| Lawless | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Hillcoat |
| Written by | Nick Cave |
| Based on | The Wettest County in the World byMatt Bondurant |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Benoît Delhomme |
| Edited by | Dylan Tichenor |
| Music by |
|
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $26 million[1] |
| Box office | $54.4 million[1] |
Lawless is a 2012 Americangangster film directed byJohn Hillcoat. The screenplay, by Australian singer-screenwriterNick Cave, is based onMatt Bondurant's historical novelThe Wettest County in the World (2008). The film starsShia LaBeouf,Tom Hardy,Gary Oldman,Mia Wasikowska,Jessica Chastain,Jason Clarke, andGuy Pearce.
The film is about the violent conflict between threebootlegging brothers: Forrest (Hardy), Howard (Clarke), and Jack Bondurant (LaBeouf) — and the corrupt and ruthless lawman Charlie Rakes (Pearce), who tries to shut down the brothers'Prohibition-eramoonshine business after Forrest refuses to pay him off. The film was in development for about three years before being produced. It screened at the2012 Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on August 29, 2012 byThe Weinstein Company. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $54.4 million against a $26 million budget.
In 1931, the Bondurant brothers — middle brother Forrest, eldest brother Howard, and youngest brother Jack — are running a successfulmoonshine business inFranklin County,Virginia. The brothers use their gas station and restaurant as afront for dealing with the assistance of Cricket, Jack's mechanically gifted friend who builds and maintains theirstills. Jack witnesses rum-runner Floyd Banner shoot dead twofederal 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 appointedU.S. Marshal Charley Rakes, accompanied by the sheriff and corruptstate'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 localBrethren 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 andraped 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 toChicago, 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 forProhibition 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 aMartinsville 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 ofpneumonia, putting to rest the legend of his invincibility.
WriterMatt Bondurant wrote the historical novelThe Wettest County in the World (2008), based on theProhibition-erabootlegging activities of his grandfather Jack Bondurant and grand-uncles Forrest and Howard. ProducersDouglas Wick and Lucy Fisher optioned the book in 2008 and sent it to directorJohn Hillcoat.[2] Hillcoat later said,
[Bootlegging] sort of 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. 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.[3]
Hillcoat and screenwriterNick Cave, who had worked together on the Western filmThe 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."[3]
The first actor to be cast wasShia LaBeouf as Jack, the youngest Bondurant brother.James Franco was attached to play Howard andRyan Gosling was attached to play Forrest;Amy Adams andScarlett Johansson were also attached to the project.[2] Originally titledThe Wettest County in The World, the same as the novel, the film's title was changed toThe Promised Land.[4][5]
Although Hillcoat intended to begin shooting in February 2010,[6] in January the project was reported to have fallen apart due to financing problems.[5] Only LaBeouf remained with the project. He said that after he sawBronson (2008), "I went home and wrote Tom [Hardy] a letter saying I was a fan. He sent me a script, and I sent himLawless. He called me back and said, 'This is fucking amazing.'"[2] CinematographerBenoît Delhomme recommendedJessica Chastain to Hillcoat. Chastain said, "I am a big fan ofThe Proposition. I hadn't even read the script, but I told [Hillcoat], '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."[2]
By December 2010, Hardy and Chastain were reported to have joined the project.[7][8] Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Pictures andMegan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures were undertaking its financing.[8]Jason Clarke andDane DeHaan were cast in January 2011.[9][10]Guy Pearce,Gary Oldman, andMia Wasikowska joined the cast in February 2011.[11]
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."[12] 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 [Pearce] involved."[13]
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.[14] Pearce created the hairstyle worn by Rakes in the film.[14]
Lawless was filmed early 2011 in various locations nearAtlanta,Georgia, includingNewnan, Grantville,Haralson,LaGrange,Carroll County's McIntosh Park, and theRed Oak CreekCovered Bridge south ofGay.[15][16][17] The cast lived in apartments inPeachtree City for three months during production,[18] and Hillcoat screeneddailies for the cast every weekend.[19] Hillcoat and Delhomme consulted with cinematographersRoger Deakins andHarris Savides ondigital cinematography. They chose to use theArri Alexa digital camera system forLawless, and Delhomme always used two cameras during filming.[19]
In March 2011,Momentum Pictures and its parent companyAlliance Films acquired the U.K. and Canadian distribution rights.[20] In May 2011, theWeinstein Company bought the U.S. distribution rights, with plans for a wide release.[21] In March 2012, the title was changed toLawless.[22]
Cave scored the film withWarren Ellis.[23] 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.[13]
A soundtrack for the film was released on August 28, 2012:[24]
Lawless screened In Competition at the2012 Cannes Film Festival on May 19 and received a nearly 10-minutestanding ovation.[25] The film was theatrically released in the U.S. on Wednesday, August 29, 2012.The Weinstein Company hoped that goodword of mouth would be built up for the upcomingLabor Day weekend.[26] Audiences polled by the market research firmCinemaScore gaveLawless a B+ grade on average.[26]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 218 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."[27] OnMetacritic, the film has aweighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[28]
David Rooney ofThe Hollywood Reporter wrote:
"IfLawless 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."[29]
Mike D'Angelo ofThe 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".[30]Richard Corliss ofTime 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."[31]
Peter Bradshaw ofThe 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."[32]
Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gaveLawless 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."[33] Mick LaSalle of theSan 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."[34] Peter Travers ofRolling 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 aGodfather-style epic out of these moonshine wars. Not happening."[35] Roger Ebert of theChicago 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.[36]
Claudia Puig ofUSA Today gave the film 2 stars out of 4, writing: "The unflinching slicing and dicing is viscerally brutal, but without sufficient character developmentLawless simply feels lifeless."[37] David Edelstein ofNew 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."[38] Robert Abele of theLos 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."[39] A. O. Scott ofThe 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.[40]
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65th Cannes Film Festival[41][42] | Palme d'Or | John Hillcoat | Nominated |
| Georgia Film Critics Association[43] | Best Original Song | "Cosmonaut" byNick Cave &Warren Ellis | Nominated |
| Best Original Song | "Fire in the Blood" byNick Cave &Warren Ellis | Nominated | |
| Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema | Nick Cave &John Hillcoat | Nominated |
