Lawless (2012) R 115 minutes
Based on a book, Based on true story, Crime, Drama, Gangster Movie, Underrated, Violent, Western
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman
A lot/Strong : Alcohol, Death, Gore, Language, Smoking, Torture, Violence
Some/Mild : Sex/Nudity
Overall grade: "A-"
Recommended: "Yes"
Directing: "A", Acting: "A", Visual Effects: "N/A"
Story Line: "A-", Aftertaste: "A-", Date Movie: "F"
Family Friendliness: "F", Original Concept: "No"
Recommended: "Yes"
Directing: "A", Acting: "A", Visual Effects: "N/A"
Story Line: "A-", Aftertaste: "A-", Date Movie: "F"
Family Friendliness: "F", Original Concept: "No"
It is not the violence that sets a man apart. It's the distance he's prepared to go.
Forrest Bondurant
Most mainstream movies greatly simplify the immensely complex realities of our life and crudely flatten them into a single primitive dimension by means of all sorts of dirty tricks: sugarcoating, “dumbing down”, excessively moralizing and overall foolishly and greedily sacrificing the depth and the truth on the altar of the ultimate entertainment value.
The independent movies, on the other hand, tend to selfishly mold, distort, and twist the reality, subject it to all sorts of vicious experiments for the sake of the ultimate self-expression of the artist and as a result often lose the authenticity and the relevance in a doomed chase after the scholastic art value.
That is why movies honestly attempting to tell a simple but touching Story that reflects real life in all its complexity look like rare colorful oases in the depressing gray wasteland of the modern cinema. Movies like “Lawless” or David Lynch’s "The Straight Story" manage to keep it all natural without adding any artificial ingredients: forced fake plot devices, made-up motivations, oversimplifications, oversophistications, perplexing experimentations and so forth.
The quite well written by Nick Cave ("The Proposition") screenplay for the film is based on "The Wettest County in the World"– a 2008 historical novel that in turn is based on a true story. Moreover, MattBondurant, the author of the novel, happens to be a grandchild of JackBondurant, one of the story’s main characters.
Everyone directly or indirectly involved in creating “Lawless” – from Matt Bodurant to Nick Cave to the visionary director John Hillcoat ( "The Proposition", The Road) seemed to treat the source material thoughtfully and carefully. Due to their commendable diligence “Lawless” did not become one of those numerous fake “based on true story” movies notorious for their famously nasty artificial aftertaste.
“Lawless” is not trying to analyze, explain, convince, or entertain at all costs. It does not take sides and does not have any explicit or hidden agenda, whether noble or sinister. It just masterfully tells a simple story. Despite being set relatively far in the past, the movie still manages to be relevant, engaging, touching, and thought provoking because of its strong, full-blooded connection with the real life.
Some reviewers would vehemently disagree with that. They would argue that the movie lacks cohesion and authenticity because of the way it intricately combines the lyric, almost unbelievably idyllic scenes full of poetic tenderness with the sequences of the equally unbelievable excessively grotesque violence. The truth is that such is life: mysterious, unpredictable, at times shocking, and having plenty of room for often mystically intertwined melodrama, grotesque, and violence.
Granted I am not a historian, but I did not sense anything inauthentic in the way “Lawless” tells its admittedly grotesque and violent story. The movie does not savor the violence and does not dwell on it; it simply vividly and honestly reflects it as a fact of life.
The villain of the piece, the sleazy sadistic Special Agent Charlie Rakes impressively played by Guy Pearce is definitely grotesque, but is his character over the top? To me, the detestable federal agent Charlie Rakes is not less authentic than the noble federal agent Eliot Ness from “The Untouchables”.
Instead of chasing the formidable, powerful and extremely hard to catch villains like Al Capone, Charlie Rakes focuses on a seemingly easy target – the Bondurant brothers – mere rural moonshiners Forrest (Tom Hardy, Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf). He eagerly unleashes a ruthless war on them, the war quite disproportionate to the magnitude of their crime.
It does not strike me as impossible or unbelievable that an individual who took that wicked path might possibly have had certain peculiar, sadistic in nature personality traits.
In addition, the Charlie Rakes’ grotesque brutality nicely counterbalances the rural legend of the Bondurant brothers’ “immortality”. The brothers finally got a worthy archenemy to test the validity of their bold legend.
Yet other critics were noticed condescendingly smirking at the female movie characters - Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a dancer from Chicago and Forrest Bondurant’s darling and Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local preacher and Jack Bondurant’s sweetheart.
Not being able to find any faults in the Jessica Chastain’s and Mia Wasikowska’s superb performances, the critics venomously remarked that the gifted actresses were regrettably constrained by their formulaic characters - “love interests” of the respective Bondurant brothers.
Let me remind to these critics that the events of the movie take place in Prohibition era (almost a century ago) in the rural Franklin County,Virginia and represent the bloody ruthless confrontation between the local bootleggers and the federal special agent.
Now, let me ask the critics a question: “What role, other than the love interest, do you with your undoubtedly sophisticated minds see for the female characters in this movie?” Do you want them to zealously participate in the fistfights, knifing, and fire exchanges along with the men just like the CIA agent Evelyn Salt? That would be very authentic indeed! Alternatively, maybe you want to them to be more of Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë types and happily rattle all these “Sense and Sensibility” or “Jane Eyre” lines? That would certainly be quite believable and appropriate for the movie!
That is not to say that “Lawless” does not have its faults. Its story could have been a little leaner, crispier and more focused. Some of the scenes, including the well-made scenes with the famous mobster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman in a memorable performance) should probably have been edited out as overall insignificant and unnecessary.
Not without faults, “Lawless” nevertheless boasts solid screenplay, strong directing, a beautiful cinematography (Benoît Delhomme), excellent casting (Francine Maisler), memorable acting (Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman and the rest of the acting crew), and last but not least – excellent original music score (Nick Cave, Warren Ellis).
Most importantly, “Lawless” is an engaging, masterfully and honestly told story. It can be confidently recommended for those movie lovers who can well tolerate the very strong graphic violence the movie contains.
