Flash Gordon's football fight (1980)

Discussion with Mrs. Beschizza about Ted conjured up fond memories of Sam J. Jones's post-10 epic role as Flash Gordon in the 1980 British-American film adaptation of the classic comic strip. Yes, the one with the brilliantly bombastic Queen soundtrack. Adds Mr. Beschizza, "Flash Gordon is why America should get to make a Doctor Who movie."

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://twitter.com/figital figital

Dino De Laurentiis RIP
- Daneel
  
  RIIP
  - niktemadur
    
    Dino De Laurentiis BRAAAAP!
Remy Porter

I love this movie so much.
Tarliman

We did make a Doctor Who movie. See the one with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. It’s why the Brits will never let us make another one.
- Daemonworks
  
  Indeed.
- DewiMorgan
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1uTqA9jWWE <- why Hollywood should be banned from trying to make US versions of UK stuff. Make your OWN damn stuff! What's so hard about being creative? It's not like there's any shortage of people with ideas.
Theo Grace

And the Doctor Who film is the reason America should be allowed nowhere near it, not to discredit Flash Gordon, an epic film, but American studios can never be trusted with Who, never again!

Apologies, saw the last message appear while I was logging in, will leave this here anyway.
geekd

Saw Flash Gordon in the theateras a child. Loved it then, and I love it now for completely different reasons. ”Hawkmen, DIVE!”
eviladrian

Or why Brian May, astrophysicist, should get to score an episode of Doctor Who!
- http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
  
  Ever hear his Fresh Air interview where he breaks down using prime number derivations for the duration of the delays when layering the stomping echoes in “We Will Rock You”?
  
  http://www.npr.org/2010/08/03/128935865/queens-brian-may-rocks-out-to-physics-photography
  
  As it turns out, there IS a science to being awesome.
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

I was barely half way through glancing at the headline when the Queen theme was thundering through my consciousness.

HE’LL SAVE EVERY ONE OF US!

Ahhhh..
Antinous / Moderator

Interested parties may want to know that Sam J. Jones (Flash) did a fully nude spread for Playgirl, easily found online. And now he runs “a firm that specialises in corporate security and hostage extraction.”
- welcomeabored
  
  Woof. He looks much better as a brunette… all over.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I’ve always been a fan of the dark carpet / light drapes look.
- niktemadur
  
  Looks like The Most Interesting Man In The World has some serious competition!
rtresco

Classic. Deep Roy billed as “Princess Aura’s Pet “.
CHilke

There were days of riots and mayhem on the plant Mongo after this clip was released
Boundegar

You see, this is exactly what’s wrong with Breaking Bad. It needs more exotic costumes, and football-themed fight choreography.
Cazmonster

Princess Aura…

I’ll be in my bunk.
Snig

Brian Blessed’s sedate performance in this is wonderful.
- Halloween_Jack
  
  You mean… BRIAN BLESSED!
  - Snig
    
    The only exception when all caps comments aren’t loud enough.
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    I just came past to say, BRIAN BLESSED myself, but that’s better.
    
    He was bloody great in Blackadder.
TimRowledge

What Tarliman & Theo said above.
Also, I thought Brian Blessed had passed away, but it turns out…
“Brian’s… alive?”
Donald Petersen

If only the dodgeball games of my youth contained such marvelous clangs!
cinerik

In this, I’m afraid Mr Beschizza can take a long walk off a short cliff
Snig

The American Doctor Who was Gary Seven, from Star Trek. We had our chance and never took it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmynXHrR74w
- cdh1971
  
  During my moments of quiet reflection, sometimes I quake, yes quake, QUAKE, with rage that ‘Assignment Earth’ was not picked-up and made a series.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment:_Earth
  
  http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Assignment_Earth
jeligula

Saw it in 1980. It was dumb then. Queen’s song? We used to walk around singing “Flash – caaards.” “Flash – buuulb.” “Macromedia Shockwave renamed…. Adobe Flash – ah ahhh.” Well, the last one is not accurate, but still fun.
http://twitter.com/McGrude Michael Hogsett

I have a fun story about this movie. About 8 years ago we ordered it from Amazon as a gift from my brother-in-law. They stated it would take about a week to fulfill the order. The next day we cancelled the order because it was going to take too long to arrive for my brother-in-law’s birthday.

With our renewed interest in the movie we decided to order it for ourselves instead several days later. The movie was apparently now in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 % off of list price this time. We speculated that when we placed our original order they placed an order at their back end for the movie that they were committed to. Since we cancelled they would then have be stuck with a unit in inventory and listed the movie at a discount to get rid of it. Either that or it was just a coincidence.

We’ve still got it and have watched it several times. It was cheese, but good cheese with a great soundtrack.
Vanwall Green

Sam J Jones also played “The Spirit” in the 1987 TV movie adaptation of Eisner’s great comic, with Nana Visitor as Ellen Dolan. Flash and Denny Colt – how can ya beat that? It wasn’t a great film, but lottsa fun, much like this one, although when I asked Will Eisner about it at a Comic-Con, he wasn’t too happy about it. Both of these films had great babes, in ‘em, tho, the hallmark of the comics themselves.
Nicky G

The recent movie Ted has a whole side-plot regarding Flash and Sam Jones, and cocaine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

War Rocket Ajax is totally going to be my band name.
- Frank Diekman
  
  There’s already a comic book and pop culture podcast called War Rocket Ajax.
niktemadur

On topic but in Spanish, hope Xeni takes a look at this and has a good laugh. Get well soon, Xeni.
Mexican comic-strip legend Trino dubbed some old b/w matinee serials in his own inimitable style, as a weekly comic vignette for a Sunday news show. Batman and Superman got the treatment, and so did Flash Gordon, here’s one installment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCZ5BXLFEwQ

Trino also did a filthy, politically incorrect, cult-favorite dub of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, the werewolf episode, easily found on YouTube as Trino + Viaje Al Fondo Del Mar.
http://twitter.com/DerMudeTude Der Müde ‘Tude

The movie was released by a American studio and had two Americans in the lead roles.

It was directed by a Brit, had Europeans in almost all the supporting roles, the shooting drafts were written by a Frenchman, and it was filmed in England and Scotland by a mostly British production crew for a UK production company.

No, I don’t think the U.S. gets most of the credit for this one.
nigex

When this came out, I had no idea who Sam J. Jones was, and consequently the wierd running-and-catching game in the middle made no sense at all.
But then in Britain, we only have proper football.
- Snig
  
  It makes very little sense even if you know football.
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    I’ll admit I haven’t watched much football, but if rolling on the ground to trip the other players isn’t a part of the real game, it should be.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      We’ve advanced to flip three six hole.
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

Has anyone come across the expression, ‘in more trouble than Flash Gordon’ or is that just an Aussie thing?

Sure seemed to outlast its relevance… reckon I’ve heard it at least once in the last ten years.
petertrepan

That scene is not just off the hook, it’s… it’s… it’s flying blind on a rocketcycle!
Jon Paradise

Oh, dear lord.

When I was a kid I saw that movie and it was made of awesome with a side of awesomeballs slathered in awesomesauce.
The scene with the . . . well, as I remembered it as a 20-something, there were wriggling worms where those technicians’ eyes had been. When I saw it as an adult (god save me) they were just … wires.

I’m afraid that happened over and over with this movie as it went on.

On the other hand, watching it as part of Bad Movie Night later on, that was good fun.

But it was SUCH a disappointment when I watched it for the first time, expecting the original awesome…
herartsheloves

Going by the quality of this season of Doctor Who, thus far, Americans should even be allowed to watch Doctor Who. Somehow, I blame BBC America’s cheese-tastic annoyingly pointless nerdist specials.
Tribune

I wasted almost 2 hours of time watching various things from the 80′s on you-tube thanks to this post :)
madopal

I saw this movie 13 times in the theaters as a kid. I am glad to see others realize how Airwolf this movie was before Airwolf. It was hard continuing to talk people into taking me. I even talked my grandfather into taking me to a 10 pm show where I think we were the only two in the audience.

I sat there and did the whole intro.
- Klytus, I’m bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
- An obscure body in the SK system, your Majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet “Earth.”
- How peaceful it looks. [glowing ring sound] [Ming cackles]
- Most effective, your Majesty! Will you destroy this “Earth?”
- Later. I like to play with things awhile….before annihilation. [more Ming cackling]
[cue Queen]

I still remember what a thrill it was to see a jukebox that had Flash’s Theme on it, because the b-side was, in fact, Football Fight.
http://www.discogs.com/Queen-Flash/release/385573
People never understood what the heck it was if you played it. It had movie samples and everything, down to Sam J. Jones’ football calls and Melody Anderson’s cheeseball cheerleading. “Are your men on the right pills? Maybe you should execute their trainer.”
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SVV4BXZ3NUPXI34WH3EERSF64Q Seriously
  
  Listening to Melody Anderson yelling “Go Flash Go!” always makes me cringe. But the movie is awesome. Will now have Queen stuck in my head all day
http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

In college during finals-cram-sessions, we’d eventually just give up and go over to the library to watch this (they had a weird video collection for a college. No idea how this one snuck in.).

Ah, VHS….
Klaus Æ. Mogensen

“Everybody rejoice and be merry … On pain of death”

Max von Sydow is sublimely arrogant as Ming the Merciless!