um, i don't know what you were expecting, pal. it's fairly accurate to the comic books which were wacky space opera with lots of weird fetish shit in-between. it is actually quite tame compared to some french sci fi of that era.
The Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon is not very good Flash Gordon adaptation actually. technically it is closer to a pastiche of OG Flash Gordon which was actually much closer to Star Wars. The Buster Crabbe serial is really the one to look for - and it is quite literally a blueprint for Star Wars in so many ways and it still holds up - one of the best serials of its era.