Author Matt Bondurant’s fictionalized account of his family, “The Wettest County in the World,” has become the Weinstein Company’s critically applauded epic gangster film “Lawless.”
A thrillingly vivid slice of American outlaw history from acclaimed director John Hillcoat (“The Road”), “Lawless” will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma) starting Oct. 24.
“Lawless” is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: three bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia.
The film gathers an ensemble of gifted, dynamic new-generation stars—Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan—alongside two of the finest actors of their generations, Guy Pearce and Gary Oldman.
Nothing but trouble
The notorious gangster Al Capone observed that “Prohibition has made nothing but trouble,” and “I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.”
While his bailiwick was Chicago by way of Canada, the Bondurant brothers in Virginia would have heartily agreed. Brazen rebels, the Bondurant boys—Howard, Forrest and Jack—ran a flourishing family bootleg business in Franklin County, Virginia, where the hills glowed orange from the light of countless illegal stills.
“Lawless” began when Matt Bondurant decided to write a fictional account of the very picaresque exploits of his paternal grandfather Jack and grand-uncles Forrest and Howard. Though “The Wettest County in the World” was inspired by true events, it isn’t entirely factual.
As he writes in the author’s note: “The basics of this story are drawn from various family stories and anecdotes, newspaper headlines and articles and court transcripts… However, this historical information does not help us fully understand the central players in this story, at least in terms of their situation or what their thoughts were; all involved are now deceased and little record exists. There are no letters, and my grandfather and his brothers did not keep diaries. My task in writing this book was to fill in the blank spaces of known record. There are family stories… and these memories and stories are vague, and often specious at best, mixed with several decades of rumor, gossip and myth… My intention was to reach the truth that lies beyond the poorly recorded and understood world of actualities.”
Rhapsodic reviews
The book, published in 2008, garnered rhapsodic reviews and won two early, ardent fans in Red Wagon producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher.
Says Wick: “The book was overflowing with moments of hard men and their softness; fierce, violent behavior intertwined with silent moments of desire and longing; vivid flesh-and-blood pain mixed with legends of indestructibly. You could not read the book without imagining performances.”
Rachel Shane, executive vice president at Red Wagon Entertainment, alerted her bosses to the book before its publication. Red Wagon quickly secured the movie rights to the novel.
“I knew my grandfather when I was a young man, but I certainly didn’t know him as an 18-year-old, so there’s a lot of artistic license that I took. I knew the movie would take that one step further and that seemed natural,” Bondurant says.
Director Hillcoat realized “Lawless” offered an opportunity to tackle two of his favorite genres in an intrepid and innovative way.
“I loved the world of the novel. I love westerns, but I was actually looking for a gangster movie. I had really struggled with that over the years because there were so many fantastic gangster movies, I was hard-pressed to find one with anything new to say. And this was new. It was like a western as well as a gangster film. I hadn’t seen a gangster film in the rural landscape since ‘Bonnie & Clyde.’ And moonshine has mostly been treated in comedies like ‘Smokey and the Bandit.’ This was based on a true story, which was incredible. It felt vivid and alive and unique,” Hillcoat says.
