'The People Vs. Larry Flynt'

which led to his arrests and trials.
The most famous of these trials
those who know of Larry took place in front of the Supreme
Flynt — one of this country's
Flynt
Court and led to a historic deci-
most disliked business tycoons sion in favor of strengthening the
(the business of, in his own rights of the First Amendment.
words, "tasteless pornography")
Woody Harrelson (Woody of
— witnessing his real-life
"Cheers," of course, and
rise to acclaim as a First
more recently of the films
MOVIES
Amendment warrior in
Natural Born Killers and
the '70s and '80s may have
Kingpin) stars as the con-
been a bit surreal.
troversial publisher, with Court-
The film version of his life, The ney Love (lead singer of the band
People Vs. Larry Flynt, focuses on Hole, and sometime actress) play-
that unlikely rise to fame as well ing the part of his former stripper
as the harrowing personal life he wife and business partner. Both
endured along with his wife, do a fine job with their roles; how-
Althea Leasure.
ever, neither seems to have por-
Raised in near-squalor in the trayed anything unique. The
hills of Kentucky, Larry Flynt characters certainly give them the
eventually found his niche in the opportunity, going from wild,
world as the owner of a group of young entrepreneurs to drug ad-
strip clubs in Ohio in the early dicts, religious converts and First
'70s. Hatching the idea of
publishing a newsletter to
keep his customers updat-
ed on the club girls, Larry
Flynt soon turned his "Hus-
tler" newsletter into Hustler
magazine, and turned him-
self into a publishing empire
by the middle of the decade.
Claiming to be catering to
and speaking for a male,
blue-collar audience, Hus-
tler presented graphic
pornography and politically
charged spoofs, both of

JEFFREY HERIVIANN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

orn in 1.932 in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, Milos For-
man was orphaned during World War II when both
his Jewish father and Protestant mother were
killed in Nazi concentration camps.
Raised by relatives under the oppression of Com-
up munist dictatorship, Forman, in the 1950s, attended
• Prague's famous film academy, F.A.M.U., and soon be-
L--' gan collaborating with noted Czech filmmakers as a
= screenwriter and director's assistant.
up
Eventually graduating to directing his own films,
• Forman began attracting attention from both the crit-
ics and the Communist government of the early '60s
F- with his thinly veiled anti-socialist films. His 1963 film,
O Loves of Blonde, and I967's The Firemen's Ball (a
c4 satire of Stalinistic brutality) are considered to be two
`Zs' of the most influential films of the Czech New Wave, a
, movement that took place during a relatively open era
= in Czechoslovaldan politics -
Credited with being partially responsible for the
oust er of
regime, which culminated with
the "liberal spring" of 1968, many of the prominent film-

B

82

.

'

.

Above: Real-life brothers Woody and
Brett Harrelson portray cinematic
brothers Larry and Jimmy Flynt in The
People vs. Larry Flynt

Left: Courtney Love, musician and
actress, plays Larry Flynt's ex-
stripper wife.

Amendment heroes, but their
acting range never seems to go
beyond half-witted "white trash."
The script could be to blame
more than the performers
though, as the writing only

touches the surface of its subjects
and winds up simplifying the com-
plicated ideas it tries to examine,
most notably its black and white
treatment of the nature of free
speech and its limits. Flynt him-
self has been quoted as fighting
for his "right to offend," and the
film presents the viewer's options
as only pro or con freedom of press,
with no hint of the many gray ar-
eas that actually existed in this
case and in this man's life.
Milos Forman, the director of

The People vs. Larry Flynt, is an
American via Eastern Europe (see
below), who, judging by his past
films, should have brought a more
passionate and complex story to
the screen. For a life that has been
so marked by contradiction, so full
of recklessness, drama and sad-
ness, the filmmakers have given
us a disappointingly bland film.

—Jeffrey Hermann

makers of the movement, like Forman, lost family mem-
Forman again addressed the ideas of oppression and
bers in the Jewish death camps during the occupation.
the importance of personal freedom with his next film.,
However, while their artistic contributions may have Hair, a film adaptation of the Broadway show, and in
been permanent, their polit-
1981 Forman adapted an-
ical influence ended abrupt-
other novel. for the screen,
ly with the Russian invasion
E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime.
of Czechoslovakia in August
In 1984, he was allowed
1968.
to re-enter Czechoslovakia
On location for a film in
to film his next project,
Paris at that time Milos
Amadeus. Craving the Hol-
Forman escaped punish-
lywood dollars, but still
ment in his homeland and
fearful of the expatriate,
eventually came to the Unit-
the Czech government al-
ed States — leaving behind
lowed his return but only
a wife and two small chil-
on the condition that he not
dren — where he was able
speak with former friends
to continue making success-
and dissidents while in the
ful films.
country. The success of
This success reached a
Amadeus, for which he
high point in 1975 with his
received his second set of
film adaptation of Ken Ke-
Best Film/Best Director
sey's novel One Flew Over
Oscars, has made Milos
The Cuckoo's Nest, which Milos Forman, center, directing The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Forman one of this coun-
took all five top Academy
try's most decorated and
Awards that year (Best Film, Director, Actress, Actor respected filmmakers.
and Screenplay), an accomplishment achieved only
The People vs. Larry Flynt is his first film in10 years,
once before, by Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, since 1986's critically acclaimed but overlooked Val-
in 1934.
mont. 1:

PHOTO BY SIDNEY BALDWIN

Jeffrey Hermann is former
co-editor of Film Threat,
an LA-based film
magazine.

PHOTO BY SIDNEY BALDWIN

Rated R

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