Hustlers

PLAINLY put, I find The People vs. Larry Flynt the best and most important American film of the year. It is the story of the publisher of Hustler magazine, not unlike the way it happened, save for the usual, near-inevitable cinematic embellishments. The magazine and its publisher being considered unsavory in most quarters, this presumed glorification of Flynt has aroused the ire of feminists, conservatives, and persons of exacting taste.

Glorification? Well, yes, whenever a real person is the protagonist of a major-studio biographical film, the presumption is that he or she is being celebrated, or at least dignified, by it. Were, then, all those old-time gangster movies about Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and the rest cases of glorification? Fascination, rather: evil fascinates, especially when accompanied by courage, or at least audacity. If you add the prevalent sociological view, whereby the individual is innocent, and society is to blame, the moral issues become cloudier yet.

JS

About the Author

John Simon

PLAINLY put, I find The People vs. Larry Flynt the best and most important American film of the year. It is the story of the publisher of Hustler magazine, not unlike the way it happened, save for the usual, near-inevitable cinematic embellishments. The magazine and its publisher being considered unsavory in most quarters, this presumed glorification of Flynt has aroused the ire of feminists, conservatives, and persons of exacting taste.

Glorification? Well, yes, whenever a real person is the protagonist of a major-studio biographical film, the presumption is that he or she is being celebrated, or at least dignified, by it. Were, then, all those old-time gangster movies about Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and the rest cases of glorification? Fascination, rather: evil fascinates, especially when accompanied by courage, or at least audacity. If you add the prevalent sociological view, whereby the individual is innocent, and society is to blame, the moral issues become cloudier yet.