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People vs. Larry Flynt, The
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Scott Alexander
Larry Karaszewski
Directed by: Milos Forman
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 1996
DVD: May 6, 2003
Running Time: 129 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong sexual material, nudity, language and drug use
Starring Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Brett Harrelson, Donna Hanover, James Cromwell, Crispin Glover, and Vincent Schiavelli
Woody Harrelson stars as publishing maverick Larry Flynt, who 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. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Amadeus: Director's Cut Hair Man on the Moon One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ragtime Valmont
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
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.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
Raucously entertaining.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The film catches us by surprise in its moving portrayal of the love between Larry and Althea, played by Courtney Love in a performance that glides from kinky abandon to stark tragedy.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Forman finesses the story's grimmer aspects as he did in "Cuckoo's Nest," and his ability to switch moods on a dime remains unsurpassed.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
A blazing, unlikely triumph about a man who is nobody's idea of a movie hero. Smart, funny, shamelessly entertaining and perfectly serious too.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Courtney Love's performance as stripper Althea Leasure is an amazement. Funny, unfettered and almost scarily alive in front of a camera, she's the definition of a "natural."
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
Forman imbues the material with exactly the right dry, satirical flavor, yet this story is still a Frank Capra little-guy-against-the-system picture.
Film.com Sean Means
Althea is a ferociously vibrant character, and Love goes all out to infuse her with a wildness seldom seen on screen. Love holds nothing back, and her energy and her heartache energize the movie.
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
There's a gentleness and open-mindedness in that touch and throughout the film that's a little at odds with the shallower script. But, in the end, that humanity pays. [27 Dec 1996]
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Tells a good, intelligent story that keeps us interested and involved.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
With its fine courtroom scenes, excellent performances, great writing and superb direction it reminds me more than anything else of Barbet Schroeder's "Reversal of Fortune."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Gore
I loved it. I'm glad it was made...Film Threat's association with Flynt would sometimes bring gasps of outrage or phones slammed down in disgust. Now, it brings curiosity and even admiration. Kinda weird, huh?
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
With "Flynt," Love does what Madonna has been trying to do for 12 years -- create a performance filled with humor, intelligence and soul.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The result is good dirty fun, flecked with enough wit to help you overlook the relatively barren characterization.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Milos Forman's drama is full of outrageous material that will offend liberals and conservatives alike, but it's positioned on the cutting edge of contemporary debates about free speech, feminism, and the effects of mass media on modern society.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
But long after you've grown tired of [Flynt's] 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.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Jogs from one incident to the next, amassing information and dispensing attitude but rarely creating real characters. That's supposed to be director Milos Forman's forte; here, though, nearly everyone is an enemy or a stooge.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski's script may in spots be as much of a skim job as their one for "Ed Wood," but it's almost as sweet and as likable, and if the movie can't ever practice what it and its hillbilly hero preach--the only "beaver" shot in the movie involves a corpse--its heart is certainly in the right place.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
"Larry Flynt" should have a slick, whorish look, but there's no juice in Forman's sleaze. Hustler's centerfolds look like Renoirs next to the cold-eyed way Forman shoots women's bodies.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
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. In this sense, The People vs. Larry Flynt doesn't champion, so much as squander, freedom of speech.
Read Full Review >Film.com Tom Keogh
In all, this film is a major disappointment with a few powerful highlights.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Evan W. gave it an8:
Flynt is, ironically, moralistic. He stands up for what he believes in and doesn't back down.
Pat C. gave it a9:
A precise solidly crafted movie in full control of its volatile actors, story line and editing. Not quite uplifting, but still reassuring, not to mention both cerebral and provocative.
angie gave it a10:
This movie was absolutely wonderful. Made a very valid point.
mayank s. gave it a10:
Movie of our times.. sad, dark, and yet an expression so strong.
Ryan M. gave it a 10:
One of the greatest, most unflinchingly sad, but real biopics I've ever seen.
Gilbert gave it an 8:
Oh, come on. You call it a "pandering glorification of political correctness", then call it "evidence of our moral bankruptcy". Which are two different things. Face it, "Flynt" is not a leftie liberal pinko etc conspiracy to usurp you from your throne as arbiter of the Western World's morals. It's just a great movie. Like all the other ones Milos Forman made.
