A Portrait Of Molly Ivins, Maverick Texas Journalist, In 'Raise Hell'

Today, it's almost hard to remember just how different the Texas government was back in the 1970s. That's when Molly Ivins scorched a trail through good-ol'-boy politics like a flamethrower through a cactus patch.

"The legislature was fairly corrupt in those days," she said to NPR in 2006. "And the fact that it was, and that everybody knew it, and that people laughed about it, struck me as worth reporting. And I thought: Why not put it in the way it is?"

That simple but radical idea set Ivins' writing apart all her days. And a dozen years after her death of breast cancer in 2007, there's a new documentary about the liberal Texas columnist, speaker and political gadfly. Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins is opening around the country.

In an interview not long before she died, Ivins recounted her life and career.

"Being tall helped — being 6 feet tall," she said. "You know, nobody ever looked at me and said, 'Oh, you poor, sweet, dainty, fragile little thing — we couldn't possibly send you out to cover a fire.' It was always, 'Ivins, get your ass out there!' "