The SmarK DVD Rant For The People V. Larry Flynt: Special Edition

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The SmarK DVD Rant for The People v. Larry Flynt: Special Edition

– Poor Milos Forman — the guy makes an impassioned movie about fighting censorship, and he gets crushed by the feminist wackos as a result. I bet they didn’t even see the irony in their own actions.

For those who are already lost, I’m referring to Forman’s lost classic, “The People v. Larry Flynt”, a mostly-faithful biopic about the life of America’s #1 sleazemonger (besides Vince McMahon), Larry Flynt. And he’s proud of the designation, too. A rare movie about the 70s and the drug scene that doesn’t glorify it or sugar-coat the effects, Forman also turns the story of a porn king into a story about a very strange man who is fighting for his First Amendment rights against the entire Moral Majority and the government, and wins. It’s a strangely inspiring tale that was lauded by critics and festival audiences, but a total flop at the box office (grossing about $20 million total) and snubbed at the Oscars due to a smear campaign by Gloria Steinem. The original DVD release was barebones, but the movie has accumulated something of a following over the years and Columbia has finally given it a better treatment with a special edition complete with cool new slipcover and everything. And a more deserving movie you couldn’t find. Well, except maybe Goodfellas.

The Film:

Ah, the 70s. Drugs, booze and porn. It was also the time that a rising young pervert named Larry Flynt (played brilliantly by Woody Harrelson) expanded his strip clubs into a publishing empire via a novel idea — a newsletter advertising his girls with pictures, which then became so popular that he turned it into a magazine. However, he didn’t want to compete with Playboy and Penthouse on their own turf, but rather he wanted to appeal to a working-class demographic by writing at their level and featuring humor that the “common man” can appreciate. However, he also had another innovation that put him on the map for good — the “pink shot”. In classier magazines, showing genitals is a no-no, so Flynt had the photographers EMPHASIZE them, just to piss off the establishment.

Unfortunately for him, this devotion to a higher quality of wank-material brought a heavy price, as those in the Bible belt brought him into court on charges of pandering, pornography and organized crime. He was railroaded by the conservative court system in Ohio and given 25 years by a biased judge, but some quick appealing got it overturned and he was back in business again. The movie follows his continuing fights with the court system and we watch as his empire increases geometrically.

However, there is a parallel track going downwards, even as his finances went upwards. During one of his court appearances in Georgia, a fanatic with a sniper rifle hit him outside the courtroom and severed his spinal column, leaving him paralyzed below the waist and unable to walk. The guy was never caught, but then the police never looked too closely, either. From the end of the 70s into the early 80s, we watch as Larry’s personal life disintegrates into drugs, and for wife Althea, AIDS. His courtroom appearances get increasingly dramatic (in one instance he wore the American flag as a diaper, for instance) while he gets more medicated. And then as his offices progress from the back of a strip club up through a giant tower in LA, he picks a fight with Jerry Falwell over an ad parody that puts forth the notion of Falwell losing his virginity in an outhouse with his own mother. This sets up the climactic scene in the Supreme Court, as Larry’s lawyer (another brilliant performance, this one by a young Edward Norton) fights for the First Amendment and his client’s right to skewer public figures. The basic message of the movie is of course that if the Constitution can protect a scumbag like Flynt, it can protect anyone. There’s a very convincing speech made by Flynt after his first release from jail, taken from real life, where he explains that journalists win prizes for photos of graphic war violence, but pictures of sex are deemed illegal and evil. And it’s funny, because if you watch this movie and then Michael Moore’s equally brilliant “Bowling for Columbine”, where frequent images of war violence in the news are linked to America’s penchant for shooting the crap out of each other, it certainly strengthens Flynt’s arguments. In fact, in places like Canada and most of Europe, where restrictions on what is considered “pornographic” are far looser and more open to leeway, there is less violence. Of course, had Flynt been based in Canada, he wouldn’t have had a problem in the first place, because you can show any kind of deviant smut you want on Canadian TV and magazines as long as you don’t show violence. But I digress.

The movie makes no attempt to either deify or hide Flynt’s weaknesses — he’s presented as a sexist pig throughout, who happens to be arguing from an unpopular point of view but has the same rights as anyone else. All the performances are as strong as the writing, even Courtney Love (playing a strung-out junkie, go figure), and this is a movie with something to SAY, and it does it with some style.

In real life, Gloria Steinem derided the movie as glorifying porn and the objectification of women, which totally misses the point of the film and led many to think she hadn’t even watched it. A movie like “Boogie Nights” glorifies porn, but “Larry Flynt” simply uses the subject matter as a backdrop for the central issue of whether morality should affect judgments of First Amendment rights. It’s also a very strange and sweet love story between Larry and Althea, leading to a tragic conclusion that pulls no punches in showing the effects of a free-love lifestyle in the 80s. Even if you hate Flynt in real life — and many do — the message of the movie is still worth hearing. If you missed it back in 1996, you owe it to yourself not to do so now.

The Video:

I haven’t seen the original DVD, but this is a pretty nice transfer. Colors look good (not great, although maybe that was a style choice by the cinematographer, I dunno) and there’s no compression problems that I could see. Decent but nothing spectacular.

The Audio:

Again, decent but nothing spectacular. It’s Dolby 5.1, but really there’s no point since it’s a very dialogue-driven movie. There’s some fireworks scenes and jet departures that use the surrounds, but other than that they’re not really in use.

The Extras:

Since the first release had nothing, this is a nice step up.

First up, you get two commentary tracks, one by the writers and one by the actors. I went with the actor track because I was curious to hear Edward Norton’s thoughts, but the track is actually dominated by Courtney Love with input from Woody Harrelson here and there. The three actors are all recorded separately and edited together, and it’s 80% for Love and the other two only pop in when needed. Courtney actually is an interesting listen, as she plays Missy Hyatt and dishes the dirt on her relationship with Norton and fights with Woody, as well as her well-publicized drug problems. She doesn’t really have anything of SUBSTANCE to add to the movie (“I got to pick that hooker, and Woody picked the other one.”) , but it’s an interesting perspective on her part.

You also get a pair of 30-minute documentaries, one about the making of the movie and backlash from the feminazis, and the other a straight biography about Larry Flynt himself and how things differed in real life from the movie. Not much, as it turns out. Both are really good and well worth checking out.

You get a pair of short deleted scenes, as the “Larry Flynt for President” section was tragically left out. There’s a story in the Flynt biography special that will explain why that part would have been so funny, but I’ll sum it up by noting that federal law prevents networks from censoring political advertisements in ANY way. Use your imagination.

Finally, the trailers and filmographies, which are standard.

Overall, with another hour or so of added stuff, you can’t complain.

The Ratings:

The Film: *****
The Video: ****
The Audio: ***
The Extras: ****