The People vs Larry Flynt - Interesting ‘opinion piece’

It’s a bit of a cliché to say that you’ll either ‘love or hate’ the film ‘The People vs Larry Flynt,’ but the reason I open with such a phrase is largely down to the source material, i.e. real life.  It’s a semi-biopic picture which tells the story of self-titled ‘King of p0rn’ Larry Flynt and his rise to power, largely with the (in)famous adult publication ‘Hustler.’ I suppose how much you enjoy the film comes down to how much you see things from his point of view.  It does portray him in quite a sympathetic light (largely for the first half!) so, if you’re very ‘anti-adult publications’ then you’ll probably see him as an modern day devil in human form, hell bent on corrupting the morals of the nation.  However, if you’re more liberal in your reading material then you’ll probably tolerate Woody Harrelson’s performance for longer.

I mentioned that he’s effectively the ‘hero’ (although I should probably call him an ‘anti-hero!’) for the first half of the film.  I suppose it’s because he gets slowly more hardened and cynical before finally developing an attitude which generally feels like he’s at war with the world and simply wants to annoy everyone he comes into contact with (mainly judges!).  This is the point in the story where even his most die-hard supporters start to lose patience with him, for he becomes a little unlikeable, which can go some way to impact on your enjoyment of the film.

As if the characters weren’t controversial enough, the film-makers even chose one of the most controversial figures of the modern age to co-star, i.e. Courtney Love.  She plays Larry Flynt’s ‘love interest’ and opinion – naturally, it seems – is divided on how successful her (arguably) biggest on-screen role turned out.  One school of through is that she was amazing as the drug-fuelled woman in Larry Flynt’s life, others simply say that she was merely playing an extension of her true self.  Special mention to Edward Norton who – amazingly – gets overshadowed by the more ‘larger than life’ performances in the film.  He’s probably the most ‘sympathetic’ character among the batch as he plays Larry Flint’s long-suffering lawyer who is left practically tearing his hair out in frustration when it comes to his client’s antics.

As far as I can tell, ‘The People Vs Larry Flynt’ is a pretty accurate depiction of the events in the p0rn baron’s life, so if you think you need to know about the way the law attempted to ‘protect’ the public against the world’s seedy underbelly then give this one a go.  The performances are all spot on and whether you like the film will go hand in hand with how much you’re interested in the history of the subject matter and how much you can tolerate slightly infuriating on-screen characters. 

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one