Lawless **** (2012, Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Dane DeHaan) – Classic Movie Review 13,934

John Hillcoat’s gorgeously filmed and stonkingly acted 2012 American Southern Gothic gangster film Lawless stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.

Director John Hillcoat’s 2012 American Southern Gothic gangster film Lawless is written by Australian singer-screenwriter Nick Cave, based on Matt Bondurant’s 2008 historical novel The Wettest County in the World, and stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.

In 1931 Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, bootlegging brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf) are threatened by the arrival of a new special deputy from Chicago, the corrupt, sadistic and ruthless lawman Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), who violently tries to shut down the brothers’ moonshine operation after Forrest refuses to pay him off.

Lawless hard to love, but easy to admire. It is a high quality gangster film, with impeccable, commanding direction, an exquisite period production on superb authentic locations, and gorgeous cinematography by Benoît Delhomme, a supreme art object with a fascinating tale to tell. But it is grim to sit through and sickeningly violent and blood-soaked though.

The performances are on the showy side, but rich and compelling. It is an ensemble piece, but Tom Hardy takes over in an extremely intense turn as tough and dogged middle brother Forrest Bondurant. Top billed star Shia LaBeouf (also narrating the story in a lazy voiceover device) is effective as the initially callow and naive younger brother Jack, keeping it surprisingly sweet, especially in his courting of Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local Brethren preacher. Shia certainly does show why Mia takes a shine to him and why Tom Hardy needs to protect him. Jason Clarke broods menacingly on the sidelines as endlessly loyal older brother Howard.

Gary Oldman has strangely little to do in only two or three scenes as rum-runner gangster Floyd Banner, first seen fatally shooting two federal agents in broad daylight for trying to arrest him. Perhaps with too much to do, Guy Pearce has a grand old time, hamming away in an arguably homophobic performance as an effete, perfumed, gloved villain, over-egging the pudding and then some. Nick Cave said: ‘We changed aspects of the personality and temperament of Rakes to get Guy Pearce involved. Rakes in the book was a nasty country cop. We made him a city cop, gave him his disturbed sexuality and all the rest of it.’ Pearce created Rakes’ bizarre hairstyle. Mmmm.

Dane DeHaan is appealing as Jack’s mechanically gifted, crippled friend Cricket, Bill Camp stands out as the bribable, reasonable Sheriff Hodges, and Jessica Chastain makes an impression as financially struggling dancer Maggie, hired by Forrest as a waitress, and dangerously dragged into his life and business.

[Spoiler alert] The film feels tragic, with blood, pain and death everywhere, but it is not a tragedy. Incredibly, it has a nostalgic rosy-hued happy ending! This could be annoying, even alienating. It is certainly surprising. But it turns out it was the way the story was always headed. It’s not there just to send folks home happy. Hillcoat recalled: ‘Bootlegging 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. 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.’ The film toys with the idea of immortality, flirting with it teasingly. Hillcoat said he and Cave ‘loved the idea that it touched on the whole immortality that a lot of these guys start to feel when they do survive so many strange experiences.’

And the violence? Cave recalled: ‘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.’ It looks like he succeeded, but violence on screen plays differently from violence in a book. A strong stomach is needed here. This links it clearly to Bonnie and Clyde, another beautifully filmed blood-soaked Depression-era American biographical crime film that elicited a mixed reaction.

The film screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was released in cinemas on August 29, 2012 by The Weinstein Company, grossing $54.4 million against a $26 million budget.

Matt Bondurant’s 2008 historical novel The Wettest County in the World is based on the bootlegging activities of his grandfather Jack Bondurant and grand-uncles Forrest and Howard.

Cave also scored the catchy soundtrack for film with Warren Ellis.

It was shot early 2011 in locations near Atlanta, Georgia, including Newnan, Grantville, Haralson, LaGrange, Carroll County’s McIntosh Park, and the Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge south of Gay.

Hillcoat and Cave previously worked together on the Western film The Proposition (2005), also with Guy Pearce.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,934

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com