Lawless (DVD)

Lawless is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by John Hillcoat. The screenplay, by Australian singer-screenwriter Nick Cave, is based on Matt Bondurant s historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008). The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.

The film is about the violent conflict between three bootlegging brothers: Forrest (Hardy), Howard (Clarke), and Jack Bondurant (LaBeouf) — and the ruthless lawman Charley Rakes (Pearce), who tries to shut down the brothers Prohibition-era moonshine business after Forrest refuses to pay him off. The film was in development for about three years before being produced. It screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on August 29, 2012.

Plot

In 1931, the Bondurant brothers — middle brother Forrest, eldest brother Howard, and youngest brother Jack — are running a successful moonshine business in Franklin County, Virginia. The brothers use their gas station and restaurant as a front for dealing with the assistance of Cricket, Jack s mechanically gifted friend who builds and maintains their stills. Jack witnesses rum-runner Floyd Banner shoot dead two federal agents in broad daylight for trying to arrest him.

Forrest hires Maggie, a financially struggling dancer, as a waitress. Shortly afterward, the gas station is visited by newly appointed U.S. Marshal Charley Rakes, accompanied by the sheriff and corrupt state s attorney Mason Wardell. Rakes demands that he and Wardell receive a cut of profits from all bootleggers within the county, including Forrest, in exchange for ignoring their operations. Forrest refuses and 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. Later that night, Forrest throws out two drunk customers who had been harassing and threatening Maggie. After Maggie 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 hides the assault from Forrest, not wanting him to take revenge.

While Forrest recovers at a hospital, Jack, deciding to retire from bootlegging rather than cross Rakes any further, crosses the county line with Cricket to sell their remaining liquor. They get ambushed by Banner and his crew 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, revealing that both men are former bootleggers who escaped punishment for their crimes by working as deputy marshals for Rakes.

Forrest and Howard find, torture, and kill the men and send one of their testicles to Rakes. Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who invest their profits into setting up larger stills deep in the woods. 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 soon 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 officers. Howard and Jack flee but Cricket and Bertha are caught. The police take Bertha home, while Cricket has his neck snapped by Rakes.

After Cricket s funeral, the sheriff warns the Bondurants that Rakes has set up a blockade at the bridge to trap them while Wardell arranges for Prohibition agents to round up every bootlegger in the county. Jack speeds off in Cricket s car to confront Rakes. Howard and Forrest quickly follow to provide backup, to Maggie s chagrin. She reveals she had delivered him to the hospital after the attack and Forrest realizes that she had been raped.

Jack arrives at the bridge but is wounded by Rakes. Howard and Forrest arrive, and a shootout ensues, during which Forrest and his driver are also wounded, the latter fatally. A convoy of bootleggers arrive and hold the lawmen at gunpoint. Rakes ignores them and attempts to execute Forrest but is shot in the leg by the sheriff in an attempt to halt the bloodshed. Rakes turns to leave the scene, but suddenly turns around and shoots Forrest several times. The convoy opens fire on Rakes, but he runs into a covered bridge. Since he is unable to run far, the badly wounded Jack and Howard follow and plunge a knife into Rakes back, killing him.

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 Martinsville woman — and working in legitimate occupations. During a festive reunion at Jack s house sometime later, 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.

Cast

• Shia LaBeouf as Jack Bondurant
• Tom Hardy as Forrest Bondurant
• Jason Clarke as Howard Bondurant
• Jessica Chastain as Maggie Beauford
• Guy Pearce as Special Deputy Charlie Rakes
• Gary Oldman as Floyd Banner
• Mia Wasikowska as Bertha Minnix
• Dane DeHaan as Cricket Pate
• Chris McGarry as Danny
• Tim Tolin as Mason Wardell
• 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 grand-uncles Forrest and Howard. Producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher optioned the book in 2008 and sent it to director John Hillcoat. Hillcoat later said,

sort of drew 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.

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. Originally titled The Wettest County in The World, the same as the novel, the film s title was changed to The Promised Land.

Although Hillcoat intended to begin shooting in February 2010, in January the project was reported to have fallen apart due to financing problems. 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. 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, 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.

By December 2010, Hardy and Chastain were reported to have joined the project. Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Pictures and Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures were undertaking its financing. Jason Clarke and Dane DeHaan were cast in January 2011. Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, and Mia Wasikowska joined the cast in February 2011.

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. 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 involved.

Before Pearce was cast, 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. Pearce created the hairstyle worn by Rakes in the film.

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 south of Gay. The cast lived in apartments in Peachtree City for three months during production, and Hillcoat screened dailies for the cast every weekend. 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.

In March 2011, Momentum Pictures and its parent company Alliance Films acquired the U.K. and Canadian distribution rights. In May 2011, the Weinstein Company bought the U.S. distribution rights, with plans for a wide release. In March 2012, the title was changed to Lawless.

Cave scored the film with Warren Ellis. 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.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack for the film was released on August 28, 2012:

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Length
1.	Fire and Brimstone	Fred Lincoln Wray Jr.	The Bootleggers feat. Mark Lanegan	4:27
2.	Burnin Hell	Bernard Besman / John Lee Hooker	The Bootleggers feat. Nick Cave	1:56
3.	Sure Nuff n Yes I Do	Herb Bermann / Don Van Vliet	Ralph Stanley	1:27
4.	Fire in the Blood	Nick Cave & Warren Ellis	The Bootleggers feat. Emmylou Harris	1:10
5.	White Light / White Heat	Lou Reed	The Bootleggers feat. Mark Lanegan	4:24
6.	Cosmonaut		The Bootleggers feat. Emmylou Harris	3:42
7.	Fire in the Blood / Snake Song	Nick Cave & Warren Ellis / Townes Van Zandt	The Bootleggers feat. Ralph Stanley/Emmylou Harris	4:25
8.	So You ll Aim Toward the Sky	Jason Lytle	The Bootleggers feat. Emmylou Harris	5:57
9.	Fire in the Blood	Nick Cave & Warren Ellis	The Bootleggers feat. Emmylou Harris	1:06
10.	Fire and Brimstone		Ralph Stanley	2:12
11.	Sure Nuff n Yes I Do		The Bootleggers feat. Mark Lanegan	2:35
12.	White Light / White Heat	Lou Reed	Ralph Stanley	1:38
13.	End Crawl		Nick Cave & Warren Ellis	4:00
14.	Midnight Run	Marc Copely / James Bernard Dolan / Adam Stuart Levy	Willie Nelson	2:37
Total length:				41:36

Release

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

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 217 reviews, with an average rating of 6.47/10. The site s critical consensus reads, 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. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews .

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.

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 . 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.

After theatrical release

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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 2 stars out of 4, writing: The unflinching slicing and dicing is viscerally brutal, but without sufficient character development Lawless simply feels lifeless. 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. 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. 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.

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipients	Result
65th Cannes Film Festival	Palme d Or	John Hillcoat	Nominated
Georgia Film Critics Association	Best Original Song	Cosmonaut by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis	Nominated
	Best Original Song	Fire in the Blood by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis	Nominated
	Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema	Nick Cave & John Hillcoat	Nominated

Condition

New

Actor

Ben Sachs, Cassian Elwes, Clayton Young, Dany Wolf, Douglas Wick, Matt Bondurant, Nick Cave

Publisher

Starz / Anchor Bay

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

R

Recording Studio

Starz / Anchor Bay

Format

DVD

Brand

Tcfhe/Anchor Bay/Starz

Amazon ASIN

B00936A0RU

UPC / EAN

013132472997

Year

2012

ReleaseDate

2012-08-29

RuntimeMins

116

RuntimeStr

1h 56min

Awards

Awards, 1 win & 8 nominations

Directors

John Hillcoat

Writers

Nick Cave, Matt Bondurant

Stars

Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce

Produced by

John Allen, Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Jason Blum, Matthew Budman, Megan Ellison, Cassian Elwes, Lucy Fisher, Scott Hanson, James Lejsek, Randy Manis, Laura Rister, Ben Sachs, Ted Schipper, Rachel Shane, Douglas Wick, Dany Wolf, Clayton Young

Music by

Nick Cave, Warren Ellis

Cinematography by

Benoît Delhomme

Film Editing by

Dylan Tichenor

Casting By

Kathy Driscoll, Francine Maisler

Production Design by

Chris Kennedy

Art Direction by

Gershon Ginsburg

Set Decoration by

Maria Nay

Costume Design by

Margot Wilson

Makeup Department

J.D. Bowers, Ken Diaz, Glen Eisner, Luis García, Cathrine A. Marcotte, Robert Maverick, Scott H. Reeder, Sabine Roller, Kelvin R. Trahan, Bryan Whisnant, David LeRoy Anderson, David Beneke, Veronica Cox, Bill Johnson, Carol Rasheed, Toby Sells, Katrina Suhre, Ariane Turner, Dawn Turner

Production Management

Robert Hackl, James Masi, Regina Robb, Dany Wolf

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Walter Gasparovic, Justin Ritson, Cody Williams, Dany Wolf

Art Department

Rose Armstrong, Hank Atterbury, Allen Bagley, Jason Barnes, Kip Bartlett, Rebecca Brown, Russell Bullock, Henry Cofer, Dana Corbett, Sharon Davis, Jon De Pabon, Scott K. Deadwyler, Kenneth Dean, Seay Earehart, Jeremy Farlow, Faith Farrell, Christopher Ferris, Jared Fleury, Omar Foster, Jeremy Frick, Cary Goen, Don Holloway, Anne Hyvarinen, Adam Johnson, Brad Johnson, Gary Johnson, Joel Klaff, E. Aaron Linker, Ricardo Lozier, Bobby Martin, Jimmy Martin, Robbie Martin, Cecil McCall, Brett McGinnis, Thomas Miner, Ruth Mitchell, Aaron M. Nash, Javed Noorullah, Joshua Noorullah, Pat Oldknow, Justin Pelissero, Scott T. Pina, Tommy Pittman, Travis Pittman, Eugene Pope, Phillip Proffitt, Taraja Ramsess, Sarah Regan, William T. Reynolds, Kelly Richardson, Ryan Robinson, Erik Sedwick, Barbara Seinfeld, Blanche Sindelar, Bob Smith, Lee Smith, Steven Smith, Shea Soutar, Brian P. Todd, John Welch, Andrew W. Wexler, B. Wheeler, Steve Whiteside, Carol Francoso, Julie Hardin, Bradley Huffman, Bruce Larsen, Konrad Lewis, Christina Myal, Nick Nelson, Anna Ragghianti, JoAnna Robinson, Mike Samuels, Nichole Wleklinski

Sound Department

Wade Barnett, Chris David, Brian Dunlop, Christopher Eakins, David Esparza, Jim Hawkins, Ellen Heuer, Robert Jackson, Scott Kramer, Doug Latislaw, Tim Limer, Travis MacKay, Hank Martin, Tor McAfee Kingdon, Anthony M. McCovey, Anthony Ortiz, Lisa Pinero, Leslie Shatz, Brad Sherman, Dean St. John, Callie Thurman, Matt Dawson, Jesse Ehredt, Rob Embrey, David Esparza, Justin Herman, Sebastien Lacheray, Jordan O Neill, A. Josh Reinhardt, Irene Vinader, Ben Whitver, Teitur Árnason

Special Effects by

Scanlan Backus, Vincent Ball, Sam Dean, David Fletcher, Morgan Guynes, Thomas Kittle, Brendan McHale, Greg Oliver, Phil Procter, Matthew Scurry, Tim Walkey, Sam Chronic, Ken Gorrell

Visual Effects by

Tegan Arnold, Bryan Baker, Jeffrey Edward Baksinski, Raoul Bolognini, Joey Bonander, Kristen Branan, Andrew G. Cox, Paul Curley, Syd Dutton, Dick Edwards, Kevin Fanning, Mark O. Forker, David Funston, Debra George, Robert Hackl, Paul Hill, Chris John Jones, Fumi Mashimo, Ed Mendez, Roger Mocenigo, Nathan Overstrom, Chris Patterson, Tom Quinn, Marcos Shih, Mark Stetson, Mark Sullivan, Bill Taylor, Mike Uguccioni, Andy Williams, Bijay Awale, Ray Carballada, Anthony D Agostino, Feliciano di Giorgio, Saurabh Tripathi

Stunts

Paul Barth, Brent Bernhard, Dale Cannon, John T. Cypert, Reece Fleetwood, Colin Follenweider, Mickey Giacomazzi, Sean Graham, Kurt Hockenberry, Rob Mars, David Reinhart, Lee Smith, William Wagner, Mark Ashworth, Henry Kingi Jr., Tom Proctor, Gary Robert

Camera and Electrical Department

John C. Barber, Manuel Billeter, Polly Borland, Christian Burdette, Jeremy Cannon, Adam Cardenas, Peter Chrimes, Jimmy Cobb, Stephen Crowley, Jeff Cutler, Keith Cutler, Ross Davis, Benoît Delhomme, Seth Eltz, Brian Evans, Richard Foreman Jr., Dustin Haven, Steve Iriguchi, Jeremy Fenix Johnson, Glenn Kaplan, Ryan Kirk, R.J. Kirkland, Len Levine, Matthew McGinn, Mark McKinney, Brian Minzlaff, Greg Morse, Ray Myers, Jesse Wayne Parker, Scott Ronnow, Landon Ruddel, Schenley V. Sargusingh, Chad Schroeder, Brent Studler, Stephen Stumberg, Steve Sudge, Ty Suehiro, David J. Thompson, Edward Viola, J.M. Berrios, Dwight O. Campbell, Steve Cassidy, Jeff W. Curtis, Julian J. Delacruz, Chad Deslatte, Dustin D Diamond, Wes Eastin, Patrick D. Fields, Todd D. Gardner, Derek Grover, Matthew J. Klann, Christopher L. Miller, Chad Oliver, Glenn Ortman, David Peirce, Daniel Pernas, Christopher E. Pettus, Justyn Plath, Allen Robinson, Randy Stewart, Jeff C. Sutton

Casting Department

Elizabeth Chodar, Lori Eastside, Barbara Harris, Robert Oppel, C. Mason Taylor, Ann Wittenberg

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Dallah Charissa Cesen, Judy Chang, Randy Edwards, Caroline Errington, Suzy Freeman, Jeff Gillies, Keith Hudson, Esther Marquis, Melanie Mascioli, April McCoy, Carley Parrish, Elisa R. Richards, Kate Sawyer, Keith M. Wegner, English Benning, Heather Sease

Editorial Department

Galen Arnold, Wayne Degan, Rob Doolittle, Peter Dudgeon, Banner Gwin, Michael Hatzer, John G. Henderson, Chris Jensen, Bruce Lomet, Chris Patterson, Swan Wang, Everette Webber, Lee Wimer, Daniela Williams-Fontanez

Location Management

Kai Thorup, Andrew L. Ullman

Music Department

Cameron Barton, Christine Bergren, Joel Cadbury, Joe Cardamone, Nick Cave, Julian Chavez, Pablo Clements, Warren Ellis, Rachel Fox, Greg Gordon, James Griffith, Joel C. High, David Sardy, Jim Schultz, Jordan Tappis, George Vjestica, Ronald J. Webb, Rachel Willis, Hal Willner, Ryan Castle, Tim LeFebvre, Patrick Spain, Paul Statman

Script and Continuity Department

Rebecca Robertson

Transportation Department

Van Anderson, Connie Biles, William W. Brown III, Robert Brubaker, Dennis G. Carter, Keith N. Collis, Tim Collis, Ricky Cox, Gary Duncan, Wayne Cowboy Fountain, David Frith, Todd Fuller, Tony Fuller, Russell Hanson, Renee Hinson, Brad Howard, Randy Johnson, Yetta Johnson, Daniel La Fave, Dan J. Latham II, Clifton McSwain, Pam Plummer, Michael R. Purvis, John Schisler, Brenda Gail Stephens, Dean Stephens, Hector Tapia, Bubba Thrift, David Carlton White, Leroy Williamson, Noah J. Wuellner, Billy Joe Evans, Lewis Jones Jr.

Additional Crew

Jason Abercrombie, Rachel Aberly, Adam Ballesteros, Cassandra Barbour, John D. Bert, Keith Blomberg, Patrick O. Brady, David Michael Brown, Bryan Clavenna, Bryce Colquitt, Luke Crawford, Brenda Cross, Josh Dagg, Andy Dahm, Mike Davis, Biagio DeSimone, Hannah English, Vanessa Fung, Philippe Gallichet, Taylor Gerrity, Drew Giles, Brian Gonsalves, Drew Grant, Ginna Grant, William O. Greenwood III, Indira Guha, Lloyd Hackl, Jennifer Hackney, Alice Gledhill Hall, Andrew Harvey, Benjamin Hasskamp, John Wayne Hayne, John G. Henderson, Blake H. Hughes, Syndey Huynh, Anthony Irvin, Ronnie Kantorik, James L. Knight, Eric Ladd, Barbara Lane, Robert Lane, Ladd Lanford, Yun Li, Miles Logan, Charles Long, Gai Loper, Aaron Mabon, Katarzyna Kait Malec, Randy Manis, Chris Marrone, Joe Marzullo, Jean McDowell, Zach Monson, Josh Mumford, Sarah Myers, Gary Naumann, Karen Neasi, Joe O Shea, Jonathan Lee Owens, Jonathan Parrott, Josh Phillips, Nicholas Raynor, Daniel Rbibo, Johnnie Ruth Richey, Brett Rowe, Alexander Sablow, Stephanie Sanet, Tina Marie Sauls, Dee Schuka, Laura Sevier, Jimmy Shaw, Dan Short, Adrianne Skrzypek, Kerri Smeltzer, Stephen Stumberg, Ricky Tollman, Carol Tresan, Greg Tresan, Leia Verner, R. Dawn Vigil, Jennifer Wang, Beth Woodruff, Zoe Bower Robert, Francie Brown, Michael Buster, Tana David, Justin Dybowski, Elan Garfias, Elizabeth Himelstein, Andrew Huckaby, Drew Johnston, Greg Kendrick, Andrew Kim, Brock Lohrey, Alexander McCurley, Trevor McNure, Tillman Norsworthy, Michael Pendergrass, Drew Ritson, J.T. Seidler, C. Mason Taylor, Tom Tresemer, Hunter Wentworth

Thanks

Susie Bick, Norman Bielowicz, Polly Borland, Cheryl Brandenberg, Donald Brandenberg, Arthur Cave, Earl Cave, Maha Dakhil, Sarah Green, Aaron Harvey, Louie Hillcoat, Terrence Malick, Pam Mayer, Bruce O Neal, Tim Stout, Roeg Sutherland, Lee Thomas, Jacqui Weller

Genres

Biography, Crime, Drama

Companies

The Weinstein Company, Yucaipa Films, Revolt Films

Countries

USA

Languages

English

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

7.2

ImDb Rating Votes

243910

Metacritic Rating

58

Short Description

Lawless is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by John Hillcoat. The screenplay, by Australian singer-screenwriter Nick Cave, is based on Matt Bondurant s historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008). The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.

The film is about the violent conflict between three bootlegging brothers: Forrest (Hardy), Howard (Clarke), and Jack Bondurant (LaBeouf) — and the ruthless lawman Charley Rakes (Pearce), who tries to shut down the brothers Prohibition-era moonshine business after Forrest refuses to pay him off. The film was in development for about three years before being produced. It screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on August 29, 2012.

Box Office Budget

$26,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$10,001,982

Box Office Gross USA

$37,400,127

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$55,404,207

Keywords

Female frontal nudity,bouncing breasts,bootlegging,gangster,thompson sub machine gun