Lawless

2012
R
1h 56m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

256K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:29

True Crime Biography Crime Drama Thriller

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.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.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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

256K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,397

106

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 8 nominations

Videos16

"Have You Met Howard?"

Clip 0:52

"Maggie Meets Forrest"

Clip 0:47

"Forrest Lectures Jack"

Photos201

+ 195

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The movie is based on actual events, as explained in the 2008 book "The Wettest County in the World" by Matt Bondurant, grandson of Jack Bondurant.

Goofs
The movie is set in the 1930s, at one point a character is loading a shotgun with plastic shotgun shells, but plastic shells weren't introduced until the 1960s. During the period of the movie shotgun shells were made of thick paper with a metal bottom for the primer.

Quotes
Forrest Bondurant: It is not the violence that sets men apart, alright, it is the distance that he is prepared to go.

Crazy credits
The real Bondurant brothers are shown, as children, fourteen years before the events in the film, just prior to the end credits.

Alternate versions
9 seconds of gory violence were removed for an R rating in the US. The film was released uncut internationally (including Canada).

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Cannes Film Festival 2012 (2012)

Soundtracks
Fire and Brimstone
Written by Link Wray (as Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr.)
Performed by The Bootleggers
Featuring Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan appears courtesy of 4 AD Ltd.

User reviews370

Review

Featured review

8/10

Much better than most Hollywood fare

Reading the other reviews, I'm amused by the number of reviewers who don't have a clue about how southern rural hill people behave (and esp. behaved back in the 1920s). They accuse Hardy, and to some extent LaBeouf, of bad acting because their characters are so laconic (that means they don't run off at the mouth a lot) and inward and don't wear every emotion on their sleeves. Then they mightily praise Oldman and Pearce for great acting when they were, in fact, just playing northern urban gangsters who like to behave over the top---the very thing that disgusts southern sensibilities.

The folks making those review comments have probably spent too much time watching movies based on comic books and not enough time with dramatic characters representing actual human beings. So don't pay attention to their noise.

Instead, watch the flick. It's good. I enjoyed it.