| Max Hardcore | |
| Birth Name: | Paul F. Little |
| Birth Date: | 10 August 1956 |
| Birth Place: | Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, California[1] |
| Alias: | Vince Hardcore, Paul Hardcore, Video Paul, Sam Smythe, Max Stein |
Paul F. Little (August 10, 1956 – March 27, 2023) was an American pornographic actor, producer, and director better known by his stage name Max Hardcore. He rose to prominence in 1992 with the film series The Anal Adventures of Max Hardcore,[2] which in 1994 was awarded the X-Rated Critics Organization's award for Best Amateur or Pro-Am series.[3] Former AVN writer, Gerrie Lim, has classified Hardcore's works as gonzo pornography and "testing the limits of acceptability".[4] He was a member of the X-Rated Critics Organization's Hall of Fame.[5] He spent two and a half years in prison (2009–2011), convicted in a trial for obscenity.
Max Hardcore's films generally consist of sexual acts executed by himself, with women, often porn industry newcomers who act like girls or their upset mothers.[6]
The sexual situations depicted in Max Hardcore's films frequently include acts such as urinating on his female co-stars, fisting them, or inserting specula into their anuses or vaginas and widening them to extreme degree.[7] There are also scenes wherein the actresses, at his direction, vomit or blow mucus into their mouths or on themselves, or drink urine from their anuses using a tube.[8] Films by Max Hardcore often depict their director and star inflicting apparent pain and humiliation on his co-stars.[9]
The treatment by Hardcore of his female co-stars has been described by several critics as occasionally abusive and the tone of Hardcore's work has been considered misogynistic.[10] [11] In 2004, the British documentary filmmaker Stephen Walker was able to prove in his Channel4 production "HARDCORE", in which he became an eyewitness to the practises of Max Hardcore on his own film set, that Max Hardcore's alleged "acting" of sadistic sexual conduct is not just a representation, but real and violent sexual abuse.[12]
Max Hardcore's films and alleged work methods reportedly made him relatively unpopular in the porn industry.[13]
Based on Max Extreme 4, the city of Los Angeles in 1998 charged him with child pornography and distribution of obscenity. That the actress was over the age of 18 was not disputed; charges were brought because the actress was portraying a character who was underage. Just before the case was brought to trial in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) that the statute prohibiting adults from portraying children in films and books was unconstitutional. Based on this ruling, the child pornography charges against Little were dismissed. The misdemeanor charge of distribution of obscenity was retained, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. An additional obscenity charge was subsequently levied against him by L.A., again resulting in a hung jury. Little commented after the trial that it "was a frivolous waste of public resources."[14]
On October 5, 2005, while Little was in Barcelona to attend an international FICEB Erotic Expo, the offices of Max World Entertainment were raided by the FBI. Five video titles and the office's computer servers were seized, ostensibly for research toward a federal obscenity indictment or a charge related to the record-keeping law (18 U.S.C. 2257).
After the FBI raid, Little released the following statement:
In 2007, Little and his company, Max World Entertainment, Inc., were indicted in Florida by the United States Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section with five counts of transporting obscene matter by use of an interactive computer service and five counts of mailing obscene matter, relating to five movies[15] [16] showing fisting, urination, and vomiting. Little was subsequently found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 46 months in prison.[17] [18] On appeal, the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, Georgia upheld the conviction, ruling that materials published online can be judged by local community standards in Florida even though Hardcore did not live there or produce the materials there.[19] Little began serving his sentence on January 29, 2009.[20] [21]
The jury ordered the internet domain www.MaxHardcore.com to be forfeited but declined to forfeit Little's house in Altadena, California.[17]
Little was originally assigned to the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, and then transferred to Federal Correctional Institution, La Tuna in Anthony, Texas, a low-security correctional facility for men. He served the final five months of his sentence under house arrest.[22]
After release, Little continued appearing in scenes, using a strap-on dildo in later years because his ability to perform was compromised as a result of prostate surgery in 2015.
Little died on March 27, 2023, at the age of 66.[23] According to his business partner, Little had finished chemotherapy for thyroid cancer when he was hospitalized with an infection in his throat that spread to other parts of his body, causing his organs to fail.
Little is a subject of the 1998 David Foster Wallace essay "Big Red Son", which analyzes the American pornographic industry of the 1990s.[25]
Little is interviewed in the 2023 web series Beyond Fantasy - Episode 3: "Hardcore".[26]