Lawless

Plot synopsis:
In 1931, the Bondurant brothers — Forrest, Howard, and Jack — are running a successful moonshine business in the Piedmont region of Virginia. The brothers use their gas station and restaurant as a front for their illegal manufacturing business with the assistance of Jack's disabled friend and engineer, Cricket. Jack witnesses infamous mobster Floyd Banner shoot dead a rival in broad daylight.
Jack returns to the gas station, where Forrest hires dancer Maggie as a waitress. Shortly afterward, the gas station is visited by newly arrived U.S. Marshal Charley Rakes, accompanied by the Virginia state's attorney Mason Wardell, the sheriff, and the sheriff's deputy. Rakes demands a cut of profits from all bootleggers within the county, including Forrest, who refuses and threatens to kill Rakes if he returns. Forrest implores his fellow bootleggers to unite against Rakes, but they refuse.
Meanwhile, Jack lusts after Bertha, daughter of the local Brethren preacher. He attends their church service drunk, embarrassing himself but piquing her interest. Jack walks in on a visit from Rakes to Cricket's house, and is beaten by him as a message to his brothers. That night, Forrest beats and throws out two customers who had been harassing and threatening Maggie. After Maggie resigns and leaves, Forrest is ambushed by the two men, who slit his throat. Maggie returns looking for Forrest but is beaten and raped by the men. She decides to keep the assault from Forrest.
While Forrest recovers at a hospital, Jack decides to cross the county line with Cricket to sell their remaining liquor. They too are ambushed by the mobsters, led by Banner, but are spared when Jack reveals he is a Bondurant, whom Banner admires for their stance against Rakes. Banner reveals to Jack the address of his brother's assailants, who were previous employees of his and currently work for Rakes.
Forrest and Howard later find, torture and kill the men and send one of their testicles to Rakes. Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who have expanded their operation with multiple large stills deep in the woods, increasing its profitability. Jack continues to court Bertha. Maggie decides to return to Chicago, but Forrest convinces her to stay and provides her with a spare room. They develop a romantic relationship. On a day trip, Jack decides to show Bertha the brothers' secret operation, but they are followed and ambushed by Rakes and his men. Howard, Jack, Cricket and Bertha all flee. The police take Bertha home but leave Cricket to Rakes, who murders him.
After Cricket's funeral, the sheriff of Franklin County warns the Bondurants that Rakes and his men are blockading the bridge out of town, with Wardell calling in Prohibition agents to shut down the county's moonshine businesses. Jack speeds off in Cricket's car to confront Rakes. Howard and Forrest quickly follow to provide backup for Jack, to Maggie's chagrin. She reveals she had delivered him to hospital after the attack and Forrest deduces that she had been assaulted as well. Jack arrives at the bridge but is wounded by Rakes. Howard and Forrest arrive and a shootout ensues, with Forrest and his driver also shot by Rakes. A large convoy of bootleggers then join the shootout on the brothers' side. Rakes is about to finish off the wounded Forrest but is shot in the leg by Sheriff Hodges in an effort to halt the bloodshed. Rakes shoots Forrest several more times before trying to escape. Jack and Howard confront Rakes and execute him together.
Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, Wardell is arrested on corruption charges while the Bondurants are all married — Jack to Bertha, Forrest to Maggie, and Howard to a Martinville woman — and working in legitimate occupations. During a festive reunion at Jack's house, Forrest drunkenly ambles to a frozen lake and falls into the freezing water. Although he drags himself out, he later dies of pneumonia, putting to rest the legend of his invincibility.

Tags: boring, depressing, murder, dramatic, violence, revenge

Review:
Then they mightily praise Oldman and Pearce for great acting when they were, in fact, just playing northern urban gangsters who like to behave over the top---the very thing that disgusts southern sensibilities.The folks making those review comments have probably spent too much time watching movies based on comic books and not enough time with dramatic characters representing actual human beings.
Lawless is the story of the three Bondurant brothers from Franklin County, Virginia, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, and the runt of the litter Shia LaBoeuf.
It seems like such a waste, it would have been interesting to see his character included in the plot a lot more.Overall this film was fantastic but there was a few things that director John Hillcoat could have improved that would have made this film truly brilliant, such as giving more characters some crucial screen time.
The novel was adapted for cinema by Australian alternative rock icon Nick Cave.The story concerns how the Bondurant's once cozy relationship with sympathetic rural police is changed by the arrival of a corrupt Chicago law enforcement officer, Charlie Rakes (played by Australian Guy Pearce), who wants a cut of the Bondurant's illegal liquor business.
Tom Hardy's take on Forrest Bondurant incorporates many big cat like purrs, which also amuse.Set in America's South, you mostly hear Southern drawls, so if Cave's screenplay is any good, you will miss a chunk of it unless you can decipher the more unintelligible dialogue in this movie...which I couldn't, but I understood enough of it not to lose the plot.
That said you are still left with the impression Hillcoat is trying a bit too hard to make the film be a massive box office success and one wishes he'd stuck to his guns and made a movie involving a lot more dubious morality and nihilism that the director had done in GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD , THE PROPOSITION and THE ROAD.
Based on a true story, this movie follows 3 brothers as they fight for their position and respect in the illegal business.Few actors bring a high level of intensity to the character they play as Tom Hardy does and for his role as Forrest Bondurant, it's no let down.
Lawless has a great cast - Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce.
There are some fantastic actors in this film who all show their versatility and most notable for me was Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf who did an amazing job of making their characters real to the audience and made you really care for them.
The acting was wooden (except for Guy Pearce who was more like a cartoon character), it was stop-and-go pacing meaning that there were too many pointless scenes, and it took too much time for too little information.
And I don't think that it is a movie that I will ever sit down to watch a second time.The story is about the Bondurant brothers who run a very lucrative moonshine business.
The three brothers: Jack (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke); were legendary in their parts of Virginia, and also one of the few groups left not selling their wares through a higher authority.
Nick Cave's score works very well with the visuals and ads to the prohibition-hillbilly feel of the film.I was never bored while watching Lawless and it looked great and was wonderfully acted by Hardy in particular, but it sometimes feels as though there are too many characters vying for too little screen time.
He's just not that good...he cannot carry a movie, he just does not have the presence.This was a formulaic flick with very little you haven't seen before (other than the repeated use of knuckledusters); characters appear to fill roles that are needed to broaden the story.Jessica Chastain plays one of those roles; for us, she was one reason to see it (she was brilliant in The Help).
"Lawless" is based on the true story of the Bondurant Brothers, Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke), and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) , a Prohibition era Virginia bootlegging family that finds themselves involved in a violent, bloody feud with a sadistic, crocked State law enforcement official, Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce).
Overall it is a compelling drama based on a book.The Good: Tom Hardy as Forrest, the eldest brother, is the star of this movie.
This all changes when a Deputy called Rakes(Guy Pearce) comes to the county with the promise of bringing the brothers business to it's knee's.Tom Hardy is amazing as Forrest Bondurant and once again delivers a fantastic performance.
Set in the late 1920's story of three brothers(Tom Hardy,Jason Clarke, Shia Labeouf) run a bootlegging business in a small town, but things get really dangerous when a special agent(Guy Pearce) tries to muscle in on them, and he does not care who he hurts or kills to do it.
Shia Labeouf really surprised me here on how good his performance was, usually in all his films, it is like he is playing the same character, but not here.
Also considered a gangster film, Lawless is still a good movie with pretty much stellar performances from every cast member.
Little character development, a thin story thread, and dialog that sounds like it could have been written by a pro wrestler in five minutes; this movie really only focuses on the violence aspect.Some Prohibition era bootleggers are running amok in the backwoods someplace, and there's (not again) local law enforcement corruption, complete with dullard cops looking the other way.
It stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan and Gary Oldman.
Music is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and cinematography by Benoit Delhomme.Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, and a bootlegging gang of brothers is threatened by a sadistic new special deputy who will stop at nothing to smash their operation.The directing and writing team behind 2005's excellent Aussie Western, The Proposition, gather again to produce this bloody tale of the real life Bondurant brothers who stood up and fought the law on their own terms.
The runtime is also overlong.The film has humor, a great use of violence, and some interesting characters.Pro: Interesting story and characters, good acting, an amazing performance by Tom Hardy, a great ending, some fast pacing in the beginning and end, and seeing Jessica Chastain nakedCons: Poor performance by Shia LaBeouf and Guy Pearce, slow pacing during the second act, and an overlong runtime.
Unfortunately, a combination of a confusing soundtrack, excessive violence and a dash of overacting diverts our attention from the main plot.The focus of the movie is young Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf) and his struggle to get into the family business while earning some respect from his brothers Forest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke).
It seems minor, but it all adds up and by the end of the movie it's just annoying.Overall, this film could have been put together more effectively, but overall Hillcoat did a pretty good job making a prohibition era love story action movie.
To me, the detestable federal agent Charlie Rakes is not less authentic than the noble federal agent Eliot Ness from "The Untouchables".Instead of chasing the formidable, powerful and extremely hard to catch villains like Al Capone, Charlie Rakes focuses on a seemingly easy target – the Bondurant brothers – mere rural moonshiners Forrest (Tom Hardy, Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf).
The brothers finally got a worthy archenemy to test the validity of their bold legend.Yet other critics were noticed condescendingly smirking at the female movie characters - Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a dancer from Chicago and Forrest Bondurant's darling and Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local preacher and Jack Bondurant's sweetheart.Not being able to find any faults in the Jessica Chastain's and Mia Wasikowska's superb performances, the critics venomously remarked that the gifted actresses were regrettably constrained by their formulaic characters - "love interests" of the respective Bondurant brothers.Let me remind to these critics that the events of the movie take place in Prohibition era (almost a century ago) in the rural Franklin County,Virginia and represent the bloody ruthless confrontation between the local bootleggers and the federal special agent.Now, let me ask the critics a question: "What role, other than the love interest, do you with your undoubtedly sophisticated minds see for the female characters in this movie?" Do you want them to zealously participate in the fistfights, knifing, and fire exchanges along with the men just like the CIA agent Evelyn Salt?
Some of the scenes, including the well-made scenes with the famous mobster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman in a memorable performance) should probably have been edited out as overall insignificant and unnecessary.Not without faults, "Lawless" nevertheless boasts solid screenplay, strong directing, a beautiful cinematography (Benoît Delhomme), excellent casting (Francine Maisler), memorable acting ( Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman and the rest of the acting crew), and last but not least – excellent original music score (Nick Cave, Warren Ellis).Most importantly, "Lawless" is an engaging, masterfully and honestly told story.
Tom Hardy brings out another terrific performance as Forrest, the middle brother, Shia LaBeouf gives what could be his strongest performance yet as the youngest and Jason Clarke as the oldest brother is great but doesn't get the screen time, which is a shame since he brought his character to life with such energy, I wanted to know more about him.
The characters are brilliantly executed with great performances by a very stoic Tom Hardy (who does perhaps the best southern accent in a film), Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, (in a small role) Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, an extremely menacing Guy Pearce and yes even though he does not have much credit as far as acting skills go Shia LeBeouf has them and delivers a fine performance here (accent and all) which is needed for the weight of his role.The southern charm (portrayed excellently through period costumes, production design and period sounding music by Nick Cave (who I might add wrote the screenplay)) gives "Lawless" a very authentic and likable vibe.
This time, Hillcoat allies with his old pal Nick Cave (who is billed as the screenwriter and unsurprisingly co-writes the original music with Warren Ellis), and musters a pack of red-hot Hollywood names (from his third-time collaborator and fellow countryman Guy Pearce, to the Hollywood new talent Jessica, Mia, Tom and of course, Shia, until a career-revived Gary Oldman), the star power is dazzling and the film is carried out in a compelling way to some extent one would be carried away by the narrative and put the based-on-a-true-story tag out of mind (save for the moderately disappointing coda).
Tom Hardy is perfect as the reserved, cool and frighteningly twisted Forrest Bondurant, Gary Oldman, who given his billing I expected to be a second bad guy, hardly featured, but when he did he added a new dimension to the film, a view into the big bad gangsters in the city from the outside, which is not a perspective we are used to seeing.Guy Pearce is hateful, perverse and everything a truly bad guy should be, he had no redeeming features and you were not endeared to him in any way, you wanted him to be killed from the first moment he stepped on screen.
Shia Le Bouef was a little better than his usual 1 dimensional acting will allow but he was still playing the part he plays best, weedy good guy with a heart, his love stories were a bit cheesy but he provided a lot of the humour in the film, The rest of the supporting cast is perfect such that you leave not knowing who the star was, and not caring how many big actors were cast in the film.The expression that sprang to mind was a modern day Scarface, brutal, vicious and starkly revealing, giving a unique perspective from the countryside and not shying away from any perversion or violence but each element pulled perfectly into a film which tells a story which draws you in and surprises you from start to finish.
In this gangster's paradise, knuckleduster-enthusiast Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) leads his two loyal brothers, Jack and Howard (Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke), in sustaining their moonshine racket.
The latest film Lawless isn't so much a straight mobster film, but more moonshine runners that have to deal with some aspects of gangsters and the law giving the potential to deliver to the genre that's sorely missed.Lawless follows the true story of the infamous Bondurant brothers who were moon shiners during Prohibition-era in Virginia, whose loyalty are put to the test against the backdrop of the nation's crime wave.
He does an alright job for the most part but he does not have the charisma or screen presence to be the lead of the film (especially not when he has to go toe to toe with actors like Guy Pearce, Tom Hardy, and Gary Oldman) he also doesn't know how to do a southern accent properly or consistently (to be fair Hardy also has trouble with this)There are individual great scenes in this film.
Lawless is a great movie with a well written and very well developed storyline,a very talented cast and very good character development.The movie is based on a true story,which I found to be a very interesting and fun way to learn about how people loved during the Great Depression,as we follow these men making great money with high quality moonshine.Shia LaBeouf,Jessica Chastain and Guy Pearce all bring fantastic performances,among many others ,but the best performance has to go to Tom Hardy,his character Forrest was the most likable and he pulls off a really great accent and was clearly inspired to play this character.I would highly recommend Lawless to fans of both crime and drama films.Set towards the end of the Great Depression,a gang of men producing high quality moonshine are out under huge pressure when many people want to get their hands on this product..
Set in 1931 Virginia, this film stars Shia Labeouf as Jack Bondurant, a timid young man who runs an illegal bootlegging operation with his brothers Forrest (played by Tom Hardy) and Howard (played by Jason Clarke).
Jessica Chastain who plays their waitress is effectively charming as is Mia Wasikowska as the rebellious daughter of a church minister and later becomes the lover of Shia LaBeouf's character; nothing in the performance department to disappoint.Lawless may not be as powerful and enthralling as the critically crime-dramas of today, but is very engaging and entertaining experience with decent performances, a visceral outlaw story, and the fine script that works just fine.
Filled with superb direction,great performances and memorable characters Lawless is very underrated.Lawless tells the true(although probably fictionalized)story of the Bondurant brothers Jack Bondurant(Shia LaBeouf)and his older brothers Forrest Bondurant(Tom Hardy)and Howard Bondurant(Jason Clarke) who sell illegal liquor during Prohibition in Franklin County,Virginia during the depression era and having great success.
But when a corrupt lawman from Chicago named Charlie Rakes(Guy Pierce) has been brought in as a new special deputy to make life tough for the Bondurants and their business,the Bondurants must band together and put a stop to it.Lawless is a great film from beginning to end that will have you glued to the screen and the reasons the film works so well is because of the way it combines the Gangster and Western film,the portrayal of the Bondurants and brutality of the violence in the film.
Three brothers, Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), and Howard Bondurant (Jason Clarke), watch each others backs as the crooked law tries to move in on them.
"Lawless" is a film based on the true story of the Bondurant brothers whose moonshine business is threatened..
However the acting really helped to drive the time period home.The three Bondurant brothers were portrayed by Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke and Shia LaBoeuf.
And just as he did in The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy comes off with another brilliant performance as Forrest Bondurant, one of three brothers, with the other two being Howard and Jack Bondurant, played by Jason Clark and Shia LaBeouf respectively, all of which are bootleggers during the 1930's Prohibition Period in rural Virginia, USA.I found this to be Shia LaBeouf's best performance to date, personally, as it shows his true talent for acting, such a talent likely lost in the Transformers' movies in place of the CGI Autobots and Decepticons.
The new crime/drama "Lawless" is filled with big names, including Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, and Gary Oldman.
The Bondurant brothers (Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf,and Jason Clarke) are bootleggers in Franklyn County, Virginia.
Three bootlegging brothers, played by Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke, work in rural Virginia in a county that isn't too keen on Prohibition.
Lawless pits three brothers, Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf), against a crooked deputy Charles Rakes (Guy Pearce).
The book itself is based on a true life story of Bondurant's grandfather and grand uncles.The plot is about a bottlegging gang in Virginia who were dealing in moonshine successfully until the authorities decided to cut off some of their profits, which lead to various gun, knife and fist fights between the gang and the authorities.Although Shia LaBeouf Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman are exceptional actors in their own levels their combination was not enough to save this movie.
Set during prohibition era in rural Virginia, 'Lawless' tells the true story of three brothers who come together to fight those who threaten their family moonshine business.The film has plenty of positive aspects.
I can't go into details for fear of disclosing spoilers, but just know that Hardy once again makes us fall in movie-love with his character.The story is quite good, giving the audience a different look to the bootlegging scene.