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, and eventually loses Althea, who dies of AIDS after a long addiction to drugs. Woody Harrelson's brother Brett Harrelson is cast as Larry Flynt's brother Jimmy; Larry Flynt appears briefly as a judge who hands down a judgment against Larry Flynt.
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The review of this Movie prepared by Tanya McKnight
Loosely based on the life of the founder and publisher of Hustler magazine, this 1996 film directed by the great Czech director Milos Forman portrays Larry Flynt as a courageous (if obnoxious and troubled) champion of free speech rights. The story follows the ascent of his oddball publishing empire, battles in the courts with various law enforcement agents and Jerry Falwell, the drug difficulties of his wife Althea, and an assassination attempt that crippled Flynt. Harrelson is quite good in the title role, as are rock singer Love as his wife, and the dependable Norton as Flynt's overworked attorney Alan Isaacson (the sort of role Rob Morrow would have played a few years earlier). Not a pretty film, but a thought-provoking one, and Forman and Harrelson were both nominated for Oscars.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT is a movie directed by Milos Forman in 1996. The picture won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Fim Festival. Two nominations for the Academy Awards.
The film depicts the life of Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler porn magazine, his numerous provocations against the american moral values, his personal evolution and finally his final victory in front of the Supreme court in the Reverend Falwell case. In the meantime, Larry will be shot and become paralyzed, suffer from drug-addiction and spend a lot of time in prisons and even in a mental hospital.
The review of this Movie prepared by Daniel Staebler
