B Y J A M E S C A R V I L L E
Larry Flynt, freedom fighter Why I made my Hollywood debut in the notorious pornographer's screen biography salon has asked me to tell y'all about a new movie called "The People vs. Larry Flynt," opening on December 27 in most major cities. I have a role in the film, but it's small enough that I can safely brag on this movie without looking too silly. That being said, the movie is damn good. In fact, last week it got five Golden Globe nominations. A lot of Hollywood types think it might earn a third Oscar for the film's director, Milos Forman, who won two Oscars for "Amadeus" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Forman is a gem of a human being. I first met him last winter, when I went down to Memphis for a little screen test. (I play a pompous prosecutor named Simon Leis.) I loved Forman as soon as I met him, but to be honest with you, there was a bit of miscommunication. You see, Forman is Czech and I'm Cajun, and we both have difficult accents. He said, "James, be a star" and I heard him completely wrong. I could have sworn he said, "James, beat on Starr." But seriously, I am very proud to have worked with Forman, if only for a few days. I am even more proud that this big-time director was gutsy enough to go against the advice of friends and colleagues and make a movie about a reviled guy like Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine. Now that I know Forman a bit, I have a much better understanding of why he did. During the Holocaust, the Nazis killed both of his parents. After the war, Forman lived under the Stalinist regime that took control of Czechoslovakia. He knows totalitarianism first hand. He knows that the first people totalitarian governments go after are those operating on the margins of society, like pornographers. He knows that a free society is one brave enough to tolerate these people and what they have to say. As Forman shows in this movie, Larry Flynt is no hero. Many of the things Flynt has done in Hustler and elsewhere have been thoroughly contemptible. One infamous cover of the magazine showed a woman stuffed head-first in a meat-grinder, over the caption "Grade A Pink." Most of the photos inside Hustler are also tasteless, though I must say it's refreshing to see pornography that doesn't make women look like pneumatic dolls. Some people who have seen the movie say that Forman has somehow glamorized Flynt. Bullshit. I don't recommend this movie for kids, but I can assure you that no child in America could see this movie and aspire to be like Flynt. Woody Harrelson plays Flynt, and though he is more physically attractive than the real Flynt, he does full justice to the guy's ugly antics. Forman and Harrelson also do justice to the unenviable details of Flynt's life story — the shooting in front of a Georgia courtroom that left him a paraplegic, the decade of excruciating pain that followed and the loss of his HIV-infected and heroin-addicted wife Althea (played by Courtney Love). In the course of the movie, you might muster some sympathy for the guy, but you'll never think of him as a hero. The backbone of the movie, as its title suggests, is Flynt's many battles with the law. His most famous case was argued in front of the Supreme Court in 1987, an appeal that pitted him against one of my least favorite public figures, the self-righteous Rev. Jerry Falwell. Falwell sued Flynt over a parody he ran in Hustler that said Falwell had lost his virginity to his mother, in an outhouse. Not a single Justice was in the slightest bit amused by the parody, to say the least. But the Court ruled unanimously that Flynt's parody was protected by the First Amendment. It was a huge victory, not only for Flynt but also for the high-brow press, many of whose members wanted nothing whatsoever to do with a scumbag like Flynt. As my friend Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times, "Had Flynt lost, the effect would have been to gut libel law and chill any writer, cartoonist or entertainer who mocks a public figure." This country has no particular interest in seeing public figures ridiculed. I've been on the receiving end of ridicule myself, and so, of course, has the President. But, as the movie makes clear, America's highest interest is in jealously protecting the ability of every citizen to speak freely, even when we don't like what he or she has to say. Milos Forman has seen what happens when a society stops protecting those on the fringes. It disappears for the rest of us faster than you can say "slippery slope." In the movie, the best part of the courtroom scenes is Ed Norton, the angelic young actor who plays Alan Isaacman, Flynt's long-time and long-suffering lawyer. I'd never seen him in any previous movie, though I know he's been in a bunch. But let me tell you, this kid is great, and it's no wonder Forman picked him. He plays the part with absolutely no pretension, no Hollywood gloss. The Supreme Court scene doesn't quite look like documentary footage, but it sure as hell doesn't look like John Grisham, either. Nonpretension is really what makes this a great film. Most directors who had the courage to take on a project like this would bend over backwards to fill the movie with blatant symbols and metaphors and motifs and all kinds of English-major crap. Forman shows incredible restraint. Flynt never claimed to be an artist. Forman wisely chooses not to make this an art film. Flynt's real life story includes more than enough bizarre episodes, and Forman knew right from the start that he didn't need to pile a layer of absurdity on top. The one time Forman lets a blatant symbol slip out — Flynt's private jet fades out and an image of a bald eagle fills the screen — it looks ridiculous. The movie is not exactly the usual Christmas fare, but go down to your local theater and see it anyway. Just try — no matter how gung ho you get — not to scream "FIRE!" while you're there. What did you think of "The People vs. Larry Flynt"? Exercise your right to free speech in Salon's Table Talk. |
