A Czech director who emigrated in the USA in the seventies, Milos Forman, these last years specialized in biographies: "Larry Flynt" (1996) and he was to shot "Man on the Moon" three years later about the life of the comedian Andy Kaufman. After a seven year absence (his last movie was "Valmont" in 1989), "Larry Flynt" was released in 1996 and we all have in our minds the poster because it caused a scandal. Larry Flynt, one of the kings of pornography depicted as a crucified Christ on the string of a woman! After I watched this movie which relates the chaotic career of this man against the establishment, it left me a bitter taste, in a major part caused by the script.
It is not a matter of chance if Forman hired Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski as the scriptwriters. Both concocted the screenplay of the delicious "Ed Wood" (1994) one of Tim Burton's peaks in his work. So to write the script of "Larry Flynt", they used the same methods as "Ed Wood"'s: to relate his life as precisely as possible. If it had wonderfully worked in Burton's movie, here the mayonnaise isn't thickening for Forman's movie. I think that it is due to a difference of personality with the two quoted characters. Indeed, Ed Wood was an eternal loser but the scriptwriters had made him endearing. Moreover, Johnny Depp had rendered his personality in a convincing way. As for Larry Flynt, he was a winner although he has had trouble with the law and he built a real empire based on a vulgar exploitation of the woman body. At once, we deal with an ambitious but hateful character. Woody Harrelson's efforts to make him nice are ineffective, either in dramatic moments (Flynt's wife who commits suicide) either in funny sequences (Flynt's excess in court). Besides these last sequences aren't even funny in the way Harrelson goes over the top.
As a result, the movie loses a lot of its appeal and you just glance through it. By way of consolation, we can save Courtney Love who for her real first role in screen offers a decent and sometimes harrowing performance. There's also a decent performance from Edward Norton but he will find the role of his life three years later in "Fight Club".
A mixed biography which shows that the presence of two excellent scriptwriters in a film doesn't always contribute to its success.
It is not a matter of chance if Forman hired Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski as the scriptwriters. Both concocted the screenplay of the delicious "Ed Wood" (1994) one of Tim Burton's peaks in his work. So to write the script of "Larry Flynt", they used the same methods as "Ed Wood"'s: to relate his life as precisely as possible. If it had wonderfully worked in Burton's movie, here the mayonnaise isn't thickening for Forman's movie. I think that it is due to a difference of personality with the two quoted characters. Indeed, Ed Wood was an eternal loser but the scriptwriters had made him endearing. Moreover, Johnny Depp had rendered his personality in a convincing way. As for Larry Flynt, he was a winner although he has had trouble with the law and he built a real empire based on a vulgar exploitation of the woman body. At once, we deal with an ambitious but hateful character. Woody Harrelson's efforts to make him nice are ineffective, either in dramatic moments (Flynt's wife who commits suicide) either in funny sequences (Flynt's excess in court). Besides these last sequences aren't even funny in the way Harrelson goes over the top.
As a result, the movie loses a lot of its appeal and you just glance through it. By way of consolation, we can save Courtney Love who for her real first role in screen offers a decent and sometimes harrowing performance. There's also a decent performance from Edward Norton but he will find the role of his life three years later in "Fight Club".
A mixed biography which shows that the presence of two excellent scriptwriters in a film doesn't always contribute to its success.