The exploitative misogyny of Flynt's output is never examined, the prurient hypocrisy and intolerance of his persecutors seriously overplayed, plus Larry and Althea's odd romance lacks bittersweet conviction.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:46
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.7/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, Milos Forman expertly directs the viewer's sympathy toward Larry Flynt (Woody Harrelson in a superb performance): smut peddler, misogynist, and Editor in Chief of the... In THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, Milos Forman expertly directs the viewer's sympathy toward Larry Flynt (Woody Harrelson in a superb performance): smut peddler, misogynist, and Editor in Chief of the infamous Hustler magazine. Born in the back woods of Appalachia, the young Flynt--in an opening scene that immediately grabs and amuses--is seen selling moonshine as a child to alcoholic hermits. Flash forward to the 1960s, and he's running a go-go club where he meets the wild (and strangely loveable) Althea Leasure (Courtney Love) who becomes his soul mate and wife. Life is not as sweet as it first seems for the porn king who finds a massive readership for his magazine (the first to show crotch shots). He soon finds himself in the middle of several Supreme Court law suits, and also as an assassin's target. While Flynt's various outrageous meetings with self-righteous Reverend Jerry Falwell (Richard Paul) and devout Christian Ruth Carter Stapleton (President Jimmy Carter's sister, played by Rudolph Giuliani's ex-wife Donna Hanover) are hilarious and smartly pointed, it is perhaps the touching, and ultimately tragic, love story between him and Althea that make him very human, and very interesting to watch. [More]
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Miles Chapin
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Miles Chapin, Vincent Schiavelli, Donna Hanover, Crispin Glover, James Cromwell, Richard Paul, Brett Harrelson, James Carville
Director: Milos Forman
Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriter: Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander
Producer: Oliver Stone, Janet Yang, Michael Hausman
Composer: Thomas Newman
Reviews for The People Vs. Larry Flynt
While Harrelson and Love deliver convincing performances, in the end this is a distended account of a revolting couple which dodges the issue.
Long after you've grown tired of his escapades, the scenes in which he and Althea support one another against the slings an arrows of outrageous fortune are touching and, ultimately, genuinely tragic.
Boyish and straightforward, Norton's lawyer seems the last person who would be attracted to Flynt's dramatic style. But he's perfect because he's just like us: appalled, dazzled and utterly entertained.
This film leaves the viewer struggling with a variety of moral questions, and that's probably a good thing.
It's a whitewash. But what a charming whitewash, and for what a good cause.
The People vs. Larry Flynt is ultimately a worse disappointment than an out-and-out stinker would be, because of its lively, entertaining first half.
I sincerely hope The People Versus Larry Flynt goes all the way and wins the Academy Award.
If, as Flynt protests, he's really only guilty of bad taste, perhaps Forman is, as well.
The biggest surprise is a five-star performance by Harrelson. After a series of movies like Indecent Proposal and Money Train, who knew there was an actor under there?
A substantive, specific and occasionally rowdy commentary on U.S. culture.
A brave, spectacularly entertaining -- and unexpectedly stirring -- account of Flynt's life that asks us to regard the publisher of Hustler magazine as an invaluable champion of our First Amendment freedoms.
We're really celebrating Hollywood's freedom to create biographies of anyone, no matter how high or low on the social ladder, and still come up with the same banal characteristics, messages and conclusions.
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