LARRY Flynt has been a crack addict most of his life.
And such is the depth of his addiction that he's been sharing it with millions
of other men through the pages of his raunchy men's magazine, Hustler, since
the early 70s.
Being a very astute business man, Flynt realised early on that there were
a lot of beautiful young girls in America - and they were all sitting on
his fortune.
The owner of a string of tacky Ohio strip joints in conservative mainstream
America, Flynt flicked through the air-brushed pages of Playboy, actually
read the articles, and came to the conclusion that American men were the
bunnies for buying a porn mag that didn't give them what they wanted.
Flynt the man gave American men open, wet, split pink beaver – all
tastefully presented, of course.
Seeing that American men are much like men elsewhere in the world and don't
have an open, wet, split pink beaver of their own to play with, they were
most grateful for the insight and hustled down to their local newsagent
for an educational look-see.
Flynt the movie probes beneath the outer folds of the porn king's motives
to suggest he was a champion of freedom of the press, and a virulent opponent
of right-wing religious hypocrisy – all tastefully presented, of course
by director Miles (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Forman.
Woody Harrelson was nominated for the best actor Oscar for playing the slightly
loony Larry "all I wanted to do was make some money and have some fun"
Flynt.
He couldn't win, but his meaty performance helps Forman show that Flynt,
while an out and out, self-confessed sleezebag, had a touch of social worker
to him as well.
Working widow Courtney Love plays Flint's low-life, smack addicted wife,
Althea Leasure.
Love wasn't nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this, her motion picture
debut. She therefore didn't win, but the apparent ease with which her character
deteriorates physically throughout this flick shows she could become one
of Hollywood's finest methadone actors ever.
On the hole, this reviewer sees some merit in Flynt's desire to demystify
female anatomy with his cry of: "You want vaginas! You've got them."
Ever stayed overnight in those big hotels with the adult PAY TV channels?
You pays your money and settle back for some X rated horizontal folkdancing
between consenting adults, all untastefully presented, of course.
Instead, you get large black spots where the pink bits are 'sposed to go
in and out, and constant close-ups of men's faces where it's obvious that
they're having their toenails removed without the help of general anaesthetic.
There is something quite obscene about hard-core pornography gone soft,
and that's probably the point Flynt was trying to make on his way to the
bank.
If there is another message to The People vs Larry Flynt it's that in the
good old US of A every person has the right to publish and be gunned down.
Review: Don Gordon-Brown
