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The People vs. Larry Flynt

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The People vs. Larry Flynt is a 1996 American drama film about the rise and legal problems of Larry Flynt, the controversial founder and publisher of pornographic magazine Hustler who became a defender of free speech.

Directed by Miloš Forman. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.
You may not like what he does, but are you prepared to give up his right to do it?

Larry Flynt

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  • If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, it will protect all of you.
  • If you don't like Hustler magazine, don't read it.
  • [to Alan] You don't want to quit me, I'm your dream client: I'm the most fun, I'm rich, and I'm always in trouble.
  • I got money, which gives me the power to shake up the system.
  • Why do I have to go to jail to protect your freedom?
  • [Incredulous after prison sentence] Twenty-five years? All I'm guilty of is bad taste.
  • I think the real obscenity comes from raisin' our youth to believe that sex is bad and ugly and dirty and yet it is heroic to go spill guts and blood in the most ghastly manner in the name of humanity. With all the taboos attached to sex, it's no wonder we have the problems we have. It's no wonder we're angry and violent and genocidal. But ask yourself the question. What is more obscene? Sex or war?
  • Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one.
  • What is more obscene: Sex or war?
  • These are my friends - lots of money, lots of friends.
  • [Walking past protesters protesting outside his strip club] Thank you all for coming. Welcome to my establishment, we welcome Christians in here too.

Alan Isaacman

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  • Unpopular speech is absolutely vital to the health of our nation.
  • Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard a lot today, and I'm not gonna go back over it, but you have to go into that room and make some decisions. But before you do, there's something you need to know. I am not trying to suggest that you should like what Larry Flynt does. I don't like what Larry Flynt does, but what I do like is the fact that I live in a country where you and I can make that decision for ourselves. I like the fact that I live in a country where I can pick up Hustler magazine and read it, or throw it in the garbage can if that's where I think it belongs.
  • At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas. Freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of an individual liberty, but is essential to the quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole. In the world of debate about public affairs, many things done with motives that are less than admirable are nonetheless protected by the first amendment.

Althea Leasure

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  • The reign of Christian terror is over. We're going back to our roots. We are smut peddlers again.
  • Nobody on this planet wants their religion and their pornography together.
  • Larry, I don't work at the magazine anymore. People there don't listen to me and they don't talk to me. They're afraid of me and they don't shake my hand... Larry, I went to Dr. Robert and... he told me that I was sick. I mean, sick, sick. I mean, I've got AIDS, Larry.

Simon Leis

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  • Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Before we begin, I must apologize for the unpleasantness of this task. What you are about to see is going to take your breath away. "Hustler" magazine depicts men and women posed together in a lewd and shameful manner. "Hustler" magazine depicts women and women posed together in a lewd and shameful manner. "Hustler" magazine depicts Santa Claus posed in a lewd and shameful manner.

Dialogue

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Blow Dried Jerk: Uh, Mr. Flynt? I don't wanna step on your toes, but things have changed since you were actively running the company. I mean, I look back at the stuff you did in the 70s, and it was, uh, sorta racy and crazy. But the country is different now. Reagan has rebuilt America and the moral majority is gaining power.
Larry Flynt: You're fired.
Blow Dried Jerk: Excuse me?
Larry Flynt: You get the fuck out of my building. Doug, get him out of here. You blow-dried jerk motherfucker. Take him out of here and throw him in the incinerator, cut him to little pieces and feed him to the animals out there. Get out of here!
Larry Flynt: [Frustrated at the stills photographer] Look, we're not running a flower shop here. We're selling the girl. So stop playing with all the props and pillows and flowers and just shoot the girl.
Stills Photographer: [To the model during a photo shoot] Let's go for the leg thing spread your legs a little wider.
Larry Flynt: [Walks up to the model and spreads her legs even wider] There, that's exactly what we want, that's perfect a woman's vagina has just as much personality as her face.
Stills Photographer: But you can't show the genitalia.
Larry Flynt: [Disappointed, confused] Why not?
Jimmy Flynt: He's right. Legally, you can't show it.
Larry Flynt: [To Jimmy] Shut up. Are you religious man?
Stills Photographer: Yeah.
Larry Flynt: You believe God created man?
Stills Photographer: Yeah.
Larry Flynt: And God created woman?
Stills Photographer: Yeah.
Larry Flynt: Surely the same God created her vagina, and who are you to defy God? Just shoot it.
Althea: [Flipping through an issue of Playboy] Her tits look nice
Larry Flynt: They look nice but they don't look real. I don't understand this magazine fuzzy pictures, articles on I don't know what the hell their talking about.
Larry Flynt: [Looking at the first issue of the Hustler newsletter] What'd you think?
Jimmy Flynt: How much do they cost?
Larry Flynt: [shakes his head] Will you forget money for one second! What'd you think?
Jimmy Flynt: What I think depends on how much they cost.
Larry Flynt: This is the first Hustler newsletter. It's all for the man on the go and man-about-town. Here's news service and pictures.
Jimmy Flynt: It's a magazine. How are you going to pay for that?
Larry Flynt: Don't interrupt me when I'm talking!
Larry Flynt: [To his parents while showing them around his new mansion during a 4th of July party] Do you know how many rooms I have here?
Pa Flynt: How many?
Larry Flynt: Twenty four rooms, do you know who else has twenty four rooms?
Pa Flynt: The president?
Larry Flynt: Hugh Hefner
Althea Leasure: Larry?
Larry Flynt: Yeah?
Althea Leasure: Take off your pants.
Larry Flynt: [Grins] What?
Althea Leasure: Take off your pants.
Larry Flynt: Why?
Althea Leasure: [Shows him the profit sheet] Because I've never fucked a millionaire before.
Althea: I had an epiphany once, Larry.
Larry Flynt: What was that?
Althea: When my daddy shot my entire family in the head and I was the only one to identify the bodies, and I was sent to an orphanage full of good Christian nuns who shoved my face into their pussies with their cruxifixes on for eight goddamn years!
Mantke Clerk: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
Larry Flynt: No.
Judge Thomas Alva Mantke: No?
Larry Flynt: Your Honor, I'm an atheist. I can't very well, uh, swear to a God I don't believe exists.
Judge Thomas Alva Mantke: Mr. Flynt, you are a handful.
Larry Flynt: I know, Your Honor.
Alan Isaacman: You don't see me running around, pissing off everybody we're trying to get to help us.
Larry Flynt: Yeah, well, you can walk and you can fuck and I'm in this chair! And I got money, okay, and I got money and that gives me the power to shake up this system.
Alan Isaacman: Well, find somebody else to help you then, because, this is not what I signed on for. I don't even know what we're engaged in anymore, Larry. If you get on that plane, I quit.
Larry Flynt: Alan, don't be so melodramatic. You don't wanna quit me. I'm your dream client: I'm the most fun, I'm rich and I'm always in trouble.
Alan Isaacman: [On the phone] Listen, I'm sitting here with the eminently reasonable District Attorney of the state of Georgia. Right. He's very impressed by your conversion, he wants to cut us a plea bargain.
Larry Flynt: A plea bargain? Because I've found God?
Alan Isaacman: Larry, listen to me for a second: Don't argue with me on this, okay? Just say yes because I've pulled a lot of strings to make this happen.
Larry Flynt: Is he sitting there with you?
Alan Isaacman: Yes, he is.
Larry Flynt: Would you do me a favor? Just tell that miserable old gray-haired bastard to go fuck himself, we're going to trial.
Alan Isaacman: Okay, right.
Larry Flynt: Oh, and praise the lord.
Mantke Clerk: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help yo God?
Larry Flynt: No.
Judge Mantke: No?
Larry Flynt: Your honor, I'm an atheist. I can't very well, uh, swear to a God I don't believe exists.
Judge Mantke: Mr. Flynt, you are a handful.
Larry Flynt: I know, your honor.
Simon Leis: Mr. Flynt, can you please turn to page 77? Can you describe to the jury what is on that page, please sir?
Larry Flynt: It's a picture of Santa Claus.
Simon Leis: What is Santa Claus doing?
Larry Flynt: He's talking to Mrs. Claus, and holding in his hand what appears to be a large, erect penis.
Simon Leis: And could you read the caption underneath that cartoon, please?
Larry Flynt: "This is what I've got to ho-ho-ho about."
Alan Isaacman: Larry, thousands of people petition the Supreme Court, okay? Thousands.
Larry Flynt: Yeah, and our case is as good as any.
Alan Isaacman: Our case is better than most, you're missing my point, and that is they will never pick you. Because you're a nightmare. They're afraid if they let you in there, you're gonna wear a diaper, or throw oranges at the justices, and they should be, Larry, because in all the times you've gone to the court asking for help, you've never once demonstrated any respect for its institutions and procedures.
Jerry Falwell: What?
Roy Grutman: Yeah, Jerry, he's suing you.
Jerry Falwell: He's suing me? For heaven's sakes, on what grounds?
Roy Grutman: Well, you xeroxed his ad, and you sent it out in a million fundraiser letters.
Jerry Falwell: Yeah, so?
Roy Grutman: But you didn't get his permission. And that's copyright infringement.
Jerry Falwell: The depth of his depravity sickens me.

Cast

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