Like most of Generation X, I saw the Star Wars trilogy, and chased that high into Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and others during theatrical release. As I've mentioned before, you had that odd circumstance where comic book fans would get a win with something like Superman, and then executives from a generation or two earlier would demand their turn with some hoary shit like Popeye or The Shadow. I gravitated more toward Buck Rogers because it was the closest to being a direct Star Wars rip-off, so it didn't feel like a throwback, and I've never been very familiar with the source material. The title sequence of Flash Gordon really rubs your nose in decades old comic strips, and the technicolor swashbuckling science fantasy was clearly from an earlier time. Also, Flash Gordon was a paramount influence on Golden Age comics, when everyone was trying to draw like (and copiously swiping from) Alex Raymond. DC's Hawkman was an unabashed rip-off, where they didn't even much alter than name. It also still kills me that Al Williamson drew both Star Wars and Flash Gordon, while Al McWilliams adapted the Buck Rogers movie, so in comics they all looked the same to me.
I remember liking how boldly designed and colorful Flash Gordon was, but that it didn't measure up to Buck Rogers in a variety of ways. Every single woman in BR was a smokeshow, and while Ornella Muti's Princess Aura is absolute spank bait, I didn't have much interest in anyone else there. Brian Blessed is chewing up Prince Vultan, but he's also a silly Viking type, where Thom Christopher's Hawk was a leatherbound badass. Max von Sydow's Ming is peak, but Pamela Hensley's Princess Ardala and Henry Silva's Killer Kane were no slouches. A huge benefit was that the Buck movie was also the pilot to a TV series, so they could spread out their characters across dozens of episodes. Flash is an overstuffed one-off, to the point where it's easy to go "oh yeah-- Timothy Dalton was in this." I'm also not as wild for the Queen soundtrack as most (the lyrics are as dumb and sparse as they are hyperbolic.)
My biggest problem was Sam Jones, who lacked even Gil Gerard-level charisma, and that's damning as hell. His eyebrows were doing most of the work, and his running around in a wifebeater seemed trashy to me. I think in the strip Flash was originally a rugby player, and I guess any kind of athlete would have an advantage in an adventure setting, but the contortions to game the action to highlight a quarterback hero were corny as hell. The Harlem Globetrotters might as well have joined the rebellion against Ming. Jones was giving me nothing, not even Buck's redneck dad vibes, and his getting ADR'd highlights his lack of presence. But also, Melody Anderson's Dale Arden is an embarrassment not for to touch the hem of Wilma Deering's second season flight attendant skirt. The combination of those two leads are a personality vacuum that sucks most of the life out of everyone else's efforts.
I think I also had this movie as a book & record set, so I remember the story more as still frames. I don't think I'd ever bothered with the old film serials, and I don't think my local papers carried the strip. My main Flash Gordon delivery system was animation, both the Filmation cartoon and Defenders of the Earth. I had his figure from the latter line and the NECA recreation of it. I really like the red & gold, seeing that as my Flash, and hey-- no exposed arms. I also got a good deal on the Randy Bowen mini-bust set with Ming. I'd like to be blown away by a version of Flash someday, and I do like my little exposure to the current Dan Schkade run on the strip. But if I'm being honest, a lot of these nostalgia purchases happened because they haven't made any Glen Larsen-Buck merch since the show left the air that I would be buying instead. But hey, Flash will join Buck in the public domain before the end of the decade, so there will be more opportunities...
Like most of Generation X, I saw the Star Wars trilogy, and chased that high into Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and others during theatrical release. As I've mentioned before, you had that odd circumstance where comic book fans would get a win with something like Superman, and then executives from a generation or two earlier would demand their turn with some hoary shit like Popeye or The Shadow. I gravitated more toward Buck Rogers because it was the closest to being a direct Star Wars rip-off, so it didn't feel like a throwback, and I've never been very familiar with the source material. The title sequence of Flash Gordon really rubs your nose in decades old comic strips, and the technicolor swashbuckling science fantasy was clearly from an earlier time. Also, Flash Gordon was a paramount influence on Golden Age comics, when everyone was trying to draw like (and copiously swiping from) Alex Raymond. DC's Hawkman was an unabashed rip-off, where they didn't even much alter than name. It also still kills me that Al Williamson drew both Star Wars and Flash Gordon, while Al McWilliams adapted the Buck Rogers movie, so in comics they all looked the same to me.
ReplyDeleteI remember liking how boldly designed and colorful Flash Gordon was, but that it didn't measure up to Buck Rogers in a variety of ways. Every single woman in BR was a smokeshow, and while Ornella Muti's Princess Aura is absolute spank bait, I didn't have much interest in anyone else there. Brian Blessed is chewing up Prince Vultan, but he's also a silly Viking type, where Thom Christopher's Hawk was a leatherbound badass. Max von Sydow's Ming is peak, but Pamela Hensley's Princess Ardala and Henry Silva's Killer Kane were no slouches. A huge benefit was that the Buck movie was also the pilot to a TV series, so they could spread out their characters across dozens of episodes. Flash is an overstuffed one-off, to the point where it's easy to go "oh yeah-- Timothy Dalton was in this." I'm also not as wild for the Queen soundtrack as most (the lyrics are as dumb and sparse as they are hyperbolic.)
My biggest problem was Sam Jones, who lacked even Gil Gerard-level charisma, and that's damning as hell. His eyebrows were doing most of the work, and his running around in a wifebeater seemed trashy to me. I think in the strip Flash was originally a rugby player, and I guess any kind of athlete would have an advantage in an adventure setting, but the contortions to game the action to highlight a quarterback hero were corny as hell. The Harlem Globetrotters might as well have joined the rebellion against Ming. Jones was giving me nothing, not even Buck's redneck dad vibes, and his getting ADR'd highlights his lack of presence. But also, Melody Anderson's Dale Arden is an embarrassment not for to touch the hem of Wilma Deering's second season flight attendant skirt. The combination of those two leads are a personality vacuum that sucks most of the life out of everyone else's efforts.
I think I also had this movie as a book & record set, so I remember the story more as still frames. I don't think I'd ever bothered with the old film serials, and I don't think my local papers carried the strip. My main Flash Gordon delivery system was animation, both the Filmation cartoon and Defenders of the Earth. I had his figure from the latter line and the NECA recreation of it. I really like the red & gold, seeing that as my Flash, and hey-- no exposed arms. I also got a good deal on the Randy Bowen mini-bust set with Ming. I'd like to be blown away by a version of Flash someday, and I do like my little exposure to the current Dan Schkade run on the strip. But if I'm being honest, a lot of these nostalgia purchases happened because they haven't made any Glen Larsen-Buck merch since the show left the air that I would be buying instead. But hey, Flash will join Buck in the public domain before the end of the decade, so there will be more opportunities...