Lawless (11/27/2012)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity.

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce

Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road)

Lawless is gritty, raw and very violent.

Lawless is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic gangster tale, inspired by true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant’s family in his novel “The Wettest County In The World”, the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation’s most notorious crime wave.
I love westerns, I love true stories and (I’ll admit) I love gritty films. So yeah, I like movies like Pulp Fiction, 300 and Last Man Standing. Never heard of Last Man Standing? I bring it up for two reasons, it’s very similar to Lawless and it stars Bruce Willis…enough said. But I’m not going to stop there…I love Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Guy Pearce. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to see this film.

I’m gonna start with the cast Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy are so good. They are on the two extremes as far as emotions go…Hardy plays a man who is tough as nails and barely says a word, while LaBeouf is an outspoken character who wears his emotions on his sleeve. But Guy Pearce is the real stand out. He is so good at being bad…I hated him from his first scene to his very last. And that’s pretty impressive since I’m such a huge fan of his. The real disappointment was Gary Oldman. When we first see him, he is a take no prisoner kind of guy. Then he disappears for a while. He pops up once or twice more but I kept thinking surely he’s going to play a huge role in then ending…nope…he just disappears. I’m still wondering what happened to him.

Secondly, the story is a typical prohibition story. Bootleggers fighting against corrupt authority – and this authority is off the charts corrupt. The thing I really liked about this one was the fact that it was true. The thing I didn’t like about it is the lack of any “true heroes.” The Bondurant Brothers are clearly the “good guys” but when the good guys are violent, uneducated bootleggers, it leaves a real void in the hero department.

Finally there is the violence. Director John Hillcoat is known for making movies (like The Road) that are difficult to watch. I’m not going to lie, there were more than a few times that I squirmed in my seat and looked away from the screen. I mean when you see and hear that sound of a man’s face being punched in with brass knuckles…it’s pretty unsettling.

Lawless has a fantastic cast telling a fascinating true story, but with the sex, nudity and violence (see below), I just can’t score this movie higher than a “Rental.”

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
There is one sex scene and two scenes where we see a woman naked. There are around 30 f-bombs, two-dozen s-words and a variety of other obscenities that are used throughout.

The violence is pretty brutal and gory throughout the film. The squeamish may have trouble with several scenes, and some of these scenes have a rather disturbing mood (in particular, the implied rape of a woman, a sudden throat slashing, and the off-screen castration of two bad guys.)

Conversation Starter

1. Have you ever heard of a rule you didn’t agree with?


2. What was the rule?


3. How did you respond to the rule?


4. How did the Bondurant Brothers respond to prohibition?


5. Read Romans 13:1
   
   Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
   
   According to that verse, what should we do about __________? The answer to question #3 & 4)


6. In the future, how should we respond to rules…whether we agree or disagree with them?