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 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 will like to be an executive
producer for one of our episodes, just go to our
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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?
Speaker 2: What what? Hey?
Speaker 1: How did you never hear of this? And you've got
a button that has it?
Speaker 2: Right, there'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. The button that says hot hail.
Speaker 1: Hot hale. You know hal, that's hot.
Speaker 2: Well, it's because it's a lot scarier than cold hal,
you know, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched this with Caleb, Like I said, it
was just like, what is hot hail? I don't know?
Son fire and broomstone, I guess.
Speaker 2: Here's the deal. Hot hail 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 of the movie. 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 we're moving
there already 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 Melody 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 floor, 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? Why? 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 across it, and.
Speaker 2: They look amazing. Can we just pause and put the
flag at half mast? Put your hand over your heart
for our buddy Munson who played Porkins and Star Wars
and the Top Men guy in Raiders of the Last
Dye in that one and Eckhart detective in eighty nine
Batman did die in that one, Munson makes a run
for the hills. Before you know, Zarkov tries to make
him get on the ship.
Speaker 1: Threatening with a gun. Get in the ship.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna shoot you.
Speaker 1: You're crazy.
Speaker 2: I'm out of here. Yeah, and then Flash Gordon squishes
in with the airplane. Completely accidental. However, Flash takes out Munson.
Speaker 1: Sorry Munson, 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 2: Pushed the red lever. Listen. 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 this is erotic. Melody Anderson could barely keep her
clothes on inside the Rocket show, and they're all passed
out and they're sweaty and they're having it's very.
Speaker 1: Erotic, and the rocket ship is very phallic.
Speaker 2: It's very phallic. And then of course when they get
to Mongoming pulls out his magic ring 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 Laurentiz
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 Reentiz 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, Okay, 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 Leno 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 Arc. 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 brawl.
Speaker 2: And Sam Jane Jones 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.
Speaker 2: Go Flash go.
Speaker 1: It's go flash go.
Speaker 2: It is a bit absurd, 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 f 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 clan and Connor macloud falls
an 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 they're amazing.
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.
Speaker 2: Budget, 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.
Speaker 2: Yeah. 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 hagins, 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 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.
Speaker 1: Water's way colder than.
Speaker 2: 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 of 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 Garret 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.
Speaker 2: Up all right. 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 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?
Speaker 2: Great song.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Right, 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
not dead, and he's 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 its
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 Lose Your Head, 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 b to
the case.
Speaker 1: It's kind of magic. Is really basically for the soundtrack
for Hilight. Yeah, 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 back 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 2: What you didn't hear was the flush after he finished recording.
Speaker 1: Trying to record.
Speaker 2: Come on, Ralby, I'm out here and 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 clanking 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 the 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 a parking garage underneathing.
Speaker 2: Now, 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 the fight scene at
the beginning of Islander. Okay, super cool, queen, right into
the action, right right, A wrestling match matchup. 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.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, go ahead. So the sword fight is awesome.
There is some ridiculousness. The guy that does fifty thousand
backhand springs for no parent reasons.
Speaker 1: Literally electric 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 is 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. The rules
of a Highlander are the guy has to cut off
your head, yes, for you to die. That's the only
way you can die. 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 holy 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 that lightning does start to flash, and
so there's this idea that there is a higher power
holding these guys accountable.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: But that scene at the beginning super cool, very cool
and at the end, and.
Speaker 1: 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. So I'm willing
to go all in 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. Yeah, 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. He's a young guy. Well, little do
we know, but the Kurgan is fighting with the other klan, right,
and his deal is like, nobody fights the Cloud with me.
I get him Connor Connor.
Speaker 1: It's important that he says Connor because because they're all
Mcloud's thank you, thank you, one name Connor.
Speaker 2: 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 will fight him. Which if you're
not gonna fight me, I'm still gonna take your head.
Fight me, you coward. 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.
Speaker 1: For 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 on
the New York streets that.
Speaker 2: Night, which and then he unloaded a clip on the Kurgan. Yeah,
he had five bolet holes in his shirt. Yep, and
then he got up five minutes later. So does he
not die? 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 that 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.
Speaker 1: The 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 I 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. After the football 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.
Speaker 1: Right, Aura is.
Speaker 2: 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 Aboria. Right, and that's when you
have the telepathic yes. Wow, this girl's really turned me on. Right.
What here's the thing. Here's the thing with Flash Cordon
that bugs me. Okay, Yeah, I'm an old fashioned guy. Yeah,
it Flashes in love with Dale Arden, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, after knowing her for all of thirty minutes.
Speaker 2: Fifteen 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.
But she brings him to a Boria 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.
Speaker 1: There's 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 2: Up, all right. While this is going on, Dale Arden
is back being prepared for her wedding right where she
has to marry me 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 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 Kla 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 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 2: We don't have time for exposition.
Speaker 1: Not the bore worms.
Speaker 2: The bore worms you talk about my imagination running wild.
Speaker 1: Because they don't tell you what they would exactly, which
makes them cool. It sounded 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 3: Oh man, Yeah, this is freaking awesome.
Speaker 2: Man, 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, right, 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 what what it looks like when
people are walking around to that song, because that's what
they're listening to and they're filming in and the music
is very it has a very Pink Floyd type of
feel to it, even though it is Queen, it has
a very Pink Floyd kind of feel.
Speaker 2: Totally. 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 s rekes Men, 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 saved him. And
that's the part where the whole movie flips and Prince
Baron says, where you go, I will follow. That's when
they talk Voltan into join us. We're gonna overthrow me.
It's awesome.
Speaker 1: 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 Blake Howard to
write music theme music, you know, underlying score for the
movie that the Queen hasn't done. 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, and 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.
Speaker 2: Michael Cayman, you will remember.
Speaker 1: 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 McLoud 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 anount. Yeah, I've
got something to say. Now, 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.
This has nothing to do with our movie. She's like,
what 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 hal half minutes to do it, So
what's he gonna do. 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 winding. Yeah.
So now that's just just gonna 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 that 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 here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But let's I mean we are kind of moving
into post production on 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 Flash Gordon 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 seven 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. 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 he and Christopher Lambert treated like a
rock star, and everybody loves it in Europe because 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. Line, blind on a rocket cycle.
Speaker 1: Good, 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.
Speaker 1: Kind of heartbreaking. 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 about 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 Dela Reentis. Oh wait, I got fired. He could
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 Clydis's hand.
Speaker 1: Because the actor who played Clytis, Peter Wingard, did not
want to die.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what I like.
Speaker 1: When it came down to shoot his death scene, he
came and 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 scrip,
that's the 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.
Speaker 2: You die, you bloody well, die 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Freddie Mercury Get out of Town.
Speaker 2: Yes, he is an artist and he came up with
that and they went with it.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, Freddy, fantastic. So no part too. So interestingly, interestingly,
Flash Gordon, you have a movie that had I've 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 happened with it
since then, yes, absolutely nothing. 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 Wa Titi, 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 forum 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. Yeah. 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.
Speaker 2: Torso, holy cow, Thor Ragner is flashboardon.
Speaker 1: I think that ty Taiko Waktiti is the perfect guy
to be directing the flash Gordon Virgion.
Speaker 2: I'm all in, let's do it. 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. Yeah. 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 song.
Speaker 1: Either 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 2: I'll tell you what. The scene where the Kurgan actually
kills Ramirez kicked 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 Brown 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
a 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, like 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, but 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 haircut herself.
Speaker 2: Like he went to sports clips. Okay, flashback to flash Gordon. Okay,
they got to the end scene. He 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 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 impact, right his idea.
Speaker 1: So he's got the two best football ideas in the movie.
Speaker 2: 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 Cordon. We are bond to the
kings with the prison Okay, I mean, in addition to
all of the other imperfections that we've discussed, Flash Gordon
is the same 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 Catadella says, you've got to appreciate the awesomeness you
have the over the top Brian blessed. You have great
supporting actors at Max Fonsido 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. I love Highlander two and it's goofy
and campy and awesome Land also Highlander. Also, I did
not love Hollander 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 Wydon. No, I didn't write Highlander 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. It's so fun. It's
absolute full throttle fun. By the way, depth by the way.
According to Brian Blessed. The Queen of England's favorite movie
is Flash Gordon.
Speaker 1: He met her, He met the Queen of England, and
she's like, Oh, we love your movie 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 2: Let's hear from you. Guys, Where are you on this?
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 be.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 1: God