Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. We are here for part two of
our comparison between Highlander and Flash Gordon. I am in
my skull hat with big black mohawk and Erector set
sword and Jason is in his skin tight T shirt
with his own name across the front of it.
Speaker 2: That's right, Jason Golvin, co host, Sureley you Can't Be Serious?
All right? This episode is brought to us by Alan Housted.
I think I'm pronouncing that right. I do know that
he's a big LA Dodgers fan.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He found us on Twitter and communicates with us there,
and he is on our Patreon for this page.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate the contribution. Alan. Really means a lot
to us. Can't explain to us what it means. Just
your support both financially and being there to talk to
us on Twitter is awesome. Thank you very much for
doing that. If you like to be an executive producer
for one of our episodes, just go to our Patreon page.
There are different levels that you can join up on,
but even at only five dollars a month, you become
an executive producer for us. Okay, let us jump into
production for these two movies. Great, okay. So to start
off with Flash, Gordon, you have Clytis and Ming talking
to each other. I just signed bold about this planet called.
Speaker 2: An obscure body in the s Case system, your majesty.
The inhabitants refer to it as the planet.
Speaker 1: Earth, Earth, and they say Earth like they've never heard
Like it's like to state like, I've never heard of this,
And then three seconds later he's pressing a button that
literally says earthquake? What what?
Speaker 3: Hey?
Speaker 1: How did you never hear of this? And you've got
a button that has it right there.
Speaker 2: It's the same reason they speak English in another universe,
and just that is the way it works.
Speaker 1: And he has a button this is typhoon, and a
button that says hurricane. That's one button, Hey, that is one,
But those are the same thing.
Speaker 2: You haven't even talked about.
Speaker 3: The button that says hot hail.
Speaker 1: Hot hale. You know hale, that's hot.
Speaker 2: Well, it's because it's a lot scarier than cold hal,
you know.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Cale, I watched this with Caleb, Like I said,
he was just like, what is hot hal?
Speaker 1: I don't know? Son fire and broomstone, I guess.
Speaker 2: Here's the deal. Hot hal is debris from the moon
that's off by twelve degrees. All right, so the beginning, Yes,
you have the clitus on board. What plaything do you
have to offer me today? And then you have that
pump and Queen and when it pounds in the flash,
I'm like, let's freaking go, because Queen can make some
freaking great intro songs. But here's one of the things
that bothers me. Okay about the intro to Flash. We're
talking about Flash.
Speaker 1: Of the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, this is a small thing, and I know
this is weird. Probably nobody else thinks about this flash.
Gordon's on vacation. He's also listening to football games. Okay,
what professional quarterback goes on vacation during football season?
Speaker 1: Okay, So here's here's the weird thing for me. Yeah,
and this is further on in the movie, of course,
when Ming ultimately gets impaled with the ship.
Speaker 2: We're moving there already.
Speaker 1: Slides off and what color is his blood blue? And
earlier in the movie, his daughter is being whipped. What
color is her blood red? Why is the daughter bleed
red and the dad lead green or blue or whatever
it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that question.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So anyway, so part of the craziness
that occurred during production we mentioned before was the Dananello
Dennardi who had all these weird things that he wanted
to do. Included the mask that wouldn't move move for Cleitis.
It included a fifty pound bridle dress for Melanie Anderson,
and the wings for the Hawkmen. They didn't move like,
they were rigid, like. They couldn't sit down because the
wings would smash against the flor so they had to
lie on their stomachs. This is nineteen eighty, right, nineteen
eighty and so they've got these Hawkmen that they've got
to do this flying scenes for. So what they do
is they go to Superman, the guys that did Superman
and him flying so that they get could they could
get it where you wait a minute, I'm sorry, No,
they didn't. It was to the guy who did the
flying Monkeys and the Wizard of Oz like fifty years
earth what, Yes, they did not. I'm like, what why
did you go to that guy?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: Why would you go to the guy who made the
movie before? Like color movies existed, instead of going to
the guys that just made the movie that made you
to believe a man could fly.
Speaker 2: Now that you say that they did look like flying monkeys, Well,
here's one thing that they got right though. Okay, let's
give it up special effects. Wise, everything else, including Star Wars,
space is black with white stars. They made these unbelievably cool, colorful,
rich background skies. What they made by dumping color dye
and water and watching it swirl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the way they did it, like you said, they
had different weights and colors for these inks, and they
would shoot them at like really high speed, like a
lot of frames per second, so that they could slow
down the blending of the colors. And it looks like
these rainbow colored clouds slowly moving.
Speaker 2: Across it, and they look amazing. Can we just pause
and put the flag at half mast? Put your hand
over your heart for our buddy. Munson too played Porkins
and Star Wars and Death the Top Men, guy in
Raiders at the Last Time, Dye in that one, and
Eckhart detective in eighty nine Batman.
Speaker 1: Did die in that one.
Speaker 3: Munson makes a run for the hills.
Speaker 2: Before you know, Zarkov tries to make him get on
the ship, threatening him with a gun.
Speaker 3: Get in the ship.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna shoot you.
Speaker 3: You're crazy, I'm out of here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then Flash Gordon squishes in with the airplane.
Completely accidental, however, Flash takes out Munson.
Speaker 1: Sorry Muson, our good friend William Hootkins.
Speaker 2: The third here's the other thing's a little weird. Doctor
Zarkoff builds a rocket in the middle of Greenhouse. Yeah, okay,
which is a little far fetched, although Elon Musk basically
is doing the same thing. Okay, but the rocket ship
can't be operated alone. You gotta have two people because
somebody's got to press the freaking red lever.
Speaker 1: I yes, that was my that was my thought as well.
You are a single guy by yourself, you make a
ship capable of going into outer space, but it can't
unless you have two people operating.
Speaker 3: Pushed the red lever.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 2: I love these movies, okay, but apparently when you take
off into space and you go to Mongo, it's kind
of like a wet dream because.
Speaker 3: It's erotic.
Speaker 2: Melody Anderson could barely keep her clothes on inside the
Rocket Show, and they're all passed out. They're sweaty, and
they're having it's very erotic, and the rocket ship is
very phallic. It's very phallic. And then of course when
they get to Mango, Ming pulls out his magic green
and hypnotizes her to do this magic erotic dance, which
is weird until you find out that Dino de Lorentis
told Lorenzo simple, Hey, how's the script going pretty good?
I got my buddy Bob Guccioni over here. Why don't
you ask him for some ideas. Bob Guccioni, the guy
who created Penthouse Magazine, he had some input into Flash Gordon.
Speaker 1: Brian Blessed talks about the fact that Dino de Larentiz
would show up on the set, show up on the set,
and he scared the crap out of everyone, and finally
Mike Hodges had enough and he was like, we can't
nobody could do anything with you here. You instead of
I don't think you tell del Reentis to f off,
I just don't think you do that.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got two star Wars Indiana Jones connections. I
want to talk about real quick, all right. In the
movie Flash Gordon, Prince Baron, I believe what runs up
to this guy who's got the special eye goggles on
and he rips him off and it's this kind of
grotesque wires coming out of his eye sockets. Yes, freak
me out as a kid. Okay, And that guy is
actually the same guy who played Lobot and the Empire
strikes back. The guy who has that weird robot ear
thing on, who's Letto Kelriskian's right hand man. But the
guy at the beginning, they're all making their offerings to me,
and the guy from Ardentia who stands up and says,
since you blasted our kingdom into Adams, we've had nothing
to offer but our loyalty.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's the guy. It's Captain.
Speaker 2: It's Katanga Captain Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, But
what I really wanted to talk about. I've been waiting
to talk about one of my favorite parts in the movies,
and this is one I get jabs at, Like people
make fun of this part. Yeah, the football scene.
Speaker 1: So it's it was supposed to be just a regular
old bawl.
Speaker 2: And Sam jane Jo's is like, well, wait a minute,
he's a football player. Yeah, this ought to be like
a football fight.
Speaker 1: And they had the eggs that they were going to
present as like the offering toming perfect football.
Speaker 2: It was great, and they play that that cool queen
football fight song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Melody Anderson jumps in it starts cheering,
go flash go. It's go flash go. It is a
bit absurd.
Speaker 2: It's absurd, but he's launching football is at the bad guys.
Clydes gets in trouble by me because he's not keeping
him on the right pills or whatever. And Topel is like,
you know, the guy who keeps shotguns, snapping it to
him until he hits him right in the head with
one and then knocks him out. Okay, let's flip back
to Highlander. Let's talk about the movie, the actual movie
Highlander for a minute.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you've got this guy who's directing music videos
to direct this movie. He has got his own way
of doing it, and in my opinion, turns out fantastic.
Can I just talk for just a second about three
of the coolest transition scenes in any movie from the eighties.
You've got number one, You've got the garage transition scene
where somehow they move the camera moves up through the
ceiling of this garage and peeks out over the top
of the Scottish Highlands. How did they do that?
Speaker 2: It's freaking amazing. It is freaking The transitions are shockingly good.
Speaker 1: And then you have this moment later on when he
gets kicked out of the land and Connor macloud falls
into exhaustion against the rock and suddenly his face transitions
into the Mona Lisa picture that's on the side of
the building in New York City.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: And then transition number three. They're probably more of them,
but these are the ones that jumped out at me.
We pan in through the window of Connor mcloud's New
York City apartment. He's sharpening his sword. He hears something
and turns back and looks behind him at the aquarium.
And as he looks at the aquarium, the camera goes
into the aquarium, then rises up and suddenly we're looking
at the top of the water where they're on the
lake in Scotland again, and Ramirez is lessening McLeod on
how to balance ballance balance.
Speaker 2: It's a very karate kid type of shot right there.
Speaker 1: It is, I mean, and he's the he's the mister
Miyagi character. But that transition scene was incredible transitions.
Speaker 2: They're amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is before CGI, this is this is
one of the end of the practical effects movies, which
you know you can tell like with some of the
electricity things and the wires you catch some of those things.
It's nineteen eighty six and they had a limited budget.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm willing to forgive some of that, like
when they're doing the quickening and when like they're absorbing
the power. There's some weird animated character ghosts looking things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're doing cell animation because he didn't have computers
that could go.
Speaker 2: And they get a pass for me on that right
for sure.
Speaker 1: And it was I mean, I thought it was pretty good.
I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that lake Sean Connery's character rocks the boat
and Christopher Lambert's character McLeod's like, stop rocking the boat.
I can't swim, you stupid haggins, right right, So Sean
Connery gets mad enough at him that he tumps him
out of the boat on purpose. He can't swim, right.
He falls to the bottom of the lake and realizes
I can't die. It's one of the revelations to the
character where it comes to realize he.
Speaker 1: Almost giggles underwater.
Speaker 2: He's breathing in water and cannot die. So it's a
pivotal scene in the movie. When he was filming that scene,
they were actually filming it at a Scottish lock right,
So Christopher Lambert said, the first time, it's a surprise, right,
you think the water's gonna be cold, and then you're like, this,
water's cold. Water's way colder than you thought it was
gonna be cold, but not that cold.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: The second time, you know it's gonna be freezing. The
third time you say, that's the last time we're doing this,
that's the last take.
Speaker 1: But then he comes up and he comes out of
the water and he has the fish fall out of
his kilt. Right, yes, well his kilt was too short.
They take this like pipe and they funnel these live
trout through the pipes, so they're flipping around around whenever
they fall out of his kilt. Here's another camera scene
that I was just blown away with that I had
to stop and go, how the heck did they do this?
In nineteen eighty six, the beginning scene when he's at
the wrestling match, they have the camera panned through the
auditorium above everybody else. They didn't have drones back right, right?
How the craft did they do this?
Speaker 2: Isn't it like on those wires aren't?
Speaker 1: Yes? So the guy, the guy's name is Garrett Brown.
He is the guy who invented the skycam, which is
what they use what they use in football games now.
But this is what they use to do that scene,
which is a camera that's on cables that they control
with a computer. And that's how they get it up
all right.
Speaker 2: Before we dive in and start breaking apart the movie
section of Highlander, I just want to give a quick
shout out to my buddy Brandon Hasselton. He is a
friend of mine in front of the show. He always
listens to the podcast, gives me feedback. I really appreciate him.
This is his all time favorite movie, like Highlander is
top of the heat for him. He has declared it
the perfect movie. He sees a lot of biblical imagery
between the Kurgan and McLeod. Right, the good guy and
the bad guy chase each other across time and eventually
they're gonna fight yep, and who's gonna win. I think
that's a great hook for a movie.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and the you know Queen that part about the
immortality Queen was originally slated to just do one song, yes, movie,
just one song, but then they watched like twenty minutes
of footage from the movie and were inspired to write
several songs, which is why they basically end up with
the whole soundtrack themselves. But Brian May was inspired by
that idea of living forever, meaning you're gonna lose everyone
you love over and over again, which is what inspired
him to write the song who Wants to Live Forever?
Great song. He's singing the first lines of that song.
Did you know that? Really? Yeah? That's Brian May singing
the first lines of the song. He sings the first
verse and Freddy Mercury comes in for the second. Really. Yes.
Speaker 2: So Highlander does not have an official soundtrack, okay, right, However,
Queen has an album called A Kind of Magic Yes,
came out in eighty six. On this album, you have
a song called a Kind of Magic, right.
Speaker 1: Which is a line from the movie. It's what he
says Rachel twice yes, as he rescues her as a
little girl from the German and she's like, you're We're dead,
and he was like it's kind of magic. And then
when he tells her he's not going to see her again,
last thing he says to her is it's kind of magic.
Which side note, they cut the German scene from the
American release, which means that when he says that last
line to her of its kind of magic as he's
leaving on the elevator, it's the first time the American
audience ever heard it, and it didn't make a dang.
But so this is probably why the movie did not
do as well in America as they cut some kind
of critical stuff.
Speaker 2: That scene with the Germans really cool. It is if
you haven't seen it, if you're American and you haven't
seen it. He rescues Rachel, who's this older woman secretary
as a young girl from a Nazi killer and for
many many years serves him. Okay, so back to the soundtrack.
You have a kind of Magic, you have one Year
of Love. You have a song called who Wants to
Live Forever, which we talked about. You have a song
called Don't.
Speaker 3: Lose Your Head.
Speaker 2: You have a song called give Me the Prize, which
is freaking awesome. It's Kurgan's theme and it's hard rock
and it's give me the prize and then you have
Princess of the Universe.
Speaker 5: To the case.
Speaker 1: It's kind of magic. Is really basically for the soundtrack
for Higland. From the Dawn of Time we came moving
silently down through the centuries. The red text was supposed
to be a place marker that they were supposed to
replace or not have, but the producers thought that actually
looks pretty cool, let's keep that. And the audio track
was something that Sean Connery did later production had wrapped,
as we mentioned, and they said, oh, hey, we forgot
to have you do this part. So he did it
from his house in the through. That's why you get
the echo effect. He's in his toilet with a microphone
recording the first lines of the movie.
Speaker 3: What you didn't hear.
Speaker 2: Was the flush after he finished.
Speaker 1: Recording, trying to record.
Speaker 2: Come on, Ralvie, I'm out here, and the audio.
Speaker 1: So we go from that intro by mister Connery himself
into a crazy wrestling match which was supposed to be
an NHL game. Yes, the clacking of the sticks before
the game was supposed to transition into the clacking of swords,
and that's what sparked his memory and so they went
to the NHL and the NHL said, no, we don't
want hockey to be known as a violence sport. Are
you kidding?
Speaker 2: That's funny. Here's the funny part about this. This is
supposed to take place in Madison Square Garden, right right, Yeah,
Well they're supposed to have this fight in the parking
garage underneath Mason Square Garden. Right, Mason Square Garden doesn't
have a parking game.
Speaker 1: It does not have parking garage and anything.
Speaker 2: This is actually shot in New Jersey. The wrestling match
was shot in New Jersey where the New Jersey nets
and I think the Devil's played. The parking garage scene
was shot in London.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the thing about this movie is like so
many of the New York scenes are shot in London.
They've got all kinds of tax breaks for being a
London production, So most of your footage is actually shot overseas.
You've got London, you've got Wales, you've got Scotland.
Speaker 2: So I want to talk about this fight scene at
the beginning of Islander. Okay, super cool, queen right into
the action, right right, A wrestling match match. We have
the introduction of the character. He's walking in the parking
garage and you have this guy sneak out behind him
and say, McLeod, facile. Then they have this awesome, cool sit.
Speaker 1: I love that his first line is wait, and then
it's too late. Facile is ready to fight and he's
jumping in. It's kind of hard to be sympathetic to
a guy who slices the head off of somebody else
at the very beginning of a movie unless his first
line was wait a minute, you know, and then it
makes it okay, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2: So the sword fight is awesome. There is some ridiculousness.
The guy that does fifty thousand backhand springs for no
apparent reasons.
Speaker 1: Literally electic is he still flipping? Why is he doing that?
I don't know. That's weird.
Speaker 2: And you have McLeod reaching for five minutes the sword
under the car.
Speaker 1: It's building tension. Okay, while they still get you a
nice good close up of that samurai handle, which was
really cool.
Speaker 2: It was cool. Here's what I wish they would have done.
I like the idea that these immortals would have known
each other over this long period of time. It would
have been cool to have him say McLoud, it's me.
We've been friends for a long time, but now's your day.
I've come for your head. Yeah, or don't announce yourself
and try to take his head off without him even seeing,
but instead he's behind him, and so, as McLoud.
Speaker 1: I think it has to be a fight. I don't
think you can sneak up and kill people from behind.
Why not, because I think that's one of the rules.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the rules for a second.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the rules of.
Speaker 2: A Highlander are the guy has to cut off your head, yes,
for you to die.
Speaker 3: That's the only way you can die.
Speaker 2: Also, you can't fight on holy ground right now. The
movie doesn't explore this very much, but as I understand it,
the TV show did a little bit. Okay, So there's
a scene at the end of the movie where the
Kurgan and McLeod are in church, right, and Kirgan is
being a told jerk to the nuns and the priests
and not real church by the way, yeah, and real nuns.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they like the church really didn't want to
do it, but they needed the money.
Speaker 2: And then he like Clancy Brown, apologized to him after
the shot. So, but they can't fight on holy ground
right now? Is that a rule or is that a tradition?
They mentioned that it's tradition.
Speaker 1: The way that Sean Connery puts it, it sounds like
it's like a rule that is a rule, because they've
put these rules in place themselves. Like it's not like
lightning's going to strike you dead if you try to
fight in a church. It's just hey, we've got guidelines
and you don't break them, right because we just have
a mutual respect as immortals.
Speaker 2: But the Kurgan doesn't seem to have respect for anybody
or anything.
Speaker 1: But he has respect for the immortals rules. Okay, he
won't fight on only ground either.
Speaker 2: Well, as I understand the TV show McLeod's cousin Dug
in McLoud, they were on holy ground and they start
to fight and then lightning does start to flash, and
so there's this idea that there is a higher power
holding these guys capable.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: But that scene at the beginning super cool, very cool
and at the end.
Speaker 1: And I love that they somehow get the sprinklers going,
so get the fight on the rain. And to listen
to Russell, Okay he talking, he just kind of laughs.
He's like I know it's absurd that they're fighting in
a garage in the rain, but it looks cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And all the car lights come on and
they start honking, and the windshields blow out.
Speaker 1: And then a hubcap. Good.
Speaker 2: Here's the absurd thing about that fight.
Speaker 3: So I'm willing to go all in.
Speaker 2: On all this stuff. I'm in right, super cool. Conor
McLeod takes this guy's head clean swipe. Absolutely no witnesses,
nobody's there. He pulls out of the parking garage and
the entire New York Police Department pulls him over.
Speaker 1: He hears the sirens, which makes him panic, which is
why he puts the sword up. He's trying to get
out before they get there. He takes Eddie Murphy's car
from forty eight hours. That really sucks because I think
it's got like half a million dollars in the dru
that's true. But they catch him coming out too fast,
I mean.
Speaker 2: Eating, and the whole NYPD pulls him over.
Speaker 1: Yes, somebody discovered a dead box.
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, called the forensic slash sword specialist
out here.
Speaker 1: Tell me what this is? A sword?
Speaker 2: Here's the other scene I want to talk about. Okay,
This is where I'm trying to understand the rule, and
they sometimes they kind of break their own rules, and
so anyway, I'm just trying to understand.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So McLeod as a young man in Scotland. They're gonna
have this fight between his clan and another clan.
Speaker 1: I hope he doesn't what is killed.
Speaker 2: Mcloud's a young I think he's supposed to be like
eighteen or nineteen.
Speaker 1: He's a young guy.
Speaker 2: Well, little do we know, but the Kurgan is fighting
with the other klan, right, and his deal is like
nobody fights for Cloud with me.
Speaker 1: I get him Connor conn. It's important that he says
Connor because.
Speaker 2: Because they're all Mcloud's thank you, thank you, one name Connor. Right,
So they have this fight, which I think is ridiculous
because he's chasing these guys around. He's like, fight me,
you cowards, but nobody'll fight him. Which if you're not
gonna fight me, I'm still gonna take your head.
Speaker 3: Fight me, you coward.
Speaker 2: Okay, well you're dead, You're dead. And then the Kurgan
shows up. He's like here I am McLeod, let's fight
and stabs him and he dies right, Well, he gets
one stab in.
Speaker 1: He gets one stab in, and he's about to behead him.
And then the other guy's, his compatriots, his cousin, his friend.
They run and tackle the Kurgan and keep him and
he says, another day, McLeod, that could be only one.
Speaker 2: See that's ridiculous too.
Speaker 1: It is a little.
Speaker 2: The Kurgan is there, McLeod's on the ground. I need
to take his head. I'm not gonna let three smelly
Haggis's take me from the prize. Okay, he stabs him,
I believe guy. He stabs him and McLeod dies right
just a little, yeah, okay, flash forward like an hour
into the movie. The Kurgan stabs a marine, threw his back,
picks him up, holds him for like forty five seconds,
throws him, and the guy's in the hospital bed making
sketch artists pictures for.
Speaker 1: The the operative word. There is marine. You can't kill
those guys, all right?
Speaker 2: Sorry? That dude was like, what time's breakfast? Right, I'm
totally fine.
Speaker 1: He was. He was. He was vigilante number one.
Speaker 2: On the New York streets that night, which and then
he unloaded a clip on the Kurgan. Yeah, he had
five bolet holes in his shirt.
Speaker 1: Yep, and then he got up.
Speaker 2: Five minutes later.
Speaker 1: So does he not die?
Speaker 2: So I understand that they don't die, but do they
die in resurrect Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. My impression is, is it the
first time you die, you actually kind of go through
the death process before you you come back, But after
you've died a few more times, you're just better at
getting better.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, all right, that's fine.
Speaker 1: I from what I understand in the novelization, like the
Kurgan's dad is the one that killed him like as
a child, like as a young man, smashing his head
with a rock or something.
Speaker 2: And crushed his skull. Yeah, and then when he resurrected,
he made his dad eat a hot coal and that's the.
Speaker 1: Way to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that would be unpleasant. Here's the other rule
that we forgot to mention. The other rule is that
immortals can have children, which I think that's okay.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because Gregory Wyden said that he had more
emphasis on the rules in the script, but apparently that
wasn't one of the rules in the script because in
the script he had thirty seven kids, right, So they
changed the rules and then disregarded them. And in the
original script there wasn't There wasn't like this prize at
the end. There wasn't the idea there can be only one.
And so the conclusion of the movie, where he's mortal
and he has perfect understanding and all of that stuff
was something that they came up with later on. And
that he could have kids, that was something that came
up with through the production of the movie. So this
is what Mike Hodges said had to say about filming
Flash Gordon. He said, I had a producer who spoke
mangled English. I had a production designer who spoke none
at all. Both like ming seemed to have arrived from
another galaxy. Once I realized that the film was in
many ways out of my control, I realized and I
made it up as I went along. I loved it.
Speaker 2: He also said, it's the only twenty million dollar movie
that was totally improved. Give it up to Mike Hodges.
Let's go back to Flashcourt.
Speaker 3: After the football.
Speaker 2: Scene with Flash Gordon, he's executed. They don't even give
him the dignity of being executed fully clothed. He has
to be in his underwear, right right, So they execute
Flash in his underwear. Dale was crying her eyes out,
and Aura, Princess Ara Ming's daughter, decides she's going to
resurrect Flash for her own pleasure. Right, Aura is banging
everybody in the universe once she revives Flash. Now she
takes him back. She's got this idea. She's going to
take him to a Boria. Right, and that's what you have,
the telepathic Yes, Wow, this girl's really turned me on. Right.
Speaker 1: What here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing with Flash Cordon that bugs me. Okay, Yeah,
I'm an old fashioned guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It flashes in love with Dale Arden, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, after knowing her for all of thirty minutes fifteen.
Speaker 2: Minutes, right, he had a very erotic flight with her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that they almost died on a way to build
a relationship.
Speaker 2: He gets there five seconds later. Mean's daughter is totally untrustworthy,
but she's you know, hot, super hot, And it's kind
of that question, like, never say never again, this girl
might kill me. I'm still willing to take a chance.
Speaker 3: But she brings him.
Speaker 2: To Aboia where her other boyfriend, Prince Baron is there. Okay,
and he hates Flash because he's a competitor and Prince
Baron and Flash are gonna face off in this stump
where the wood beast resides. Okay, this is the most
wood beast. Yes, yeah, this is the most tense scene
in the movie to me, and as a kid, scared
the crap out of me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: So for those of you who don't remember, there's.
Speaker 1: No way you can't remember. You either didn't see the
movie or that's true. Yeah. The most memorable scene.
Speaker 2: There's this animal that's kind of like a scorpion, like
a green scorpion that lives in a tree.
Speaker 1: Grab slimy scorpion.
Speaker 2: And you reach your hand in and you do it
until somebody gets stung and they die.
Speaker 1: The delight on her face is she watches the kid
get stung and then get killed. It's yeah, she's messed.
Speaker 3: Up, all right.
Speaker 2: While this is going on, Dale Arden is back being
prepared for her wedding right where she has to marry
meing for the hour, right, But she escapes, so she's
running down the hallways. She has this really cool scene
where she's got she's managed to get a gun and
she's shooting at these guys in their red suits right, right,
but so she's doing these gymnastics and shooting, and she
finally shoots one in the face, right, and when she
shoots him, you have this big gas expulsion from the
laser wound. And Leddy Anderson said that when they filmed that,
that guy threw up because the smoke got and he
breathed in the smoke and he had to rip his
mask off and puke on the floor.
Speaker 1: So, oh, my classic classic. Those guys are worse than stormtroopers.
I mean, talk about the most inept soldiers. How did
this guy conquer the universe with these guys as his army?
That doesn't even make sense. Yeah, they were speaking of
things that does that don't make sense. You have these
weird jumps in the story that you have no transition for,
Like you think, okay, so number one, you think that
doctor Zorkov's brain has been drained, yes, right, yes, And
then Clytus Tells tells General Kala don't get him past
the level three. He leaves and she's like level six, Oh,
what's going on? What is the purpose of You never know? Why?
Why did that happen? Right? What? What was the level six?
What did it mean? Nothing? No, explanation at all. And
then you got doctor Zartov walking around like a zombie.
You don't know if he's been lobotomized or not. He's
suddenly with Dale. He's talking very sporadically. It's confused, and
then all of a sudden they're on a motorcycle ship
and he's like, yep, I just fool them all. And
I'm like, where's the rest of the story here? What
happened to that?
Speaker 2: That part was confusing?
Speaker 1: And then the same thing happens with Princess Hottie h
a a Aurora bory Ellis. She comes back and suddenly
she's being whipped with a cat and iron tails.
Speaker 3: We don't have.
Speaker 2: Time for exposition. Not the boar worms, the bore worms.
You talk about my imagination running wild.
Speaker 1: Because they don't tell you what they were.
Speaker 2: Exactly, which makes them cool.
Speaker 1: It sounds horrible. They sound like the thing from the
Star Trek, the little earwig things that they'd stick in
your beach bird.
Speaker 2: That's what they are to you. That's what they are.
Speaker 1: So then let's just talk about the awesome music that
comes in on the battles of this.
Speaker 5: Okay, oh man, yeah, this freaking awesome man.
Speaker 2: The whole thing is awesome.
Speaker 1: So this again, Queen is the soundtrack on this one,
but they weren't who they wanted originally. Originally they wanted
Pink Floyd and as the click track, if you will.
For the whole wedding ceremony, they were playing Shine on You,
Crazy Diamond for the whole scene, like you watch. So
I want to go back in and like put in
that music. See what's what it looks like when people
are walking around to that song, because that's what they're
listening to and they're filming.
Speaker 2: It, and the music is very it has a very
Pink Floyd type of feel to it, even though it
is Queen, it has.
Speaker 1: A very Pink Floyd kind of feel.
Speaker 2: Totally agree, I totally agree. Okay, So one scene I
want to talk about in Flash, Gordon, Flash and Baron
end up being carried by the Hawkman back to the
Hawkman Capital, which looks a lot like cloud City, right,
looks like bestmin from Empress strikes back, right, okay, and
they decide we're gonna fight. Voltan puts him on this
revolving disc, throws him a couple of bullwhips and if
you fall off the disc you fall into space plus
their spikes, and as a kid, I was like, this
is so cool. Baron and Flash fight right, and as
Baron is about to fall off to his death, Flash
saves it. And that's the part where the whole movie
flips and Prince Baron says, where you go, I will
fall off. That's when they talk Voltan into join us.
We're gonna overthrow me.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Flash's morality is his superpower. He doesn't have any ultra
strength or super speed or X ray vision. He doesn't
have any of that. What he's got he doesn't have immortality.
He has humanity and morality. He's a great guy.
Speaker 1: So now we've talked about Queen. Yes, both of these
movies had composers as well. Wow, okay, so Flash had
an original composer. I don't even remember what his name was.
Apparently he was so inebriated the whole time that he
wrote about thirty seconds worth of musical music, and so
they were freaking out. They bring in Lake Howard to
write music, theme music, you know, underlying score for the
movie that the Queen hasn't done. Yeah, and he gets
to work and he has to have it done in
ten days. We're talking about an entire score in ten days. Anyway,
he writes NonStop, NonStop, finishes it in time, and then
passes out and they can't wake him. Eventually they have
to like give him an injection of something to get
him to come out of it. And his wife is like,
do you know what day it is? And he's like, yeah,
it's Monday, and she says, no, it's Friday. Wow, you
have been asleep this whole time. And the doctor's like,
you've got double pneumonia and both of your lungs. Like
he had nearly killed himself writing the score to this movie.
And when they, you know, finally revive it and tell
him all this stuff, he goes, I feel fine. And then,
of course, to go back to Highlander. We have our
friend Michael Cayman, you will remember, wrote the music for
both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Yes, but he was
working very closely with Queen throughout this process.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the things I want to talk about
during that church scene when mcleoud and the Kurgan are
talking and the Kurgan's giving the nuns a hard time
and the priests and all this stuff right at the
end of it, he makes this big anough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got something to say.
Speaker 2: No, it's better to burn out than to fade away,
right right, And that's actually from a Neil Young.
Speaker 1: Album, right hey, hey, my mind.
Speaker 2: However, this movie was filled nineteen eighty six. Yes, I'm
wondering if he got that from Pyromania by def Leppert.
Speaker 1: I have your answer, Yeah, well you got he got
it from Pyromania. And the reason that and I don't
know this one hundred percent. I haven't heard that that
that is where it came from. But what I do
know is that the entire time that he wasn't shooting,
he was listening to heavy metal on his headphones, and
so there's no way he was listening to Neil Young.
He came up with that line that was like, there's
an improv line. He wasn't in the script. He said
that on his own. That was him maybe one of
the most memorable lines in the whole movie. That was
him improving that line. And I my I would bet
one hundred dollars to one that he got it from Deflipper.
Speaker 2: Did you know the chrispher Lambert did all of the
dubbing for the French version of Highlander himself.
Speaker 1: Which goes into why it was such a big success overseas.
Speaker 2: One thing I want to mention about Flash Gordon. Okay,
there was a whole dream sequence where Dale was supposed
to turn into the Spider, this crazy spider character like
Meing had hypnotized splash or something, and he was supposed
to see Dale as this hideous spider person.
Speaker 1: Again this is there's no script and Dino Dealer Intos
decides that this is going to happen, and probably like
while drinking Chardonay the night before or something.
Speaker 2: Right, So Melody Anderson spelt like six hours into makeup
getting olds spidered up, and Mike Hodges walks in, is like, wow,
that looks really interesting. We're not shooting this at all.
It has nothing to do with our movie.
Speaker 1: She's like, what.
Speaker 2: The other thing I want to talk about with Flash Gordon? Okay,
And we'll get into post production here a second. But
Flash Gordon's plan to save the Earth is to kill me.
If he kills me, that ends the attack on the Earth, right,
and he's got like two and a half minutes to.
Speaker 3: Do it, So what's he gonna do?
Speaker 2: He hijacks the war rocket, Ajax and he's going to
crash it into the shield and that would then cause
the explosion. It would kill everybody, including Flash and Dale
and Zarkoff and everybody everybody. Right, Well, Zarkoff pulls a
Han solo slash return of the Jedi Plan where he
disengages the shield. So now the plan is out the window, right,
blowing up the war rocket to kill everybody in the
wedding party out the window.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So now Flash is just going to crash the rocket
right into smack dab into the middle of the wedding
uh huh, and just happens to hit me right dead center.
Speaker 1: Good aim.
Speaker 2: That to me is in one part amazing and one
part ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Well that's the whole freaking movie.
Speaker 2: Man, it is, and I'm I don't care.
Speaker 1: It is like it is like a high school musical
that somebody got a million dollars to cost me. I mean,
it's just crazy. It's just crazy. The stuff that they
had all it is awesome. It is awesome. A lot
of my awesome is nostalgia from being like a six
year old kid watching this stuff.
Speaker 2: I know, if this really is I'm leaning on like
fifth grade type of feelings.
Speaker 1: Here. Yeah, but let's I mean, we are kind of
moving into post production of this. So I mentioned the
success overseas of Highlander, and we've talked already neither one
of these movies were a success in the US when
they first came out. So a lot of people they
didn't want what Flashbordon was given. It was just over
the top. And what they had just fell fallen in
love with was this monochromatic I mean, black and white
and gray stuff from Star Wars, and so it did
not sit well with the Star Wars conditioned audience at all. Okay,
unless you were like us in like six and seven, yeah,
watching this thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, are we moving into judgment here or.
Speaker 1: Well no, it's just it's important to note that it
wasn't a success, and Highland was the same way like
it came out, And the first mistake that they made
was they cut some crucial scenes. They cut the Kurgain
licking the priests, and they cut the scene the Nazi scene.
It just I mean, they took out the things that
helped it make sense and helped you get some character
on stuff. And then they gave us a poster. The
original poster was a large black and white, very grainy
like he looked like he had leprosy or something. Picture
of Christopher Lambert's face and it just said Highlander on it.
It didn't say anything about being immortal. It didn't have
any swords, nothing to give you any information about what
this movie was about. And seeing a greeny, black and
white picture of this guy's face is not going to
make me want to go watch this movie, right. It
was actually part two being announced and its success overseas
that caused people to become interested. And it had its
big success through video, and so when they went to France,
suddenly they're like, see and Christopher Lambert treated like a
rock star and everybody loves it in Europe because they've
they've got those missing scenes in there, it makes sense,
and they do a poster that has him it's like
the scene from the parking garage where he's got his
arms out. You've got the Kurgan like silhouetted in the back,
and you get an idea of it being about immortals.
And that's I mean, that's why it got the success
that it did. And Flash Gordon. Fortunately the guys who
were our age at the time, some of them ended
up being big time directors like Robert Rodriguez, Yes, and
Seth MacFarlane, who when he decided to make ted which
is the movie with Mark Wahlberg and a Teddy Bear
that's vulgar and inappropriate voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he had
this dream that you know that Sam Jones was going
to be in it as this kind of over the
top caricature of himself, and Sam Jones agreed to do it.
Speaker 2: They're flying on a rocket cycle, flying blind on a
rocket cycle.
Speaker 1: Bline blind? What a rocket cycle? Okay, so you want
to talk about Sam Jones for a minute.
Speaker 2: We need to talk about this is the most interesting
and yet sad part of the movie, kind of heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: So they started the production and Sam Jones came in
and injured from a bar fight he had been in
the night before. Yes, he was, from different accounts, kind
of a prima donna or emotionally immature during the shooting
of this movie, and they broke right around Christmas time.
He went back to the States and when it was
come it was time to come back to finish some
final scenes and post production stuff. His representation told him
not to go, and he listened to them. And that
was probably the worst mistake he made as far as
his career goes.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. In fact, I didn't really understand this. I had
kind of heard rumblings of this. Ninety percent or more
of his lines were dubbed over by another actor. That
actor's name is Peter Mehrinker, which has kind of been
a secret up until recently. But it was heartbreaking for
him and really just kind of a dumb kid move,
you know what I mean. I'm going to take on
Dino de Laurentis. Oh wait, I got fired. He couldn't
go on the Tonight Show, and he couldn't go on
these things to sell the movie and make it successful, right,
And therefore we got part two and part three canceled.
Speaker 1: So interestingly, let's talk about the end real quick. You've
got the ring sitting there, yes, and the black gloved
hand comes to pick it up, and a question mark
comes up as the end question right, and so is
that Clytis's hand?
Speaker 2: That is the rumor that it is Clydee's hand.
Speaker 1: Because the actor who played Clytis, Peter Wingard, did not
want to die. Yes, that's what I like. When it
came down to shoot his death scene, he came in,
He's like, you know, Clytus is a very important character.
I don't think we should kill him. And they're like,
but but I mean that's what the that's what script says.
He's and he's like, but he I really feel like that.
There are more movies lined up, and I think he
would be And certainly Brian Blessed is jumping and he's like,
you die, you bloody well, die.
Speaker 2: Go die die Brian Blessed. Awesome, Hey, I've got something
that was gonna blow you away. Okay. Do you know
who designed the logo for Flash Gordon, the like the
little saturn looking thing, Yeah, Freddie Mercury Get out of Town.
Speaker 3: Yes, he is an artist and he came up with that.
Speaker 2: And they went with it.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, Freddy, very fantastic. So no part too. So interestingly, interestingly,
Flash Gordon, you have a movie that had i'd nearly
had forty something years worth of history leading up to it,
and then suddenly it's off the radar. After this movie
comes out, right right, almost nothing has.
Speaker 2: Happened with it since then, yes, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: And then with Highlander, which didn't perform well, you get
five sequels and a series and a cartoon, and I
mean there's all kinds of stuff that bloomed from this thing,
which originally was a flop at the box office. Crazy,
It's it's still I mean, there's still talk about the
reboot of Highlander, and there's talk about a reboot of
Flash Gordon as well. One of the directors, and this
is this is the thing. One of the directors for
an animated version of Flash Gordon is Taiko Watiti, who
did Thor Ragnarok. Yeah, now I want you to think
about Thor Ragnarok for just a second. Okay, yeah, yeah,
both based on comics. Yep. The hero arrives at a
four world and is immediately shocked. Flash Gordon and Thor
both right, And then you have at the beginning of
Flash Gordon people asking for his autograph. Whenever he is
in New York City with Loki, the girls come up
asking for his autograph. You get a death match with
a guy in green and a guy who is green.
You get I mean, just think about it. Think about
all these things. You ultimately team up with a girl
and a doctor to fight the evil overlord who rules
the world. I mean, you just look at the graphics
at the beginning of both of the movies, and they're
very eighties.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One was made in the eighties and one was made
to look like it was in the eighties. They both
steal like a flying vehicle. They both have a guy
who gets his eyes ripped out. Yeah, and then it
ends with both of them with a bald guy getting
stabbed through the torsoe.
Speaker 2: Holy cow, Thor Ragner Rock is flashboardon.
Speaker 1: I think that ty Taiko Waktiti is the perfect guy
to be directing the flash Gordon Virgion, I'm all in,
let's do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, before we get to final judgment D I
just want to throw in a couple of tidbits that
I found really interesting. Okay, Okay, here's a couple of
things for you from Holander. Okay. The climax takes place
on top of the Silver Cup Studios building. It was
originally supposed to take place on top of the statue
of Larty X Men.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, according to the cast and crew, anytime they were
in Scotland, good chance, Sean Connery was drunk.
Speaker 1: He was only there for a week and they were.
Speaker 2: Seven days and he couldn't lay off the side either.
Speaker 1: Scotland or Wales. Apparently Sean Connery used to gather everyone
around for like these meetings during the day and explain
to them what was going wrong with the movie.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: The scene where the Kurgan actually kills Ramirez send the
door at the castle. The rocks look styrofoam ish, also
wood door, but we're willing to forgive the practical effects. Yes,
but when Clancy Brown came through that door, he swung
his sword too low. He took out the candelabra on
the table and almost took out Sean Connery. Conrie was
pissed and walked off the set and said, I'm out
of here, right, I'm not going to get killed for
this movie, right, And Clancy Brownd was like, oh man.
He felt really terrible and apologized and they came back
and did it again. But it was it was a
bad dealer for a little bit.
Speaker 1: So you know the scene that's that they're sitting on
the stairway like that, Ramirez and MacLeod are sitting on
the stairway talking. Yes, they were sitting on the exact
part of the stairway that would later fall away, Okay,
and so they're literally sitting on something that's being held
up with pins. I think it had to improve the
intensity of that scene that they're just like this could
give way any second and we could fall to our deaths.
Speaker 2: I also heard at the end of Highlander, like once
you claimed the prize that it like released a dragon
that you had to defeat, Like there's this other challenge, right,
like take that dude's head. And then also boom, there's
a dragon.
Speaker 1: That show sounds like Super Mario Brothers.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I was just gonna mention.
This is just a side note. This is not a tidbit.
McLeod falls in love and Mary's and ages with Heather,
and then you flash forward for five hundred years and
he has a little fling with Brenda. You have this
love scene yep, and then the next like it hard
cuts to him telling her I can't get involved. Yeah, right,
which is what everyone wants to hear. Oh, last night
was okay, but today we're not involved.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's interesting her line to him, which I mean,
I don't know how well she really is going to
know him at that point she taught she says, most
people are afraid to die. You're afraid to live, right,
that's telling about his character. Yeah, he is a guy who,
because he has seen the loss of people that he's
loved over and over, has decided to hold himself up
until all of this is you know, over, until the
final battle happens, right right, right, except he may go
watch a wrestling match.
Speaker 2: You gotta do something at four hundred years.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I mean, of course the guy who has
been trained in swordsmanship and other warfare for the last
four hundred years would be incredibly interested in fake rest.
Speaker 2: Are you cool with his hair? I mean, he's got
this funky eighties cut.
Speaker 1: It's even call it an eighties cut. It's just like
a French guy in their cut herself.
Speaker 2: Like he went to sports clips. Okay, flashback to flash Gordon. Okay,
they got to the end scene. They didn't know how
to wrap it right, oh right, And they're standing around
improving a twenty million dollar movie. They're like, okay, Soming
uses his ring to disappear, and then what like, how
do we celebrate this ending?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And Sam Jones goes, I got it, I got it.
Just film this and so that giant jump, yeah, that's
all improv right.
Speaker 1: His idea? So he's got the two best football ideas
in the movie.
Speaker 3: They're great. It worked.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for final judgment?
Speaker 2: Let's move into final judgment.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you've you've segued perfectly on why I like
Highlander better than Flash Courton. But to the kings with
the okay, I mean, in addition to all of the
other imperfections that we've discussed, Flash Gordon is the guy
at the end of the movie that he was at
the beginning of the movie. He's a football star. He's
a football star who's people are asking autographs from Who's
gonna fly and save the plane? He's a football star
who knocks out the competition in the chamber with the
football game. He tackles over and at the end he's
spiking the ball and doing celebration in the end zone.
There's no change, there's no movement in his character. So
what so that makes a boring story. You've gotta have
some sort of transition, Whereas in Highlander, you you take
a guy who's given up on love, who's hold himself
up because he can't let himself love people because it's
too hard to watch them die, who decides even before
he has won the competition. I'm gonna let myself open
up again and love someone again. He falls for another girl,
and it is it is her who ends up saving
him in the fight. Do you remember he's about to die,
the Kurgan is about to kill him, and she comes
in and saves the day. Okay, And then that allows
him once he wins the battle, that allows him to
become mortal and to share the love that he had
long for before with Heather, share that with her, he
has the transition. They're out on the Scottish Highlands living life.
You have a transition from the with the character on
this one, you have the hero's journey, whereas with Flash
Gordon you have Flash Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, so let me just say I don't
give an f about transition. Okay, Flash Gordon is perfect
from the moment he shows up. He is a stud
football player who is a leader and interested in being
a great dude, and he brings that humanity to all
of Mongo.
Speaker 1: Okay, Mungo, just a pond, Okay, Flash Gordon.
Speaker 2: Yes it's goofy, Yes it's campy, But as our friend
Pat Cavagello says, you've got to appreciate the awesomeness. You
have the over the top Brian Blessed, you have great
supporting actors in Max Fonsaido and Timothy Dalton. You have
the sexiest woman in the universe. You have all this awesomeness,
and I think you have the perfect fifth grade boy fantasy. Okay,
you have stud football player shows up, saves the universe,
gets the girl, defeats the bad guy, and not only
all that, he's honored, right, Prince Baron says, we owe
everything to Flash at the end of the movie. He's
like the greatest guy in the entire universe. It's every
young boys fantasy.
Speaker 3: I love Highlander two and it's.
Speaker 2: Goofy and campy and awesome.
Speaker 1: You Land also Highlander.
Speaker 2: Also, I did not love Holland too.
Speaker 1: Greg Wyden said that there was a period in the
early nineties that he had to change his name to Hi,
I'm Greg Wyden. No, I didn't write Highland or two.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. So anyway, Highlander's great, and I love it
for what it is. It's just Flash Gordon to me,
It's it's almost the perfect movie.
Speaker 3: It's so fun.
Speaker 2: It's absolute full throttle of fun. By the way, by
the way, according to Brian Blessed, the Queen of England's
favorite movie is Flash. Gordon heard.
Speaker 1: He met her. He met the Queen of England and
she's like, Oh, we love your movie The House. We
watch it all the time. Could you please say Gordon's line,
Gordon's line, Oh, thank you so much, Gordon's line.
Speaker 3: Let's hear from you. Guys. Where are you on this?
Speaker 2: Is it Flash Gordon or is it Highlander? Here we are,
Princess of the universe. We are the one, the only one.
We are the Gods of Kingdom. Come all right, guys,
come back next week. We're gonna dive into dumb and
Dumber versus something about Mary that's gonna.
Speaker 1: Be d Why not?
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 1: God