‘The People Vs. Larry Flynt’ & ‘The Crying Game’ — Two Controversial Classics New On 4K-UHD/Blu-ray

Two very different but groundbreaking films played the New York Film Festival in 1992 and 1996, respectively. Both received great critical acclaim. The Crying Game went on to box office success, six Academy Award nominations and one win. The People vs. Larry Flynt was stymied by a liberal-led smear campaign that destroyed it’s commercial prospects and led to only two Oscar nominations instead of the slew it deserved.

Both hold up really well today, especially the latter.

The People vs. Larry Flynt — 4K-UHD/Blu Ray — Arrow Video

Imagine a time when the Supreme Court was considered heroic and was not made up of a majority of President-appointed flunkies doing his bidding? A time when the highest court in the land actually had integrity and really gave a damn about the constitution and the rights of the American people? 

Two-time Oscar-winning director Miloš Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus) and producer Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July, JFK) warned us against taking our freedoms for granted 30 years ago in Forman’s brilliant, and unjustly attacked masterwork, The People vs. Larry Flynt, which Stone produced.

Bravo to Arrow Video for celebrating this film and delivering a fabulous disc that looks and sounds fantastic and is chock full of essential special features, both new and old.

I first rode this celluloid rollercoaster when it world premiered at the Closing Night screening of the 34th New York Film Festival, when I was in grad school in October of 1996. I was blown away! One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest changed my life. I was less excited about Amadeus. But two of his underrated films made lasting impressions, Hair and Ragtime. Still, I was unprepared for my over-the-moon reaction to Larry Flynt. After the screening, I knew it would be my favorite film of 1996 and would go on to win a slew of Oscars. I was wrong on both counts. While it remains one of favorites, and this latest viewing proves it, Breaking the Waves is at my #1 spot for 1996 (we film geeks keep lists). And Gloria Steinem and her misguided minions made sure the film was robbed of much Oscar attention (more on that later).

This bold, hilarious, wicked and savvy cinematic tapestry follows the enigmatic titular character (played magnificently by Woody Harrelson, who should have easily won the Oscar) from young Kentucky urchin making moonshine to struggling strip club owner, along with his brother Jimmy (a terrific Brett Harrelson, Woody’s brother), to lucrative “smut peddler” of Hustler magazine to (and this is the biggest surprise) courageous freedom fighter. Along the way he meets and falls in love with Althea Leasure (Courtney Love, glorious), finds Jesus, is shot and paralyzed from the waist down, loses Jesus, goes after Jerry Falwell, loses Althea to AIDS, but continues his fight for free expression, with the help of attorney Alan Isaacman (a fab Edward Norton, having a banner year with Primal Fear and Everyone Says I Love You). That’s a lot for a 2-hour 8-minute picture and Forman, along with amazing scribes Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood), keep things moving at a swift pace.

Upon it’s December release, the film picked up a slew of critics awards and was nominated for the five top Golden Globe Awards — picture, actor, actress, director and screenplay — winning in the latter two categories. 

The film was primed for Oscar love and good box office, performing well in limited release. All that changed when Steinem embarked on a crusade against the film, often making unfair comparisons and disregarding the darkly comedic aspect as well as Flynt’s fight for free speech. Both Forman and Harrelson, in interviews, are honest in their disgust. Harrelson: “(She) had no had no concept of what this movie was about and probably never saw it.”

It ended up with just two Academy Award nominations, Best Director and Best Actor for Harrelson. Love’s terrific performance (arguably supporting), the smart and satiric script and the film itself were unfairly snubbed. (Seriously, Shine and Jerry Maguire are better films? Seriously?) And it did moderate business at the box office.

Much of the controversy is discussed in the slew of special features assemble for the 4K-UHD/Blu-ray release including three new interviews— with Harrelson, ex-production president Lisa Henson & producer Janet Yang and Alexander & Karaszewski, all running about 30 minutes each in length. There are a bunch of archival features including a chat with cinematographer extraordinaire Philippe Rousselot (A River Runs Through It), Forman on The Charlie Rose Show (incorrectly dated on the disc as having aired July 2, 1997 when it was actually February 2, 1997), two archival featurettes including a terrific look at the making of this cinematic jewel and two fun deleted scenes, one where Larry actually ran for president. Another treat is the inclusion of the original script.

Forman lost his mother at Auschwitz. He rose to fame in Czechoslovakia, witnessing fascism first hand. He was initially apprehensive about even reading a script about a porn king and only did so as a favor to Stone. But once he did, he had to direct it. He recognized that Flynt was a man of many ambiguities and contradictions and that it was a “mind boggling paradox” that we owe a figure like him the victory in a landmark Supreme Court case that protects freedom of the press. Let’s hope it’s never revisited by this current court of (two-thirds) clowns.

The strongly orchestrated attacks on the film rightly bothered Forman and the director knew it would hurt the film’s Oscar chances. “These kinds of attacks smell foul to me,” he stated on Charlie Rose. And he went on to point out that it was the first time in the history of the Academy Awards that an anti-campaign was launched with full page ads that contained Steinem’s blasting the movie. But no one took responsibility for it.

The great irony was that those on the right, including Fallwell, got the film. It was the left that wanted to censor a movie that had the audacity to attack censorship.

Great films stand the test of time no matter how many misguided activists try to steer the public away from them. The People vs. Larry Flynt’s dire message that we never take our freedoms for granted could not be timelier–nor can the systematic movement to suppress it.

The People vs. Larry Flynt will be available on August 3, 2026.

https://www.arrowvideo.com/p/4k/the-people-vs.-larry-flynt-limited-edition-4k-uhd/17897664/

The Crying Game — 4K-UHD/Blu Ray — Criterion Collection

Another great film I first saw at the New York Film Festival a few years before TPVLF, in September of 1992, was Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game. All I really knew going into the screening was that we were urged not to give the movie’s shocking revelation away. My memory has me having already figured out the twist before the big reveal. True or not, the film still proved to be a stirring thriller that took narrative risks that paid off. A rewatch, courtesy of Criterion’s new, director-approved, digitally restored 4K disc, had me reexperiencing the cinematic joys to be had in this groundbreaking movie.

Writer-director Jordan (Mona Lisa, The Miracle) crafted an intelligent, complex story that explores desire, allegiance, love and identity. The film opens with the kidnapping of Jody (Forest Whitaker), a young Black British soldier, by members of the IRA , in hopes of swapping him for one of their imprisoned men. Jody is woo’d and then screwed, by Jude (Miranda Richardson), a rather nasty militant. Fergus (Stephen Rea) is the tentative member in charge of watching Jody. Suffice to say, the two men bond and Jody asks Fergus to look up, and look after, his lover, Dil (Jaye Davidson) in the likely event that he is murdered. Fergus keeps his promise and the rest of the plot revolves around the Fergus/Dil relationship, as the IRA start to circle around them.

The cast is terrific with Richardson, fiery and ferocious. She would be Oscar-nominated that same year but for her role as Jeremy Iron’s scorned wife in Louis Malle’s engrossing Damage. Whitaker, fresh off Clint Eastwood’s Bird for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, is heartbreaking. 

Rea had only a few credits, including two other Jordan films, Angel and The Company of Wolves. The Crying Game would solidify his career as a major film and TV actor.

This was Davidson’s debut feature. He never had any intention of acting and made only one other film, the sci-fi mess Stargate, where he insisted on being paid $1 million. The Out actor disliked the spotlight and retired from the profession.

The movie had quite the stress-filled, topsy-turvy journey with finances a constant concern. Many of the plot elements turned off investor (sympathy for an IRA terrorist, girlfriend turns out to have a penis, etc.). The film had trouble finding an audience in the UK, but was then picked up for U.S. distribution by Miramax, and became an international sensation and commercial sucess in the U.S. and Canada.

The Crying Game has the (arguable) dubious distinction of being among the first major Miramax/Weinstein Oscar campaigns that led to multiple nominations. My Left Foot (1989) was the first successful push, securing 5 nominations including Best Picture and Director and winning for Lead Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Supporting Actress (Brenda Fricker). The Crying Game received six noms including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Lead Actor (Rea), Supporting Actor (Davidson) and Film Editing. It won the screenplay award, which Jordan saw as “a consolation prize.”

The Criterion 4K-UHD/Blu-ray Special Edition, restored from the original 35mm camera negative, is flawless in its look and sound. 

Extras include brand new, separate chats with Jordan and Rea as well as an audio commentary by Jordan, from 2005, and a solid ‘making of’ feature that contains interviews with Jordan, Rea and producer Stephen Woolley. Finally, an ill-advised alternate ending that was required to secure final funding, but did not work (for many reasons), is also included. 

The Crying Game didn’t feel the necessity to overly explore gender and sexual identity. It’s a film about empathy and forgiveness—a movie that examines the worst and best in humanity.

https://www.criterion.com/films/33812-the-crying-game?srsltid=AfmBOop5Ky_OyiV-BoQVHVIRSZC4xiArJ1Nz4UVukE0Fen7LI-QD7821