71%
——
88%
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 41,306
"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 (as played by 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
Dec 25, 1996 Wide
Jan 1, 1998
Columbia Pictures
All Critics (55) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (7) | DVD (11)
An exultant comedy of American repression and revolt.
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.
One of the truly bizarre careers in recent American cultural life provides the source of tart and tasty amusement in The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Woody Harrelson plays Flynt with energy, and Courtney Love does at least as well as his wife.
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.
It's a modern-day Capra film, about an unorthodox businessman who's persecuted for his originality but eventually is recognized for the lovable, rugged American individualist he truly is.
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.
Surprisingly mundane, given the central figure, The People vs. Larry Flynt puts the "lesson" in "civics lesson."
The movie is a lot of fun for long stretches.
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.
I sincerely hope The People Versus Larry Flynt goes all the way and wins the Academy Award.
Funny, fascinating, and maybe just a little unsettling.
Great.
The screenplay, by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, is rich in detail and dialogue.
Proof that you can find patriotism in the most unlikely of places.
The latest movie from the great director Milos Forman is a sensational, irreverent docudrama. And, as they say in the porno trade, it's adult entertainment.
I dug it.
Whitewashing the truth is a forgivable sin in the world of biopics, but to demean ideologies by remaining "balanced" is cowardly.
A very interesting look at the magazine and porn industries in America. It's got a lot of good actors, and a good director. This movie let's you get to know the kind of people who run the porno mags, and makes you think about censorship in America. It's a really good movie.
September 6, 2010Super Reviewer
Woody plays the scum loving founder of Hustler with feeling that hangs around performances of biopics such as Monster and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
December 9, 2008Super Reviewer
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