Following up on Thunder
Road (1958) and in stark contrast to Deliverance
(1972, whose murderous mountain men might
be moonshiners), Lawless (dir. John
Hillcoat, 2014) presents the mountain men of 1920s and 1930s Virginia who brew and sell illegal whiskey as fierce
individualists trying to live their lives the way they want to live, and who
react violently when political corruption pressures them to join a local
syndicate and pay monthly “protection” to the county attorney. Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) is the center
of this drama, a stolid, unspeaking man who accepts interference from no
one. He reacts with violence to anyone
who challenges him. He’s also the object
of many threats. In the film his throat
is cut and he’s shot multiple times, but he always manages to recover. Some people who know him joke that he must be
immortal, and it’s suggested that Forrest and his brothers Holland and Jack
might believe that story.
Lawless believes
in the Bondurant brothers. It shows
their lives together and individually.
It traces the develop of romantic relationships between Jack Bondurant
and Bertha (Mia Wasikowska) , a local young Mennonite girl, and between Forrest
and Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a former nightclub dancer from
Chicago. Maggie is as hard bitten as
Forrest. But neither she nor Bertha look
much like women who would have lived in the Virginia moonshine country of the
1930s.
It’s not clear that Forrest is an innovative or
forward-thinking man. He’s stubborn and
insistent on doing things his own way and he likes things organized and
efficient, and that helps account for the success of his moonshining
operations. His youngest brother Jack (Shia
LaBoeuf) , on the other hand, is ambitious.
As the younger brother, he often isn’t taken seriously, even when he
offers to step up his involvement in his brother’s business. He wants a shiny car and snappy clothes. He’s afraid of violence and confrontation, so
he has to battle those inclinations.
He’s also careless and rash, and much that goes wrong in the film is
somehow his fault.
