Lawless is a 2012 American western gangster film directed by John Hillcoat. The screenplay by Nick Cave is based on the historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008) by Matt Bondurant. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce. Lawless centers on the brothers Jack, Forrest and Howard Bondurant, who sold moonshine in Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition in the United States. The film was in development for about three years before it was produced. It screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on August 29, 2012.

Plot

In 1931, the Bondurant brothers—Forrest, Howard and Jack—are running a successful moonshine business in Franklin County, Virginia, with the help of their friend, Cricket Pate, using their gas station as a front for their illegal activities. One day, Jack witnesses mobster Floyd Banner shooting a competitor and they exchange looks before Jack returns to the station, where Forrest hires Maggie Beauford, a dancer from Chicago, to be their new waitress. Shortly afterwards, the gas station is visited by newly-arrived Special Deputy Charley Rakes, on behalf of the Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Mason Wardell, who informs Forrest that he wants a cut of all profit made by the county's bootleggers. Forrest refuses and threatens to kill Rakes if he returns. Forrest later meets with the other bootleggers and convinces them to stand up to Rakes as well, though they eventually give in to Rakes' intimidation tactics.

Meanwhile, Jack meets Bertha Minnix, daughter of the local Brethren preacher. He attends their church drunk and makes a fool of himself, causing Bertha's father to forbid her from seeing him, which only makes her more interested in Jack. Jack later finds Rakes raiding Cricket's house in search of his distillation equipment, and Rakes brutally beats Jack to send a message to his brothers. Forrest learns of this and tells Jack that he needs to learn how to fight for himself. Forrest and Howard arrange to meet with potential clients from Chicago, but Howard gets drunk with a friend and misses the appointment. Forrest ends up beating the two men with Cricket's help when they harass Maggie. Later, after Cricket leaves, the men return, slash Forrest's throat, and rape Maggie.

While Forrest recovers at a hospital, Jack decides to travel to Chicago with Cricket to sell their remaining liquor. Arriving there, they are doublecrossed by their clients but are rescued by Banner, who recognizes Jack. Banner already knows of the attack on Forrest, as well as the identities of the two assailants; he provides Jack with their address and advises Jack that they are working for Rakes. Forrest and Howard later find, torture, and kill the men to send a message to Rakes. Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who move their distillation equipment to the woods and have great profit. The money allows Jack to continue courting Bertha, while Forrest begins a relationship with Maggie after she moves into the station for her safety, though she does not tell him she was raped. Jack eventually decides to show Bertha the distillation center, but they are ambushed by Rakes and his men, who had followed them. Howard and Jack are forced to flee from Rakes's men with Bertha and Cricket, however Cricket is later recaptured and murdered by Rakes.

Wanting revenge for Cricket's death, Jack goes to confront Rakes and his men at a roadblock at a local bridge. Howard follows after him, rallying the bootleggers to come to their aid. Forrest joins them, though Maggie tries to dissuade him, telling him that it was she who had found him with his throat slashed and took him to the hospital. Forrest realizes then that she was also attacked that night, though Maggie does not say so. The bootleggers engage Rakes' men in a firefight, during which Rakes shoots Forrest multiple times before being shot in the leg and attempting to escape. Jack and Howard confront Rakes, shooting him in the chest with a gun, and stabbing him in the back with a knife to his death. With Rakes and his men dead, the Bondurants decide to save their money and retire after Prohibition ends. By November 1940, Jack has married Bertha, Forrest has married Maggie, and Howard has married a local woman, all having children. During a reunion at Jack's house, Forrest walks to a frozen lake and falls into the freezing water, and later dies from pneumonia.

Cast

• Shia LaBeouf as Jack Bondurant
• Tom Hardy as Forrest Bondurant
• Jason Clarke as Howard Bondurant
• Guy Pearce as Charlie Rakes
• Jessica Chastain as Maggie Beauford
• Mia Wasikowska as Bertha Minnix
• Dane DeHaan as Cricket Pate
• Chris McGarry as Danny
• Tim Tolin as Mason Wardell
• Gary Oldman as Floyd Banner
• Lew Temple as Deputy Henry Abshire
• Marcus Hester as Deputy Jeff Richards
• Bill Camp as Sheriff Hodges
• Alex Van as Tizwell Minnix
• Noah Taylor as Gummy Walsh

Production

Writer Matt Bondurant wrote the historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008), based on the Prohibition-era bootlegging activities of his grandfather Jack Bondurant and his grand-uncles Forrest and Howard. Producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher optioned the book in 2008 and sent it to director John Hillcoat.^[4] Hillcoat later commented, "[Bootlegging] sort of drew [the Bondurants] into this crazy kind of world of corruption and lawlessness ironically, but then mostly they survived, they got through it all and actually went on to have businesses and children. And traditionally the gangster film teaches us that we've got to pay for our sins. Usually the gangster is shot down in a blaze of glory and doesn't get up again." Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave, who had worked together on the Western film The Proposition (2005), were attracted to the story by the success of the Bondurants. Hillcoat also said, "we also loved the idea that it sort of touched on the whole immortality that a lot of these guys start to feel when they do survive so many strange experiences."^[5]

The first actor to be cast was Shia LaBeouf, as Jack, the youngest Bondurant brother. James Franco was attached to play Howard and Ryan Gosling was attached to play Forrest; Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson were also attached to the project.^[4] Originally titled The Wettest County in The World, the film's title was changed to The Promised Land.^[6][7] Although intended to begin shooting in February 2010,^[8] it was reported in January that the project had fallen apart as a result of financing problems.^[7] Only LaBeouf remained with the project. He said that after he saw Bronson (2008), "I went home and wrote Tom a letter saying I was a fan. He sent me a script, and I sent him Lawless. He called me back and said, 'This is fucking amazing.'"^[4] Cinematographer Benoît Delhomme recommended Jessica Chastain to Hillcoat. Chastain said, "I am a big fan of The Proposition. I hadn't even read the script, but I told [Hillcoat], 'If you cast me, I'll do it.' I approach every role in terms of: 'Have I done this before? Is it something I'm repeating?' Lawless offered a new opportunity."^[4] Hardy and Chastain were reported to have joined the project in December 2010,^[9][10] by which time the project had found financing from Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Pictures and Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures.^[10] Jason Clarke and Dane DeHaan were cast in January 2011.^[11][12] Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, and Mia Wasikowska joined the cast in February 2011.^[13]

According to Cave, "a lot of the truly brutal stuff did not make it through into the film. In the book, you get lulled by the beautiful lyricism of the writing, then suddenly you are slapped in the face by a graphic description of a killing. I tried to be true to that as much as I could."^[14] He also said the filmmakers "tried to stay as true to the original story as possible", adding "we kind of changed aspects of the personality and temperament of Rakes to get [Pearce] involved."^[15] Before Pearce's casting, "Rakes, the character Rakes, was very much like the character in the book. He was a nasty country cop. We made him a city cop, gave him his disturbed sexuality and all the rest of it," Cave said.^[16] Pearce created the hairstyle worn by Rakes in the film.^[16]

Lawless was filmed early 2011 in various locations near Atlanta, Georgia, including Newnan, Grantville, Haralson, LaGrange, Carroll County's McIntosh Park, and the Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge near Gay.^[17][18][19] The cast lived in apartments in Peachtree City for three months during production,^[20] and Hillcoat screened dailies for the cast every weekend.^[21] Hillcoat and Delhomme consulted with cinematographers Roger Deakins and Harris Savides on digital cinematography. They chose to use the Arri Alexa digital camera system for Lawless, and Delhomme always used two cameras during filming.^[21] In March 2011, Momentum Pictures and its parent company Alliance Films acquired the U.K. and Canadian distribution rights.^[22] In May 2011, the Weinstein Company bought the U.S. distribution rights, with plans for a wide release.^[23] In March 2012, the title was changed to Lawless.^[24]

Cave scored the film with Warren Ellis.^[25] Cave said

What we didn't want to do is do an Americana soundtrack in the sense that we didn't want to do the kind of top-shelf. [...] We wanted to make this music ourselves. And what I mean by "ourselves" is we actually play it—me and Warren and a couple of musicians that we know, even though we don't know anything about bluegrass music or our bluegrass chops are pretty limited. And in that way we could get something that was very raw and brutal and punky, and that's what we were really aiming at rather than doing something that was more respectful of the genre. We were determined to take these songs and do them in our own way.^[15]

Release

Lawless screened In Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on May 19 and received a nearly 10-minute standing ovation.^[26] The film was theatrically released in the U.S. on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, as The Weinstein Company hoped that good word of mouth would be built up for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.^[27] Audiences polled by the market research firm CinemaScore gave Lawless a B+ grade on average.^[27]

Reception

Critical response

Reviews of Lawless have been mixed to positive. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "fresh" rating of 67% based on reviews from 165 critics, and reports a rating average of 6.4 out of 10, with the consensus, "Grim, bloody, and utterly flawed, Lawless doesn't quite achieve the epic status it strains for, but it's too beautifully filmed and powerfully acted to dismiss."^[28] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 58% based on 38 reviews.^[29]

Cannes

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "If Lawless doesn't achieve the mythic dimensions of the truly great outlaw and gangster movies, it is a highly entertaining tale set in a vivid milieu, told with style and populated by a terrific ensemble. For those of us who are suckers for blood-soaked American crime sagas from that era, those merits will be plenty."^[30] Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club gave the film a B− grade, calling it "a thoroughly familiar—but flavorful and rousing—shoot-'em-up set among Prohibition bootleggers. [...] If you've seen even a handful of Tommy-gun movies, however, everything that happens here will feel preordained".^[31] Richard Corliss of Time magazine wrote, "much of the picture has a fossilized feeling; it could be a diorama under glass at the Museum of Nasty People. As a serious film worthy of the Cannes Competition, Lawless tries to be flawless; as a movie, it's often listless—lifeless."^[32] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 2 stars out of 5, writing, "it's basically a smug, empty exercise in macho-sentimental violence in which we are apparently expected to root for the lovable good ol' boys, as they mumble, shoot, punch and stab. Our heroes manage to ensnare the affections of preposterously exquisite young women, and the final flurry of self-adoring nostalgia is borderline-nauseating."^[33]

Theatrical release

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave Lawless a B grade, writing, "Hardy's presence is compelling, but the film comes fully alive only when it turns bloody. At those moments, though, it has the kick of a mule."^[34] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also praised Hardy's performance, and concluded, "The filmmakers detail a long-gone conflict from a long-lost era and end up showing how the dreams and longings that motivate Americans never really change."^[35] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, writing, "Lawless is a solid outlaw adventure, but you can feel it straining for a greatness that stays out of reach. There's even a prologue and an epilogue, arty tropes signifying an attempt to make a Godfather-style epic out of these moonshine wars. Not happening."^[36] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, writing, "I can only admire this film's craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them. Its characters live by a barbaric code that countenances murder. They live or die in a relentless hail of gunfire. It's not so much that the movie is too long, as that too many people must be killed before it can end."^[37]

Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 2 stars out of 4, writing, "Anachronistic moments, stilted dialogue and formulaic characters hamper this intermittently involving tale", concluding, "The unflinching slicing and dicing is viscerally brutal, but without sufficient character development Lawless simply feels lifeless."^[38] David Edelstein of New York magazine wrote, "The mixture of arthouse pacing and shocking gore seems to convince a lot of people that they’re seeing a mythic depiction of the outlaw way of existence. I saw a standard revenge picture played at half-speed."^[39] Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times felt that the film was clichéd, writing that it "turns the Virginia hills of the early 1930s into just another backdrop for a clockwork succession of perfunctorily filmed showdowns and shootouts."^[40] A. O. Scott of The New York Times similarly wrote, "There are too many action-movie clichés without enough dramatic purpose, and interesting themes and anecdotes are scattered around without being fully explored. This is weak and cloudy moonshine: it doesn't burn or intoxicate."^[41]

Accolades

Soundtrack

A soundtrack for the film was released on August 28, 2012:^[44]

References

External links

• Official website
• Lawless at the Internet Movie Database
• Lawless at AllRovi
• Lawless at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lawless at Metacritic
• Lawless at Box Office Mojo