The People vs. Larry Flynt is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman about the rise of pornographic magazine publisher and editor Larry Flynt, and his subsequent clash with the law. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton.

The film was written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. It spans about 25 years of Flynt's life from his impoverished upbringing in Kentucky to his court battle with Reverend Jerry Falwell, and is based in part on the U.S. Supreme Court case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell. The film grossed just over $20.3 million domestically with a budget of $35 million.

The film opens with a 10-year-old Larry Flynt (Cody Block) in 1953, as selling moonshine in an Appalachian region of Kentucky. The narrative then advances 20 years. Flynt (Woody Harrelson) and his younger brother, Jimmy (played by Brett Harrelson, Woody's younger brother) run a Hustler Go-Go club in Cincinnati. With profits down, Flynt decides to publish a "newsletter" for the club - the first Hustler magazine, full of nude pictures of women working at the club, in the hopes of attracting customers. The newsletter soon becomes a full-fledged magazine, but sales are weak. It's only after Hustler publishes nude pictures of former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis that sales take off, partially due to all the publicity surrounding the photos.

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

LFP mainly produces sexually graphic videos and magazines, most notably Hustler. Flynt has fought several prominent legal battles involving the First Amendment, and has unsuccessfully run for public office. He is paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 assassination attempt.

Flynt was born in Lakeville, Magoffin County, Kentucky, the first of three children to 23-year-old Larry Claxton Flynt, Sr. (August 16, 1919 – July 1, 2005), a sharecropper and a World War II veteran, and 17-year-old Edith (née Arnett; August 13, 1925 – March 29, 1982), a homemaker. He had two younger siblings; sister Judy (1947–1951) and brother Jimmy Ray (born June 20, 1948). His father served in the United States Army in the European Theatre of World War II. Due to his father's absence, Larry was raised solely by his mother and maternal grandmother for the first three years of his life. Flynt was raised in poverty, and claimed Magoffin County was the poorest county in the nation during the Great Depression. In 1951, Flynt's sister, Judy, died due to leukemia at age four. The death provoked his parents' divorce one year later, and Larry was raised by his mother in Hamlet, Indiana, and his brother, Jimmy, was raised by his maternal grandmother in Magoffin County. Two years later, Larry returned to live in Magoffin County with his father, because he disliked his mother's new boyfriend.

Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor.

Harrelson's breakout role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd. Some notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin, serial killer Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, magazine publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion, bounty hunter Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, zombie killer Tallahassee in Zombieland, blind piano player/meat salesman Ezra Turner in Seven Pounds, conspiracy nut Charlie Frost in 2012, a delusional man who believes that he is a superhero named Defendor in Defendor and Cpt. Tony Stone in The Messenger. For The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. He also appeared as Haymitch in the film The Hunger Games, which was released on March 23, 2012.

Burt Neuborne is a nationally renowned civil liberties defender. Professor Neuborne has acted as lead counsel in the recent Holocaust Litigation against the Swiss Banks. A former National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, he is currently on the faculty of New York University School of Law and Legal Director of the Brennan Center for Justice. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School from which he received an LL.B in 1964. Neuborne has been called a defender of lost causes. He defended Air Force pilots who refused to bomb Cambodia in the Vietnam War, the Socialist Labor Party's effort to be on the ballot and legal-aid lawyers suing the government.

In 1998 Neuborne won a $1.25 billion settlement for Jewish Holocaust survivors in a lawsuit against Swiss banks who helped the Nazis steal money from Jewish victims. After undertaking the initial litigation pro bono, Neuborne gave notice that he intended to be paid for his work on the settlement. He applied for $4.1 million in fees for "8,000 hours over the past seven years" of work he did in the settlement against the banks. Some Holocaust survivor organizations in the United States filed an objection to Neuborne's claim. The editorial board of the New York Times admonished Neuborne, stating, "The dollar amounts are troubling and so are the slipshod hourly records that Mr. Neuborne submitted," and criticizing his $700 hourly rate as "unseemly" and more suited to corporate clients. The Times also criticized the survivors for expecting "arduous, complicated legal work without pay." When asked about the controversy, Neuborne said, "At the end of my career, to have to listen to people say, 'You lied to us, you cheated, you did this to us!'...it hurts, especially since they are survivors."

Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later, his lead role as a reformed white power skinhead in American History X earned a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor. His other films include period dramas such as Kingdom of Heaven (2005), in which he played King Baldwin, The Illusionist (2006), and The Painted Veil (2006); and other notable films such as Rounders (1998), Fight Club (1999), 25th Hour (2002), Red Dragon (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008).

In addition to acting, Norton is also a writer and director. He made his directorial debut with the film Keeping the Faith (2000) and is slated to direct the film adaptation of the novel Motherless Brooklyn. Norton did uncredited work on the scripts for The Score, Frida, and The Incredible Hulk.

In his private life, Norton is an environmental and social activist. He is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing, founded by his grandfather, James Rouse. Norton is president of the American branch of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. He ran in the 2009 New York City Marathon to raise money for the Trust. He also raises money for charity through Crowdrise, a social networking community for volunteers and a micro-donations fundraising platform. In July 2010, Norton was designated as the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.