Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story

In spite of never having been a big fan of Larry Flynt or Hustler magazine, I did enjoy this documentary. It covers the history of the publication, the legal battles, censorship, Flynt's near-death experience via an assassin's bullets, Althea Flynt's suicide, and the evolution of pornography from Hustler's early days to the internet explosion.

Watching BACK ISSUES: THE HUSTLER MAGAZINE STORY was sort of like watching those old VH1's Behind The Music episodes. You know, like seeing all those aging, former rock stars that you never paid attention to when they were young and famous, and finding their life stories fascinating. Flynt seems to love being outrageous / offensive, and his antics make for a colorful, entertaining presentation...

I just saw this over the weekend, and quite enjoyed it, but I still can't somehow wonder if I would've enjoyed it more had I not already seen the 1996 film, Milos Forman's "The People Vs. Larry Flynt", which was basically a dramatization of most of the same events we see in this documentary-?? I gave the film an 8/10, but that rating was mostly meant for the movie by itself, separate from the previous film. To be honest, if I were to give this movie a rating having already seen PVLF, it would probably be more like a 6/10, only because I felt like I had already seen it to some degree. But overall, a good documentary, in spite of it falling flat a little bit here and there. And lots of great interviews from some well-known folks in the "jizz bizz" including Flynt himself, Ron Jeremy, Al Goldstein, Luke Ford, Amber Lynn, etc...

"Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story" is the definitive documentary on porn magazine Hustler, from its nightclub inception on through today, as it adapts to pornography in the 21st century. Director Michael Lee Nirenberg's father was one of the original art directors in the 1970s and 1980s.

What makes this so great is that it is not just a look at Larry Flynt, but also tackles Screw magazine and Al Goldstein. And it may surprise people that Hustler was more influenced by Screw than Penthouse or Playboy, which are the more widely-known magazines of the type.

And hearing the Flynt thinks Hefner would be more comfortable with Time magazine than Playboy? This is probably spot on, because Hefner is actually a rather conservative individual despite the obvious appearance to the contrary. And Penthouse was seen as art and was trying to be art? (Ron Jeremy actually backs this up, suggesting they were more like fashion models.)

This is just so incredible, beginning to end, and highlights a piece of 20th century history that has yet to fully be explored.