By Forris Day Jr.
Part Western, part Gangster film “Lawless” is a film that has great dialog and sweeping vistas of what I believe are the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia (I could be wrong on that so don’t yell at me) It also has lots of bloody gunfights and two love stories. The movie is based on the book “The Wettest County in the World” by Matt Bondurant. The book is a biographical novel that tells the story of the Bondurant brothers of Virginia. The Bondurant brothers were moonshiners who took on corrupt law enforcement agents in the 1920s during the height of Prohibition.
Overall a good movie. Shot really well with a ton of cool locations. Great dialog and a good story that seems …well…a little exaggerated. But isn’t that why we go to the movies, to escape reality?. Yes it is “based” on a true story, but sure is pretty unbelievable at times such as when Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) gets his throat slit, blood spurting everywhere, yet he is able to hold his neck together and eventually survive. I understand they were trying to show how tough he is but geeze. The characters in the film are all bigger than life. Jack Bondurant (Shia LeBeouf) is the youngest of the brothers. He has the most business sense and he decides to sell their moonshine outside of the county. The brother starts making a ton of cash. Jack falls for a young Mennonite girl Bertha (Mia Wasikowska) and courts her with fancy cars and a grand tour of his distillery, built by he and his pal Cricket (Dane DeHaan). Cricket is a likeable guy who wouldn’t hurt anybody and he’s very mechanically inclined. Guy Pearce was outstanding as the creepy Charlie Rakes, a special agent, who is out for a piece of everyones action throughout the county. During the movie I really hated his character. I even hated his haircut, that is how evil this guy was. Powerful performance by Jason Clarke too as the tough enforcer brother Harry Bondurant. Jessica Chastain plays the beautiful Maggie Beauford, the love interest of Forrest.
A bit of a typical gangster film, it also has some old west elements as far as the shootouts go. Lots of great Roots/Americana style music that was specially written for the movie by screenwriter Nick Cave makes this movie really enjoyable. I recommend it highly because it is an interesting story to watch. It has some gory realism, nice locations and wonderful characters. A little long at nearly two hours, but it moves at a brisk pace and never seems like it is too long once you become riveted to the story. Check this one out if you like gangster films.
Rating: 7.5/10 – “White Lightning has never been so frightening”
Thanks for the review! I didn’t actually know what this movie was about; I just knew I wanted to see it because of Tom Hardy lol. It sounds like a great film though, and something I’ll definitely need to rent, since I didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters in my area. You and a lot of my coworkers at DISH seemed to really enjoy this film, so I’m sure I will too! Blu-rays don’t cost me anything extra the way I rent too, so I’ll make sure to add the Blu-ray version to the top of my Blockbuster @Home queue from DISH. I’m sure the scenery you described will look absolutely amazing in that quality! I’m excited to see it; thanks for sharing! 🙂