Beloved actor and British national treasure Brian Blessed claimed the 1980 adaptation of Flash Gordon is the Queen's favorite movie in an online interview promoting its 40th anniversary re-release. He also revealed that he's constantly asked to recite Prince Vultan's iconic line, "GORDON'S ALIVE?!?"
Talking with Yahoo Movies UK Host Edith Bowman and Sam J. Jones, who played football player turned hero Flash Gordon in the 1980 movie, Blessed said “the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, horses and queens, and prime ministers, they all want me to say ‘Gordon’s alive!’, it’s their favorite film.” In the clip, when pressed by Sam J. Jones to share the story of when he met the Queen of England, Blessed imitated her voice when saying “You know, we watch Flash Gordon all the time, me and the grandchildren. And if you don’t mind, I’ve got the grandchildren here, would you mind saying ‘Gordon’s alive’?”
Released in 1980, Flash Gordon was a high camp psychedelic take on the classic comic strip of the same name, directed by Mike Hodges. The plot sees Ming the Merciless, played by respected actor Max Von Sydow, plot to destroy the Earth with natural disasters to alleviate his boredom and only Flash Gordon, along with his companions Dale Arden and Dr Hans Zarkov, can stop him. Originally intended to be a trilogy, presumably to compete with that other famous space opera Star Wars, Flash Gordon bombed on initial release only seeing box office success in the U.K..
However in the years since its release, Flash Gordon has been rightly hailed as a classic, thanks in no small part to the rockin' soundtrack by Queen (as in the band, not the monarch) and the surreal visuals. It's also easy to see how much it influenced Taika Waititi's excellent Thor: Ragnarok. Fans and newcomers will be able to see Flash Gordon in a remastered 4K version overseen by director Mike Hodges when it's re-released by Arrow Video later this month.
Though perhaps best known for his role as Prince Vultan, Brian Blessed has been acting for almost 60 years, starting in '60s British Police show Z-Cars and going on to appear a huge variety of roles including Doctor Who and the Star Wars prequel trilogy. As well as his acting work, Blessed has scaled Mount Everest three times, campaigned on behalf of PHASE Worldwide and even found time to guest on several metal albums!
Flash Gordon will be re-released on UHD 4k on Aug. 18.
Source: The Guardian