The People
Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
biography
directed
by : Milos Forman
featuring
: Woody Harrelson - Courtney Love - Edward Norton - James Cromwell - Crispin
Glover
running
time : 2 hours 9 minutes
"If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag
like me, then it'll protect all of you 'cause I'm the worst," declares
Hustler Magazine publisher larry Flynt (Woody Harrelson) in the midst of
one of his many court cases. Milos Forman's film follows Flynt from his
childhood in Kentucky, where he made extra money for his dirt-poor family
by selling the moonshine his father brewed, into adulthood as he manages
a strip club in Cincinnati. While the club does middling business, the
experience changes Flynt's life in two ways: he meets Althea (Courtney
Love), an exotic dancer who becomes the love of his life, and he gets the
bright idea of starting a magazine to promote the club. Marketed as a crasser,
less pretentious alternative to Playboy or Penthouse, Hustler becomes a
huge success after Flynt runs a photo series of Jacqueline Onassis sunbathing
nude. However, while plenty of people are buying Hustler, there are also
plenty of people who don't care for it, including Charles Keating (James
Cromwell), leader of a watchdog group called Citizens For Decent Literature.
Keating spearheads the first of many legal attacks on the magazine, one
of which reaches the Supreme Court as Alan Isaacman (Edward Norton), Flynt's
lawyer, debates the finer legal points of bad taste with the justices of
the highest court in the land. Meanwhile, Flynt makes a fortune,
loses the use of his legs after an attack by a sniper, embraces and than
abandons Christianity, and eventually loses Althea, who succumbs to AIDS
after a long addiction to drugs. Harrelson's brother Brett Harrelson is
well cast as Flynt's brother Jimmy; Larry Flynt appears briefly as a judge
who hands down a judgment against Larry Flynt.
Exceptional performances, a sharp
script, and sympathetic direction make Forman's The People Vs. Larry Flynt
a genuinely engaging, entertaining and unique rags-to-riches story. Harrelson's
Flynt is an endearing, irascible troublemaker and unlikely patriot, not
the immoral miscreant and lawbreaker his detractors color him to be. Building
upon the fine reputation he founded earlier that year in Primal Fear, Norton
is exceptional as Flynt's put-upon lawyer; and Love's natural, unaffected
turn as Flynt's dedicated girlfriend adds a necessary dimension to the
film. Larry Flynt is by and large a sympathetic, subjective portrayal of
the publisher, and as such, Forman and screenwriters Scott Alexander and
Larry Karaszewski choose to focus on issues of morality and free-speech;
as expected, the film drew some criticism for its omission of Flynt's more
unsavory traits.