,040
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because she drank a little bit of that

1557
01:24:58,560 --> 01:25:01,320
Speaker 1: potion from the Galaxy Pleasure or wherever they said it

1558
01:25:01,439 --> 01:25:03,559
Speaker 1: was from, and so she drank just enough to give

1559
01:25:03,600 --> 01:25:06,240
Speaker 1: her like super combat the skills, and that's what we

1560
01:25:06,320 --> 01:25:06,800
Speaker 1: see here.

1561
01:25:07,000 --> 01:25:09,040
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah. So she meets up on her way

1562
01:25:09,080 --> 01:25:12,160
Speaker 3: out of the palace with Zarkov again, which at first

1563
01:25:12,280 --> 01:25:16,680
Speaker 3: we worry is agent Zarkov an apparently brainwashed drone form

1564
01:25:16,760 --> 01:25:20,320
Speaker 3: Ming and Ming thinks this guy is working as a

1565
01:25:20,400 --> 01:25:23,839
Speaker 3: double agent. But once they're out of the palace, Zarkov

1566
01:25:23,920 --> 01:25:26,360
Speaker 3: has this moment where he reveals he is still himself

1567
01:25:26,439 --> 01:25:29,120
Speaker 3: and he still has all his memories. He I couldn't

1568
01:25:29,160 --> 01:25:31,200
Speaker 3: fully understand it, but he says like he was able

1569
01:25:31,240 --> 01:25:35,439
Speaker 3: to resist the brainwashing by holding onto memories including I think,

1570
01:25:35,520 --> 01:25:40,320
Speaker 3: the theories of Einstein, bits of the Talmud, and songs

1571
01:25:40,360 --> 01:25:43,679
Speaker 3: by the Beatles. And then he says that like spoke

1572
01:25:43,880 --> 01:25:47,360
Speaker 3: focusing on these specific memories allowed him to keep all

1573
01:25:47,439 --> 01:25:50,719
Speaker 3: of his memory and knowledge. He says, it's you can't

1574
01:25:50,800 --> 01:25:51,880
Speaker 3: conquer the human spirit.

1575
01:25:52,240 --> 01:25:55,479
Speaker 1: The performance sells it, yeah, but it is a complete

1576
01:25:55,520 --> 01:25:58,200
Speaker 1: turnaround because it's just like, oh, yeah, all that you

1577
01:25:58,280 --> 01:26:02,240
Speaker 1: thought happening not happening. Fine, disregard it. I'm good.

1578
01:26:11,000 --> 01:26:14,320
Speaker 3: So, like Ming, Calla and Clydis learned that Flash Gordon

1579
01:26:14,439 --> 01:26:17,599
Speaker 3: is still alive. They're very unhappy about this, and they

1580
01:26:17,680 --> 01:26:20,320
Speaker 3: learn he's still alive due to the intervention of a trader,

1581
01:26:20,800 --> 01:26:24,080
Speaker 3: and Ming authorizes Clydis to discover who the trader is

1582
01:26:24,240 --> 01:26:27,960
Speaker 3: no matter where the trail leads, by any means necessary.

1583
01:26:28,640 --> 01:26:31,760
Speaker 3: So this leads to the torture scene of Princess Ara.

1584
01:26:32,600 --> 01:26:36,080
Speaker 3: Clydas has her like chained up and they're torturing her

1585
01:26:36,160 --> 01:26:38,840
Speaker 3: for information. They're like, where is Flash Gordon? Where did

1586
01:26:38,920 --> 01:26:41,799
Speaker 3: you take him? Clydus seems to be kind of enjoying

1587
01:26:41,920 --> 01:26:44,640
Speaker 3: this because he's he's portrayed to be somewhat of a

1588
01:26:44,720 --> 01:26:49,040
Speaker 3: creep when it comes to aur and uh, then it oh,

1589
01:26:49,200 --> 01:26:51,280
Speaker 3: there's the part it gets to where he's like, bring

1590
01:26:51,439 --> 01:26:55,600
Speaker 3: me the bore worms and she goes, no, not the

1591
01:26:55,720 --> 01:27:00,200
Speaker 3: bore worms. Ara has has multiple lines where she just

1592
01:27:00,280 --> 01:27:03,759
Speaker 3: has to make very very straight reference to the horror

1593
01:27:03,880 --> 01:27:06,040
Speaker 3: of the boar worms. It'll come up again.

1594
01:27:06,640 --> 01:27:09,640
Speaker 1: It works. I mean, it builds up a sense of

1595
01:27:09,720 --> 01:27:13,000
Speaker 1: fear of these worms that we will never see, never see. Yeah,

1596
01:27:13,120 --> 01:27:15,320
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe Dino came in. He's like, Okay, look,

1597
01:27:16,400 --> 01:27:18,479
Speaker 1: I gave you the cage lowered into the swamp. I

1598
01:27:18,560 --> 01:27:21,400
Speaker 1: gave you the tree beast, but we can't have bore worms.

1599
01:27:21,680 --> 01:27:23,880
Speaker 1: We're at the very limit of the budget right now.

1600
01:27:24,280 --> 01:27:26,880
Speaker 3: Speaking of the swamp, there's like an escape scene where

1601
01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:30,360
Speaker 3: they get Gordon out of the cage in the swamp,

1602
01:27:30,560 --> 01:27:33,599
Speaker 3: but then Timothy Dalton confronts him and they're like, okay,

1603
01:27:33,680 --> 01:27:36,360
Speaker 3: we're gonna make you do the tree beast test, and

1604
01:27:37,320 --> 01:27:40,680
Speaker 3: he does pretty well, but eventually this escalates to a

1605
01:27:40,760 --> 01:27:42,960
Speaker 3: fight and flash Gordon has to like pull a sword

1606
01:27:43,040 --> 01:27:47,360
Speaker 3: on Timothy Dalton and try to escape, but then he

1607
01:27:47,560 --> 01:27:49,880
Speaker 3: gets caught in the swamp by some kind of giant

1608
01:27:50,600 --> 01:27:53,880
Speaker 3: monster that's like gobbling him up. And Barren, I don't

1609
01:27:53,880 --> 01:27:55,640
Speaker 3: know how to even describe this thing. It's like a

1610
01:27:55,720 --> 01:27:58,040
Speaker 3: big sack that has bamboo legs.

1611
01:27:58,680 --> 01:28:03,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's monstrous and it doesn't make a lot of sense,

1612
01:28:03,080 --> 01:28:04,880
Speaker 1: but it's a monster, it's a space monster. It's not

1613
01:28:04,920 --> 01:28:05,400
Speaker 1: supposed to do.

1614
01:28:05,680 --> 01:28:08,400
Speaker 3: So Timothy Dalton comes it kills the monster, and then

1615
01:28:08,439 --> 01:28:10,240
Speaker 3: you think he's about to kill Flash Gordon. But then

1616
01:28:10,320 --> 01:28:12,080
Speaker 3: I don't even remember what happens here. Is it that

1617
01:28:12,200 --> 01:28:14,840
Speaker 3: the Hawkmen show up and stop him from killing him?

1618
01:28:15,160 --> 01:28:18,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, the hawk Men come at that point because they're

1619
01:28:18,880 --> 01:28:21,679
Speaker 1: here for Flash, and the hawk Men are still trying

1620
01:28:21,760 --> 01:28:25,080
Speaker 1: to play right by Ming. They're not an all open rebellion.

1621
01:28:25,120 --> 01:28:27,479
Speaker 1: This is all heading to, of course, open rebellion, but

1622
01:28:27,680 --> 01:28:31,080
Speaker 1: right now there's still division between these factions that will

1623
01:28:31,400 --> 01:28:33,519
Speaker 1: eventually rise up together against me.

1624
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:37,040
Speaker 3: Our Earthlings are constantly trying to appeal to the factions

1625
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:40,120
Speaker 3: to band together and fight against Ming instead of being

1626
01:28:40,240 --> 01:28:43,320
Speaker 3: loyal to Ming and fighting each other right, and they

1627
01:28:43,360 --> 01:28:45,840
Speaker 3: are eventually able to convince them, But before that we

1628
01:28:45,960 --> 01:28:50,840
Speaker 3: get to the trial by combat scene, which is another

1629
01:28:50,880 --> 01:28:53,160
Speaker 3: one of the best scenes in the movie Flash Gordon.

1630
01:28:53,760 --> 01:28:55,400
Speaker 3: I've said this before on the show that a lot

1631
01:28:55,439 --> 01:28:58,040
Speaker 3: of times action scenes are boring because a lot of

1632
01:28:58,080 --> 01:28:59,840
Speaker 3: times they are it's just you know, like close ups

1633
01:28:59,880 --> 01:29:03,439
Speaker 3: of people shooting and things exploding, the lax drama. Flash

1634
01:29:03,520 --> 01:29:05,560
Speaker 3: Gordon is not like that. The fight scenes are some

1635
01:29:05,640 --> 01:29:07,799
Speaker 3: of the best stuff in the movies. The fight scenes

1636
01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:08,880
Speaker 3: are so fun.

1637
01:29:09,640 --> 01:29:12,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this one especially. So it's gonna be trial

1638
01:29:12,960 --> 01:29:18,920
Speaker 1: by combat in the Hawkman floating city. Yeah, and there

1639
01:29:18,920 --> 01:29:21,200
Speaker 1: are a few steps to get get where we're gonna

1640
01:29:21,200 --> 01:29:24,760
Speaker 1: go with this, but it's like Barren is going to

1641
01:29:24,800 --> 01:29:28,519
Speaker 1: be tried and executed, but it's going to be trial

1642
01:29:28,560 --> 01:29:31,080
Speaker 1: by combat. Who's he gonna fight. Seems like he's gonna

1643
01:29:31,120 --> 01:29:34,280
Speaker 1: probably fit. Uh, he's gonna probably pick Brian Blessed. Right,

1644
01:29:34,920 --> 01:29:37,240
Speaker 1: he's there, he has his cudgel, he's eager for it,

1645
01:29:37,360 --> 01:29:40,200
Speaker 1: but no, he chooses Flash Gorton. He's like, I will

1646
01:29:40,240 --> 01:29:40,760
Speaker 1: fight him.

1647
01:29:41,120 --> 01:29:43,400
Speaker 3: So they put them out on this disc in the

1648
01:29:43,439 --> 01:29:46,080
Speaker 3: middle of a void, and so the Hawkman Palace is

1649
01:29:46,120 --> 01:29:47,680
Speaker 3: like up at the air, so it's like they got

1650
01:29:47,680 --> 01:29:50,920
Speaker 3: the moon door basically, and they're on this disc there

1651
01:29:51,479 --> 01:29:55,040
Speaker 3: and while and they're fighting with whips, Flashboard and then

1652
01:29:55,120 --> 01:29:58,800
Speaker 3: Timothy Dalton are whipping each other on this disc and

1653
01:29:58,880 --> 01:30:02,160
Speaker 3: then Brian Blessed it's this remote control that allows him

1654
01:30:02,200 --> 01:30:05,040
Speaker 3: to tilt the disc around and make spikes come up

1655
01:30:05,080 --> 01:30:07,920
Speaker 3: out of the bottom of it. So it's just it's

1656
01:30:08,120 --> 01:30:12,400
Speaker 3: extremely chaotic and it's very very fun, and the fight

1657
01:30:12,680 --> 01:30:16,880
Speaker 3: ends with a I think a super well earned reconciliation.

1658
01:30:17,080 --> 01:30:19,320
Speaker 3: So Timothy Dalton is defeated at the end of the fight.

1659
01:30:19,439 --> 01:30:21,720
Speaker 3: He's like about to fall off, but Flash goes to

1660
01:30:21,800 --> 01:30:23,840
Speaker 3: save him. He's like, we can be friends, we can

1661
01:30:23,920 --> 01:30:27,400
Speaker 3: work together, and you know what, bye, Gollia. I'm there.

1662
01:30:27,479 --> 01:30:30,200
Speaker 3: I think this this friendship arc has been earned.

1663
01:30:30,960 --> 01:30:33,920
Speaker 1: It really was earned here in this scene. Great fight

1664
01:30:34,080 --> 01:30:36,640
Speaker 1: with whips of all things. Even going back into this,

1665
01:30:36,800 --> 01:30:38,599
Speaker 1: when I saw the whips come out, I'm like, oh lord,

1666
01:30:38,680 --> 01:30:40,840
Speaker 1: you know, not swords but whips. But it works. They

1667
01:30:40,880 --> 01:30:44,679
Speaker 1: make it work. It's well choreographed. The pail feels real,

1668
01:30:45,200 --> 01:30:47,400
Speaker 1: and then yeah, it's earned. It's a whole it's a

1669
01:30:47,479 --> 01:30:50,679
Speaker 1: we can live moment. To call back to robot jocks.

1670
01:30:51,040 --> 01:30:53,760
Speaker 3: My god, you're exactly right, except instead of saying no,

1671
01:30:54,080 --> 01:30:56,800
Speaker 3: we are dead, we are robot jocks, he says, okay, yeah,

1672
01:30:56,840 --> 01:30:58,240
Speaker 3: we can live, we can do it.

1673
01:30:58,400 --> 01:30:58,599
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1674
01:30:59,320 --> 01:31:01,320
Speaker 3: This is also the scene where in the middle they're

1675
01:31:01,400 --> 01:31:04,439
Speaker 3: like fighting and Dale Arden yells a Flash, I love you,

1676
01:31:04,600 --> 01:31:06,920
Speaker 3: but we only have fourteen hours to save the earth.

1677
01:31:08,280 --> 01:31:10,960
Speaker 3: Because oh, I haven't even mentioned this but the moon

1678
01:31:11,080 --> 01:31:14,320
Speaker 3: is spiraling into the Earth, and Zarkov determines that they

1679
01:31:14,400 --> 01:31:17,320
Speaker 3: only have fourteen hours before it cannot be stopped.

1680
01:31:17,760 --> 01:31:19,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he set a timer earlier, or he

1681
01:31:19,720 --> 01:31:21,720
Speaker 1: will set a timer in a bit so that we'll

1682
01:31:21,760 --> 01:31:23,799
Speaker 1: stay on top of this whole Moon Earth situation.

1683
01:31:24,320 --> 01:31:26,519
Speaker 3: So I think we got to go a little bit

1684
01:31:26,560 --> 01:31:28,600
Speaker 3: more lightly over what happens from here, because I know

1685
01:31:28,680 --> 01:31:31,880
Speaker 3: we're running up on time. But oh my lord, there's

1686
01:31:31,960 --> 01:31:34,800
Speaker 3: a lot of a finale, a lot of final conflict here.

1687
01:31:34,840 --> 01:31:38,559
Speaker 3: So like Ming's forces come to attack the Hawkman Palace,

1688
01:31:39,880 --> 01:31:42,920
Speaker 3: and one of the things that happens here is that mingko.

1689
01:31:43,040 --> 01:31:45,479
Speaker 3: Oh well, we do get the death of Clytis. How

1690
01:31:45,520 --> 01:31:46,080
Speaker 3: does that happen?

1691
01:31:46,640 --> 01:31:48,760
Speaker 1: Oh well, he shows up, he's upset about this whole

1692
01:31:48,760 --> 01:31:54,559
Speaker 1: scenario with these warning factions suddenly joining forces. He gets

1693
01:31:55,160 --> 01:31:58,320
Speaker 1: thrown out. There's like a double team, and he eventually

1694
01:31:58,360 --> 01:32:02,160
Speaker 1: gets thrown out onto the spy platform run through, and

1695
01:32:02,280 --> 01:32:04,720
Speaker 1: we do get that scene of his mask doesn't come off,

1696
01:32:04,760 --> 01:32:06,800
Speaker 1: but we see like his eyes and his tongue like

1697
01:32:06,960 --> 01:32:11,840
Speaker 1: melting out through the mask. Yeah. Gross ending, But this

1698
01:32:11,960 --> 01:32:14,160
Speaker 1: is an evil dude, so you know, yeah, it's fine.

1699
01:32:14,520 --> 01:32:18,120
Speaker 3: And then Ming is like, Flash Gordon, everybody else can leave,

1700
01:32:18,240 --> 01:32:21,040
Speaker 3: you know, take the prisoners back to my palace. Flash Gordon,

1701
01:32:21,080 --> 01:32:22,640
Speaker 3: I would like a word with you. And then he

1702
01:32:22,920 --> 01:32:25,160
Speaker 3: offers Flash Gordon to be the Prince of Earth.

1703
01:32:25,600 --> 01:32:27,280
Speaker 1: The last temptation of Flash.

1704
01:32:29,240 --> 01:32:33,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. He's like, how about this. I make you

1705
01:32:33,479 --> 01:32:35,680
Speaker 3: the Prince of Earth, and all of the people of

1706
01:32:35,760 --> 01:32:39,080
Speaker 3: Earth must serve you and be your slaves, and you

1707
01:32:39,400 --> 01:32:41,400
Speaker 3: you just must be loyal to me? How about that?

1708
01:32:41,920 --> 01:32:44,360
Speaker 3: And Flash is like, no, I won't do it.

1709
01:32:45,800 --> 01:32:49,040
Speaker 1: It's a creepy scene because Ming is saying things like, oh,

1710
01:32:49,120 --> 01:32:51,240
Speaker 1: they'll be different once I'm done with them, They'll be

1711
01:32:51,320 --> 01:32:54,760
Speaker 1: easier to manage, yeah and all that. Yeah, Flash is

1712
01:32:54,800 --> 01:32:56,799
Speaker 1: our hero. He doesn't want any part of that, he says.

1713
01:32:56,640 --> 01:32:59,840
Speaker 3: No, I think Ming says that he will condition the

1714
01:32:59,840 --> 01:33:02,439
Speaker 3: people of Earth to be satisfied with less.

1715
01:33:03,240 --> 01:33:04,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what he says.

1716
01:33:04,439 --> 01:33:06,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, but no, Flash would never do that.

1717
01:33:07,439 --> 01:33:10,639
Speaker 1: All right. So Flash is left on the Hawkmen floating

1718
01:33:10,720 --> 01:33:13,439
Speaker 1: castle thing and they're gonna blow up, and Ming's force

1719
01:33:13,520 --> 01:33:17,400
Speaker 1: to start blowing it up. But fortunately he finds a

1720
01:33:17,479 --> 01:33:19,960
Speaker 1: rocket slid, which is kind of like he finds a

1721
01:33:20,040 --> 01:33:22,360
Speaker 1: jet ski. It's a jet ski. It's a space jet ski.

1722
01:33:22,439 --> 01:33:24,000
Speaker 1: I don't know why the hawk Men need a jet ski.

1723
01:33:24,080 --> 01:33:26,360
Speaker 1: They have wings that allow them to fly through space,

1724
01:33:26,880 --> 01:33:30,000
Speaker 1: but it's it's fortunate for our friend Flash here, who

1725
01:33:30,040 --> 01:33:30,759
Speaker 1: has no wings.

1726
01:33:31,640 --> 01:33:34,519
Speaker 3: And ultimately this all culminates in like the factions are

1727
01:33:34,560 --> 01:33:38,560
Speaker 3: going to band together. He Flash convinces Brian Blessed and

1728
01:33:38,600 --> 01:33:42,479
Speaker 3: the Hawkmen to like all work together to go oppose Ming.

1729
01:33:43,960 --> 01:33:47,439
Speaker 1: That's right, just as Ming is about to get married

1730
01:33:48,760 --> 01:33:51,800
Speaker 1: to our heroin. So you know, a lot of things

1731
01:33:51,920 --> 01:33:53,439
Speaker 1: predictably coming to a head.

1732
01:33:53,320 --> 01:33:56,400
Speaker 3: Here, that's right. So several things are happening here somehow.

1733
01:33:57,400 --> 01:34:01,080
Speaker 3: I think the Zarkov and Timothy Dlta are in the

1734
01:34:01,200 --> 01:34:05,320
Speaker 3: dungeon together in the palace, and we come in on them,

1735
01:34:05,400 --> 01:34:08,880
Speaker 3: and Timothy Dalton's like, tell me again about this Houdini man,

1736
01:34:10,120 --> 01:34:12,960
Speaker 3: And but they get what happens?

1737
01:34:13,000 --> 01:34:13,040
Speaker 2: Do?

1738
01:34:13,120 --> 01:34:15,000
Speaker 3: They get rescued by Princess Aura?

1739
01:34:15,640 --> 01:34:18,639
Speaker 1: I believe? So, yeah, she completely turns face at this point,

1740
01:34:19,280 --> 01:34:20,599
Speaker 1: and she's working for the good guys.

1741
01:34:21,040 --> 01:34:23,120
Speaker 3: We've been told that she's gonna be punished for her

1742
01:34:23,200 --> 01:34:25,720
Speaker 3: treachery by like being sent to a planet where she

1743
01:34:25,840 --> 01:34:28,720
Speaker 3: will she will like freeze and suffer, and I guess

1744
01:34:28,800 --> 01:34:32,560
Speaker 3: this will like purge her mind of all disloyalty. But

1745
01:34:32,680 --> 01:34:34,920
Speaker 3: before that happens, I don't know, She's just wandering around

1746
01:34:34,960 --> 01:34:38,880
Speaker 3: and she yeah, she rescues them, and then they go

1747
01:34:39,320 --> 01:34:42,880
Speaker 3: and do some fighting inside the palace to like sabotage

1748
01:34:43,000 --> 01:34:46,240
Speaker 3: Ming's defenses and General Kala and all the guys with

1749
01:34:46,360 --> 01:34:48,240
Speaker 3: goggles on their eyes, and there's a great moment where

1750
01:34:48,240 --> 01:34:50,320
Speaker 3: a guy gets the goggles pulled off of his head

1751
01:34:50,320 --> 01:34:52,680
Speaker 3: and we find he has no eyes underneath. It's just

1752
01:34:52,800 --> 01:34:54,519
Speaker 3: like sockets full of wires.

1753
01:34:54,680 --> 01:34:57,759
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and they're all interconnected, so they all short

1754
01:34:57,800 --> 01:34:58,280
Speaker 1: out and die.

1755
01:34:58,960 --> 01:35:02,800
Speaker 3: So the Hawkman and Flash or attacking first the ship

1756
01:35:02,920 --> 01:35:05,879
Speaker 3: that's out there, General Kalo's ship, and then they're attacking

1757
01:35:05,960 --> 01:35:09,200
Speaker 3: the palace while this wedding is happening. And I noticed

1758
01:35:09,240 --> 01:35:13,240
Speaker 3: something about the wedding. The sniveling, obsequious priest performing the

1759
01:35:13,320 --> 01:35:16,280
Speaker 3: marriage ceremony, he seemed familiar to me, and I was like,

1760
01:35:16,360 --> 01:35:20,080
Speaker 3: wait a second, is that Delbert Grady from The Shining

1761
01:35:20,520 --> 01:35:24,479
Speaker 3: And yep, that's right, it is Philip Stone, British character

1762
01:35:24,560 --> 01:35:27,240
Speaker 3: actor who was also in a couple of other Kubrick movies.

1763
01:35:27,280 --> 01:35:29,439
Speaker 3: He was in a Clockwork Orange and he was in

1764
01:35:29,560 --> 01:35:31,600
Speaker 3: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He's like the

1765
01:35:31,680 --> 01:35:35,479
Speaker 3: British Army officer, but I caught that I caught something

1766
01:35:35,520 --> 01:35:38,960
Speaker 3: about his voice and his eyes there good eye.

1767
01:35:39,040 --> 01:35:41,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's a very small role, but it's also

1768
01:35:42,200 --> 01:35:45,120
Speaker 1: very fun. This is a kind of predictable comedy here

1769
01:35:45,200 --> 01:35:49,280
Speaker 1: with your tyrannical ruler going through some vowels with his

1770
01:35:49,400 --> 01:35:50,519
Speaker 1: soon to be forced wife.

1771
01:35:50,920 --> 01:35:54,959
Speaker 3: Yes. The priest is like, do you Ming, the merciless

1772
01:35:55,080 --> 01:35:58,080
Speaker 3: ruler of the universe, take this earthling dale Arden to

1773
01:35:58,160 --> 01:36:01,200
Speaker 3: be your impress of the hour? And Ming says of

1774
01:36:01,320 --> 01:36:05,320
Speaker 3: the hour? Yes, And the priest is like, you promise

1775
01:36:05,479 --> 01:36:08,320
Speaker 3: not to blast her into space? And then Ming like

1776
01:36:08,560 --> 01:36:11,840
Speaker 3: glares angrily at him, and he's like it untils such

1777
01:36:11,960 --> 01:36:15,320
Speaker 3: time as you grow weary of her and promises I

1778
01:36:15,439 --> 01:36:18,760
Speaker 3: do another great scene in this in this whole like

1779
01:36:19,040 --> 01:36:21,200
Speaker 3: assault on the palace at the end is the like

1780
01:36:21,439 --> 01:36:24,479
Speaker 3: the codes have changed and so have we moments.

1781
01:36:24,600 --> 01:36:27,920
Speaker 1: Oh god, this is my favorite, favorite, one of my

1782
01:36:27,960 --> 01:36:31,720
Speaker 1: favorite moments. Upon this rewatch Like it's not effects, it's

1783
01:36:32,000 --> 01:36:35,559
Speaker 1: it's just like really weird writing. And this this feels

1784
01:36:35,720 --> 01:36:39,120
Speaker 1: very improvisational, like they realized they needed something to get

1785
01:36:39,200 --> 01:36:42,519
Speaker 1: him from point A to or point are to point

1786
01:36:42,560 --> 01:36:46,160
Speaker 1: as wherever we are in the transition here. But yeah,

1787
01:36:46,200 --> 01:36:48,040
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, well we got to open this lock

1788
01:36:48,080 --> 01:36:50,439
Speaker 1: that the locks have changed. And then they're like, oh,

1789
01:36:50,520 --> 01:36:52,960
Speaker 1: well you know I've changed too, how about you? Yes,

1790
01:36:53,080 --> 01:36:56,600
Speaker 1: I've changed. It's like this moment where they're using a

1791
01:36:56,760 --> 01:37:00,720
Speaker 1: change in passcodes to quickly comment on their own capacity

1792
01:37:00,840 --> 01:37:04,519
Speaker 1: for change as human beings. It's just so dumb.

1793
01:37:04,880 --> 01:37:08,000
Speaker 3: I love it that that scene is between Princess Ara

1794
01:37:08,120 --> 01:37:11,760
Speaker 3: and Prince Baron. I guess it's like their sort of reconciliation.

1795
01:37:13,040 --> 01:37:16,200
Speaker 3: And then meanwhile Zarkov is in the back like trying

1796
01:37:16,200 --> 01:37:18,799
Speaker 3: to hack the terminal here, and he's like, I haven't changed.

1797
01:37:21,400 --> 01:37:22,720
Speaker 1: So I don't know what was going on with the

1798
01:37:22,760 --> 01:37:26,600
Speaker 1: scene this was there's something If this was improved or

1799
01:37:26,640 --> 01:37:28,880
Speaker 1: there was something lost in translation, I don't know, but

1800
01:37:29,520 --> 01:37:30,000
Speaker 1: it's great.

1801
01:37:30,560 --> 01:37:33,320
Speaker 3: The way that Ming is defeated in the end is

1802
01:37:33,479 --> 01:37:37,519
Speaker 3: so good. It is that the ship crashes into the

1803
01:37:37,600 --> 01:37:41,560
Speaker 3: wedding ceremony and the ship has like now that it

1804
01:37:41,600 --> 01:37:44,880
Speaker 3: has been taken over by the Hawkman and Flash Gordon,

1805
01:37:45,200 --> 01:37:48,280
Speaker 3: and it's got like a big prong on the front

1806
01:37:48,320 --> 01:37:51,120
Speaker 3: of it, and it just like stabs ming through the

1807
01:37:51,200 --> 01:37:54,200
Speaker 3: stomach like the spaceship skewers him.

1808
01:37:54,640 --> 01:37:57,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, like upper like not quite through the heart, like

1809
01:37:57,479 --> 01:37:59,640
Speaker 1: he's a vampire, like a little lower than that, but

1810
01:37:59,760 --> 01:38:04,840
Speaker 1: still vampire slaying esque. So it's uh right as he's

1811
01:38:04,880 --> 01:38:08,519
Speaker 1: turning away from it. So it's a pretty great villain

1812
01:38:08,600 --> 01:38:11,240
Speaker 1: skewering scene. And then there's the you know, the sixth

1813
01:38:11,280 --> 01:38:13,760
Speaker 1: scene where he like pulls himself off of the impalement

1814
01:38:13,840 --> 01:38:16,240
Speaker 1: and I forget what color is it? Purple blood? It's

1815
01:38:16,280 --> 01:38:18,000
Speaker 1: one of the alien colored bloods, I believe.

1816
01:38:18,280 --> 01:38:21,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And then he tries to use his his

1817
01:38:21,160 --> 01:38:25,360
Speaker 3: chunky magic ring to to fight back against Flash Gordon,

1818
01:38:25,439 --> 01:38:27,080
Speaker 3: but no, he can't win.

1819
01:38:27,720 --> 01:38:29,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's weakening, and then he just kind of blinks

1820
01:38:29,920 --> 01:38:32,160
Speaker 1: out and the ring falls to the floor.

1821
01:38:33,280 --> 01:38:36,040
Speaker 3: So it's a happy ending. It seems a Flash Gordon,

1822
01:38:36,200 --> 01:38:39,000
Speaker 3: isn't Is he like declared the new emperor or something.

1823
01:38:39,240 --> 01:38:40,799
Speaker 3: I don't know if he would take the job.

1824
01:38:40,760 --> 01:38:43,479
Speaker 1: But now I think Timothy Dubbon is the new emperor, right,

1825
01:38:44,200 --> 01:38:48,080
Speaker 1: and then Brian Blessed is the new general. Yes, I

1826
01:38:48,160 --> 01:38:51,720
Speaker 1: can't imagine anything going wrong with this scenario, but for

1827
01:38:51,800 --> 01:38:53,839
Speaker 1: the moment things are united and peaceful.

1828
01:38:54,360 --> 01:38:57,280
Speaker 3: But we get the end question mark with just like

1829
01:38:57,600 --> 01:38:59,919
Speaker 3: ming laughter echoing into eternity.

1830
01:39:00,280 --> 01:39:02,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, we get the close up with that ring and

1831
01:39:02,200 --> 01:39:06,240
Speaker 1: some dust being blown away. So yep, it looks like

1832
01:39:06,360 --> 01:39:09,040
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a sequel, except there was never a sequel.

1833
01:39:09,439 --> 01:39:13,400
Speaker 3: Ah. Well, Rob, I'm glad you suggested Flash Gordon this week.

1834
01:39:13,560 --> 01:39:16,120
Speaker 3: This one was was such a delight.

1835
01:39:16,680 --> 01:39:18,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a lot of fun. I feel like

1836
01:39:18,400 --> 01:39:21,000
Speaker 1: listeners have have requested this one in the past as well.

1837
01:39:21,040 --> 01:39:24,519
Speaker 1: It's a pretty pretty obvious picture to hit on the

1838
01:39:24,560 --> 01:39:26,800
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema journey, and I'm glad we did it.

1839
01:39:27,360 --> 01:39:27,759
Speaker 3: Agreed.

1840
01:39:28,120 --> 01:39:30,240
Speaker 1: All right, we'll go ahead and close out here, but

1841
01:39:30,439 --> 01:39:32,640
Speaker 1: as always we invite you to write in. We'd love

1842
01:39:32,680 --> 01:39:36,120
Speaker 1: to hear from you about your experience with this film,

1843
01:39:36,320 --> 01:39:39,000
Speaker 1: your your thoughts on the film, your history with the film,

1844
01:39:39,120 --> 01:39:42,479
Speaker 1: and so forth. A reminder that Stuff to Blow Your

1845
01:39:42,479 --> 01:39:44,760
Speaker 1: Mind is primarily a science podcast with core episodes on

1846
01:39:44,800 --> 01:39:47,080
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursday's been on Fridays. We set aside most

1847
01:39:47,080 --> 01:39:48,960
Speaker 1: serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on

1848
01:39:49,080 --> 01:39:51,200
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema. If you want to see a complete

1849
01:39:51,240 --> 01:39:53,200
Speaker 1: list of all the movies we've covered so far. You

1850
01:39:53,280 --> 01:39:55,400
Speaker 1: can go to letterbox dot com. That's L E T

1851
01:39:55,560 --> 01:39:58,160
Speaker 1: T E R box d dot com and you can

1852
01:39:58,200 --> 01:40:00,320
Speaker 1: find us there a weird Weird House that's our user

1853
01:40:00,479 --> 01:40:02,240
Speaker 1: handle there, and we have a list of all the

1854
01:40:02,280 --> 01:40:04,640
Speaker 1: movies we've covered and you can toy around with that.

1855
01:40:05,040 --> 01:40:07,519
Speaker 1: You separate them, buy genre and so forth, and see

1856
01:40:07,560 --> 01:40:09,479
Speaker 1: what we've been up to, and sometimes there's a peek

1857
01:40:09,520 --> 01:40:11,000
Speaker 1: ahead at what's coming up next.

1858
01:40:11,680 --> 01:40:15,360
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1859
01:40:15,720 --> 01:40:17,160
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1860
01:40:17,240 --> 01:40:19,599
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1861
01:40:19,640 --> 01:40:21,639
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1862
01:40:22,080 --> 01:40:24,639
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to blow

1863
01:40:24,720 --> 01:40:25,760
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1864
01:40:32,439 --> 01:40:35,360
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1865
01:40:35,479 --> 01:40:38,240
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1866
01:40:38,400 --> 01:40:41,160
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.