Taglines: When the law became corrupt, outlaws became heroes.
In 1931, in Franklin County, Virginia, Forrest Bondurant is a legend as immortal after surviving the war. Together with his brothers Howard and the coward Jack, the Bondurant family has a distillery and bootlegging business. When the corrupt District Attorney Mason Wardell arrives in Franklin with the unscrupulous Special Deputy Charles Rakes, the Bondurant family refuses to pay the required bribe to the authorities.
Rakes pursues the brothers and unsuccessfully tries to find their distillery. Meanwhile Forrest hires the waitress Maggie, a woman with a hidden past in Chicago, and they fall in love with each other. Jack courts the preacher’s daughter Bertha Minnix and deals a great load of alcoholic liquor with the powerful gangster Floyd Banner. Jack shows off in Franklin attracting the attention of Rakes that finds the location of their distillery. When he kills the crippled Cricket Pete, the locals join forces to face the corrupt authorities.
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.
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, as 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.
Lawless (2012)
Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Chris McGarry, Gary Oldman, Lew Temple, Marcus Hester, Noah Taylor
Screenplay by: Nick Cave
Production Design by: Chris Kennedy
Cinematography by: Benoît Delhomme
Film Editing by: Dylan Tichenor
Costume Design by: Margot Wilson
Set Decoration by: Maria Nay
Art Direction by: Gershon Ginsburg
Music by: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality / nudity.
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Release Date: August 29, 2012
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