Lawless [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Director: Lucy Fisher, Doug Wick Lucy Fisher

Overview

Three rebellious, bootlegging brothers find the elusive American Dream within their reach, and fight to maintain their grip as powerful urban gangsters reap the rewards of their hard work in this sprawling Great Depression-era crime drama from director John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition). At the height of Prohibition, ambitious country boy Jack Bondurant dreams of becoming "Public Enemy #1" while reaping all the benefits that go with the gangster lifestyle. By expanding his family's moonshining business, he plots to launch a vast criminal empire while winning the heart of beautiful Amish girl Bertha. With his older, intimidating brother Howard by his side, Jack has the brawn to get the job done, too. But they need a strong leader to guide them -- a responsibility that falls on their eldest sibling Forrest. Stoic and stalwart, Forrest is the kind of man who holds his cards close, and places a high value on character. Meanwhile, as the three siblings rise to power while battling treachery on both sides of the law, a mysterious woman named Maggie appears out of nowhere, prompting the thoughtful Forrest to question the true price of his outlaw ways.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/27/2012
UPC:	0013132619132
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	14,771

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Shia LaBeouf	Jack Bondurant
Gary Oldman	Floyd Banner
Chris McGarry	Danny
Tim Tolin	Mason Wardell
Lew Temple	Deputy Henry Abshire
Marcus Hester	Deputy Jeff Richards
Noah Taylor	Gummy Walsh
Dane DeHaan	Cricket Pane
Mark Ashworth	Hophead #1
Tom Proctor	Hophead #2
Bruce McKinnon	Jimmy Turner
Erin Mendenhall	Spoons Rivard,Spoons Rivard
Toni Lynn Byrd	Ida Belle
Robert T. Smith	Young Jack,Bootlegger
Jake Nash	Young Forrest
William Harrison	Young Howard,Young Howard
Joyce Baxter	Aunt Winnie
Jeff Braun	Doctor
Malinda Baker	Young Black Girl
Tom Turbiville	Goon #1
Chad Randall	Mugger #1
Terry Keasler	Mugger #2
Duncan Nicholson	Junior
Ricky Muse	Bootlegger #2
Anna House	Old Mountain Woman
Peter Krulewitch	Stogie Pete

Technical Credits

Nick Cave

Matt Bondurant

Lucy Fisher	Director
Doug Wick	Director
Michael Benaroya	Producer
Robert Ogden Barnum	Producer,Executive Producer
Rachel Shane	Producer,Executive Producer
Jason Blum	Producer,Executive Producer
Scott Hanson	Producer,Executive Producer
Cassian Elwes	Producer,Executive Producer
Laura Rister	Producer,Executive Producer
Ben Sachs	Producer,Executive Producer
Theodore Schipper	Producer
Nick Cave	Screenwriter
Matt Bondurant	Screenwriter
Randy Manis	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Typecasting is a very real phenomenon. Without an outsized amount of talent, many performers are stuck playing the same characters over and over again. If nothing else, John Hillcoat's new bootlegging drama Lawless gives Shia LaBeouf a chance to evolve his career. The Transformers star plays Jack Bondurant, the youngest and least tough of three brothers who make and sell their own illegal hooch in the Virginia countryside during the Great Depression. Middle brother Forrest (Tom Hardy) is a local legend after surviving several horrific battles in World War I -- it's believed that he can't die. Forrest is the brains as well as the cold-eyed killer of the group, while eldest brother Howard (Jason Clarke) plays burly backup. The trio run into serious problems when Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) decides to use his authority to weasel in on their illegal racket and they refuse to go along with his plan -- a decision that leads to a civil war in their small community as most of the other families willingly side with the creepy Rakes. Meanwhile, Jack romances a deeply religious local girl (Mia Wasikowska) whose father disapproves of anyone trying to date his daughter -- especially a Bondurant -- and the terse Forrest has his eye on a saloon manager (Jessica Chastain). Hillcoat's ensemble of actors is uniformly good. Forrest is supposed to be larger than life, and Tom Hardy certainly has the screen presence to embody a character like that -- if we draw comparisons to the Corleone brothers, Forrest is Michael with a healthy dose of Sonny's willingness to get his hands dirty. Clarke makes Howard into a loveable oaf, smarter and sweeter than he first appears. Guy Pearce takes his conniving, scruple-free baddie to B-movie heaven. The women all make an impression, even in the midst of this very guy-centric story, but it's LaBeouf who shows us something new. He doesn't have Hardy's command of the screen, but for the first time, he's found a role that lets his boyish looks sell the character's early immaturity, and then allows him to take on some genuine dramatic gravitas. His character has the biggest arc of the film, and he carries the picture even while Hardy walks away with it. Just as he did in his adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Hillcoat creates a very specific and unnerving sense of place in Lawless. The backwoods of Virginia may be comfortable for the Bondurants, but there are so many places to hide that we often feel that anyone could ambush them at any moment. At the same time, the lush greens and golden sunlight have a painterly beauty to them. The nagging problem with the movie turns out to be its lack of ambition. The script by Nick Cave, adapted from a nonfiction book, wants to make these guys out to be some sort of American heroes, standing up for what they believe in and creating their own myth in the process. There's only one scene -- an excellent conversation between Forrest and his girlfriend -- in which these men have to consider the truth rather than their own legend. If that scene had had a more profound impact on the whole film, Lawless would have been much more complex and thematically rich. Instead, the movie settles for a well-done -- if dramatically uninteresting -- shoot-out of a finale that turns these supposed legends into conventional characters. The most famous quote from John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance comes from a newspaperman who states that when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Lawless turns out to be too enamored with the legend to focus enough on the truth.