Lawless is a period crime/drama that debuted on big screen, in the United States, on August 29, 2012.

When the show opens, Ferocious Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy, Peaky Blinders), and his brothers, Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) are in a pig sty. It appears Jack has no heart for killing but Howard and Forrest “as soon to kill a man as look at em'”.

The prohibition was started in the 1920’s and the Bondurant brothers were having no part of it. Sheriff Hodges (Bill Camp) brings Chicago law enforcement officer, Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce, The Rover), by the Bondurant station, to meet Forrest. He gives Forrest a fair warning that he better pay a portion of his profits, from his bootlegging business, to the sheriff’s department. 

All the Franklin County bootleggers abide by the sheriff’s rules except for Forrest. He continues to run his business, as normal. 

Jack witnesses a murder, commited by Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman), which was done using a Tommy gun. He runs to tell his best friend, Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan, In Treatment) about what occurred and even brought him a souvenir, one of the spent shells.

An Apex dance girl, Maggie (Jessica Chestain) shows up, at the gas station and asks Forrest for a job. He hires her as the new bartender and she later becomes romantically involved with Forrest. 

Two thugs are drinking heavy in the bar one night, when they become drunk and out of control. They begin to threaten Maggie, who tries to fight them off but it is a futile attempt. Forrest ruthlessly beats the two guys and drags them out into the street and leaves them there. After Maggie leaves that night the two guys are waiting on Forrest to get their revenge. They slash his throat and leave him there to die. Maggie returns back to the station, where she is also attacked by the two thugs. Legend has it that Forrest walks twenty miles to the hospital, with a fatal wound, to save his own life. 

In the meantime, Jack has fallen head over heals in love with the preachers daughter, Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska, In Treatment). He tries to impress her by buying expensive clothes and nice cars. He even goes so far as to buy her a beautiful yellow dress, which he requests her to try on for him.

Charlie has taken down every moonshine still that he can find and is determined to find out where Forrest’s stills are hidden. With Forrest in the hospital, Jack takes it upon himself to deliver 200 gallons of shine to Floyd Banner. He is successful in his run and receives $2,000 and the names of the two thugs that attacked Forrest, for the trade.

Jack and Bertha are out frolicking, in the woods and Rakes spots them. They lead him right to their stills. Howard spots Rakes and his men following Jack, he yells to alert them but it is too late. The stills are destroyed and Cricket and Bertha are captured. Rakes takes Cricket to a remote hideout and kills him.

Jimmy Turner (Bruce McKinnon, Rectify) warns Forrest of Charlie’s plan to bring in 18 more deputies to take him down. 

The Bondurant brothers fight a bloody battle with Rakes and his men. A lot of men are left fatally injured, while some are left alive with serious wounds. Will Howard, Jack, and Forrest prevail or will it be proven, once and for all, to the country folks that they are not the invincible Bondurant brothers?

Review

Lawless is based on a true story, of the Bondurant brothers of Franklin, Virginia. This is the time period, when many country men took the law into their own hands to defend their families and their businesses, whether they were legal or illegal did not matter. I have to applaud the actors for not over dramatizing their southern accents. I have watched too many southern based films, that have actors that try too hard to imitate the southern accent. Tom Hardy did a fabulous job in his role as the ruthless rumrunner. As a southerner, myself, I understand the stern, serious persona of Forrest. Unfortunately, Bruce McKinnon’s role is too short to see his true acting capabilities, but he is a great actor. 

Surely some of the film is fictionalized but all in all it turned out very well. If you like southern drama that has some truth to it, you should give this movie a shot. It deserves a 7.5 out of 8.