Lawless (film)

Lawless is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by John Hillcoat. The screenplay by Australian singer-screenwriter Nick Cave is based on Matt Bondurant's historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008). The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.

The film is about the violent conflict between three bootlegging brothers–Forrest (Hardy), Howard (Clarke), and Jack Bondurant (LaBeouf)–and the ruthless Deputy Charley Rakes (Pearce) and his men, who try to shut down the brothers' Prohibition-era moonshine business after Forrest refuses to pay the cops off. The film was in development for about three years before being produced. It screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was theatrically released on August 29, 2012.

Plot

In 1931, the Bondurant brothers—Forrest, Howard and Jack—are running a successful moonshine business in Franklin County, in the Virginia Piedmont region. After selling several crates of moonshine to an African-American wake-party, they are accosted and threatened by a group of men in an attempt to rob them but Forrest effortlessly knocks the leader of the group to the ground with a single punch with a knuckle-duster, leaving the man lying on the ground semi-conscious and spitting out bits of teeth and blood. They use their gas station and restaurant as a front for their illegal activities, and their friend Cricket Pate assists them in their endeavors. One day, Jack witnesses mobster Floyd Banner shooting a competitor, and Jack and Floyd exchange looks.

Lawless

Lawless may refer to:

Films

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Tom Hardy

Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy (born 15 September 1977) is an English actor, screenwriter, and producer. He made his debut in Ridley Scott's 2001 war film Black Hawk Down. Hardy's other notable films include the science fiction film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), the crime film RocknRolla (2008), biographical psychological drama Bronson (2008), science fiction thriller Inception (2010), sports drama Warrior (2011), Cold War espionage film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), crime drama Lawless (2012), drama Locke (2013), mobster film The Drop (2014), and the biographical western thriller The Revenant (2015), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also portrayed Bane in the superhero film The Dark Knight Rises (2012), "Mad" Max Rockatansky in the post-apocalyptic film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and both Kray twins in the crime thriller Legend (2015).

Hardy's television roles include the HBO war drama miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the BBC historical drama miniseries The Virgin Queen (2005), ITV's Wuthering Heights (2008), the Sky 1 drama series The Take (2009), and the BBC British historical crime drama television series Peaky Blinders (2013).

Film

A film, also called a movie, motion picture or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession. A film is created by photographing actual scenes with a motion picture camera; by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques; by means of CGI and computer animation; or by a combination of some or all of these techniques and other visual effects. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to the industry of films and filmmaking or to the art of filmmaking itself. The contemporary definition of cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere by the means of recorded or programmed moving images along with other sensory stimulations.

The process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry.

Shia LaBeouf

Shia Saide LaBeouf (ⁱ/ˈʃaɪ.ə ləˈbʌf/; born June 11, 1986) is an American actor, performance artist, and director who became known among younger audiences as Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens. LaBeouf received a Young Artist Award nomination in 2001 and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2003 for his role. He made his film debut in Holes (2003), based on the novel of the same name by Louis Sachar. In 2004, he made his directorial debut with the short film Let's Love Hate and later directed a short film titled Maniac (2011), starring American rappers Cage and Kid Cudi.

In 2007, LaBeouf starred in the commercially successful films Disturbia and Surf's Up. The same year he was cast in Michael Bay's science fiction film Transformers as Sam Witwicky, the main protagonist of the series. Despite mixed reviews, Transformers was a box office success and one of the highest grossing films of 2007. LaBeouf later appeared in its sequels Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), both also box office successes. In 2008, he played Henry "Mutt Williams" Jones III in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise. His other films include Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Lawless (2012), The Company You Keep (2012), Nymphomaniac (2013) and Fury (2014).