Film Review: Lawless

I had been looking forward to seeing this film for some time and none of it disappointed with the quality I had expected from the writer director team of Nick Cave and John Hillcoat, who had previously made the film The Proposition.

The only thing that I was not prepared for was the level of extreme violence and the number of times it occurs throughout the film. It was a little under two hours, but for the amount of times I had my eyes and ears blocked, for me it might have been just a little over an hour, or maybe less.

The acting in this, is beyond reproach. Guy Pearce especially, is a truly scary piece of work, which considering the other hard bitten characters, is saying something.

Tom Hardy, Shia La Beouf, Jason Clarke, portray the three Bondurant brothers, who as the narration by Mr La Beouf's character says in the opening, are known to be "Invincible" in the town they live in.
They are making moonshine, a dangerous business to be involved in and despite their status, no one gets away scot free, and its a bloody battle for all three of them.

Gary Oldman brings his considerable acting ability to the film, as does Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska.

This is a stunningly made film and every actor in this film is unrecognisable, only the characters are visible.

Five stars, ten out of ten and full marks.

Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator18 November 2012 at 20:30

    This quote comes from a TV Show that is also quite intense in themes and violence, but in between, has some funny black humour to liven things up.

    “John Mitchell: So, you've just arrived at Hogwarts, which house do they put you in?
    George Sands: I'd like to say Gryffindor, but they're supposed to be brave. What's the other one? Ravenclaw, does that have a characteristic?
    John Mitchell: I think they're brainy. You could be in Ravenclaw.
    Annie: I quite fancy Hufflepuff actually. I've always thought in Hufflepuff they just spend the day making stuff with safety scissors and glitter.
    George Sands: What about you?
    John Mitchell: I think that they'd say - It's probably best if you just stay in the canteen for the next five years.
    Annie: Does anyone ever 'choose' Slytherin?
    George Sands: No, because that would be like saying 'I'm a sociopath.”

    ReplyDelete

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