Brett Harrelson, Courtney Love, Crispin Glover

It was the early 1970s, the twilight of the sexual revolution in America, when a sex industry entrepreneur named Larry Flynt leveraged a small string of Ohio strip-clubs into the beginnings of a publi...( read more  read more... )shing empire. Hustler was a raw and raunchy magazine that pushed the limits of American tolerance. Its publisher, a grade-school dropout and Kentucky redneck, was nobody's hero, but circumstance would cast him as the era's last crusader. It was a role that brought Larry Flynt both ruin and glory. Flynt becomes the unlikely champion of the First Amendment when he takes his fight against the Rev. Jerry Falwell all the way to the Supreme Court. Though his life, both public and private, was a tale told to America in soundbites and headlines, behind the scenes raged a story less familiar but no less striking: a story encompassing love and loss, redemption and despair, madness and healing.

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73% liked it

37,437 ratings

Critics

87% liked it

53 critics

R, 2 hrs. 9 min.

Directed by: Milos Forman

Release Date: February 28, 1997

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DVD Release Date: January 1, 1998

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Stats: 1,101 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,101)


  • September 16, 2009
    Harrelson, Love and Norton are great in this funny and quite sad biopic!
  • May 11, 2009
    Gentleman... Playboy is mocking you.
  • January 11, 2009
    This movie was pretty funny...Flynt is hilarious. Nothing too special, but no real weaknesses. A solid film.
  • November 12, 2008
    "You may not like what he does, but are you prepared to give up his right to do it?"

    "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 Harrels...( read more)on) 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.

    Review
    Although the original controversy over this film was about the First Amendment and the "real" Larry Flynt, to me, the more interesting aspect of the film was the love story between Larry and Althea Flynt. Forman's genius has always been finding human elements in tales of rebels who changed the world -- "Amadeus," for example, is more interesting as a saga of the jealousy of Salieri than as musical biography. "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" is gaudy where "Amadeus" was gorgeous (compare the long shot through Flynt's mansion with the shots of Viennese palaces in the other film), and Larry and Althea's love story is at once timeless and a product of the self-indulgent, tragic 70s and 80s, and Harrelson and Love turn in two of the best performances of the decade.
  • June 14, 2008
    Biography of the notorious founder of the Hustler magazine empire. Good cast.
  • November 5, 2009
    what a great biopic this is, milos forman surely is the right man to direct the story about 'eccentric people', and this time woody harrelson delivers a stunning performance, a real shocker, as good as jim carrey as andy kaufman and jack nicholson as mcmurphy.,
    a credit also for ...( read more)courtney love for this surprisingly good performance for a musician.,
    all in all, this is nice, tragic, shocking, and funny as hell.,
  • October 28, 2009
    A bit long but good performances and interesting.
  • October 23, 2009
    A good biopic. Courtney Love is very good. The second half of the movie loses its edge.
  • October 22, 2009
    Woody & Courtney Love were great.1 of my favorite movies
  • October 14, 2009
    Brilliant biopic about porn tycoon Larry Flynt's stance for non-conformity and how he shocked conservative America in the 80's. Amazing performance by Woody Harrelson and Courtney Love, and while Edward Norton was also particularly good, I thought he was just playing himself as t...( read more)he lawyer. Milos Forman, as usual, was on top of his game.

Critic Reviews


June 18, 2002
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

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. full review

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Love proves she is not a rock star pretending to act, but a true actress, and Harrelson matches her with his portrait of a man who has one thing on his mind, and never changes it. full review

View more The People Vs. Larry Flynt reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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The People Vs. Larry Flynt Trivia


  • Which actress starred in Man on the Moon, Trapped, and The People vs. Larry Flynt?  Answer »
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