Lawless(2012)

R
1h 56m

Release Date: Aug 29, 2012 | Wide

67%
74%
B+
7.2

Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.

Releases

Original Release | Aug 29, 2012

View Advanced Data Watch Trailer Watch on

Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$10,001,982
Total US & Canada:
$37,400,127
Total International
$18,004,080
Total Worldwide:
$55,404,207

Current Showtimes

Your Location or

(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

John Hillcoat
Director

Warren Ellis

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital,Datasat,SDDS

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

During the Prohibition era, the Bondurant brothers -- Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) -- run a successful liquor bootlegging business in Franklin County, Virginia, with the help of their friend, Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan), using their bar as a front for their illegal activities.One day, Jack witnesses mobster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) eliminating a competitor and they exchange looks before Jack returns to the bar, where Forrest hires Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a dancer from Chicago, to be their new waitress. Shortly afterwards, the bar is visited by brutal Special Agent Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), on behalf of District Attorney Mason Wardell. Rakes informs Forrest that he wants a cut of all profit made by Franklin's bootleggers, but Forrest refuses and threatens to kill Rakes if he returns. Forrest later meets with the other bootleggers and convinces them to stand up to Rakes as well, though they eventually give in to Rakes' violent intimidation tactics.Meanwhile, Jack meets Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local preacher. He attends the church drunk and makes a fool of himself, causing Bertha's father to forbid her from seeing him, which only makes her more interested in Jack, with whom she flirts. Jack later finds Rakes raiding Cricket's house in search of his distilation equipment. When they don't find it, Rakes brutally beats Jack when he tries to intervene. Forrest hears of this and tells Jack that he needs to learn how to fight for himself.Forrest and Howard arrange to meet with potential clients from Chicago, but Howard misses his appointment to get drunk with a friend, and Forrest ends up beating the two men with Cricket's help when they harrass Maggie. Later, after Cricket leaves, the men return, slash Forrest's throat, and rape Maggie.Howard and Jack meet a surviving Forrest at the hospital, and Jack decides to travel to Chicago with Cricket to sell the liquor. Arriving there, they are doublecrossed by their clients, but are rescued by Banner, who recognizes Jack. Banner already knows of the attack on Forrest, as well as the identities of the two assailants, and he provides Jack with their address, and also advises Jack that they are working for Rakes. Forrest and Howard later find, torture, and kill the men to send a message to Rakes.Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who move their distilation equipment to the woods and have great profit. The money allows Jack to continue courting Bertha, while Forrest begins a relationship with Maggie after she moves into the bar for her safety, though she doesn't tell him she was raped.Jack eventually decides to show Bertha the distilation center, but they are ambushed by Rakes and his men, who had followed her. Howard incapacitates Rakes and Jack nearly kills him before they are forced to flee from Rakes's men with Bertha and Cricket, who is later recaptured and murdered by Rakes, who snaps his neck. Wanting revenge for Cricket's death, Jack goes to confront Rakes and his men at a roadblock in the local bridge. Howard follows after him, rallying the bootleggers to come to their aid. Forrest decides to join them, though Maggie tries to dissuade him, telling him that it was she who had found him with his throat slashed and took him to the hospital. Forrest realizes then that she was also attacked that night, but Maggie continues to deny having been raped.The bootleggers engage Rakes' men in a violent firefight, during which Rakes shoots Forrest multiple times before being shot in the leg and attempting to escape. A wounded Jack follows him to the bridge and shoots Rakes in the chest, wounding him. Howard later stabs Rakes with a large knife and leaves him to bleed to death. With Rakes and his men dead, the Bondurant Brothers decide to save their money and retire after Prohibition ends. Jack marries Bertha, Forrest marries Maggie, and Howard marries a local woman, all having children. During a reunion at Jack's house, Forrest drunkly dances on a frozen lake and falls into the freezing water, dying of pneumonia a few weeks later. from wikipedia.org

Storyline

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. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Three rebellious, bootlegging brothers find the elusive American Dream within their reach, and fight to maintain their grip as powerful urban gangsters reap the rewards of their hard work in this sprawling Great Depression-era crime drama from director John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition). At the height of Prohibition, ambitious country boy Jack Bondurant dreams of becoming "Public Enemy #1" while reaping all the benefits that go with the gangster lifestyle. By expanding his family's moon shining business, he plots to launch a vast criminal empire while winning the heart of beautiful Amish girl Bertha. With his older, intimidating brother Howard by his side, Jack has the brawn to get the job done, too. But they need a strong leader to guide them -- a responsibility that falls on their eldest sibling Forrest. Stoic and stalwart, Forrest is the kind of man who holds his cards close, and places a high value on character. Meanwhile, as the three siblings rise to power while battling treachery on both sides of the law, a mysterious woman named Maggie appears out of nowhere, prompting the thoughtful Forrest to question the true price of his outlaw ways. In 1931, the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Va., run a multipurpose backwoods establishment that hides their true business, bootlegging. Middle brother Forrest (Tom Hardy) is the brain of the operation; older Howard (Jason Clarke) is the brawn, and younger Jack (Shia LaBeouf), the lookout. Though the local police have taken bribes and left the brothers alone, a violent war erupts when a sadistic lawman (Guy Pearce) from Chicago arrives and tries to shut down the Bondurants operation. — krmanirethnam The three Bondurant brothers run a bootlegging operation during the depression, up in the mountains of Franklin County, Virginia. Crooked Special Deputy Charles Rakes is after a share of the brothers' profits. Compounding their troubles, the local competition is elbowing in on their activities. Forrest's boisterous defiance and Cricket's knack for moonshine production help the brothers gain a local monopoly. When Forrest is wounded as tension with Rakes escalates, Jack, initially the timid one, must prove his worth against gangster Floyd Banner's mob, and we see him metamorphose into a cocky exhibitionist in his attempts to woo the off-limits preacher's daughter, Bertha. — Anonymous