Set during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s the Bondurant brothers dominate the moonshine business. Eldest brother, Forrest Bondurant (Hardy), is the brains behind the operation; middle brother Howard (Jason Clarke), is the brawn and youngest brother Jack (LaBeouf) is the driver. The Bondurants and the lawmen of Franklin County have an understanding – as long as the law gets their share, they can operate. That all changes when Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Pearce) rolls into town to crack down on the bootleggers of the land.

It took a bit of cajoling for me to watch this movie. A gangster movie? No thanks. A western? Again, no thanks. But I’ll admit it, I have become a sucker for Tom Hardy. I seem to be one of the few people who enjoyed This Means War and following The Dark Knight Rises I had to go and watch Warrior. So with that in mind I agreed to sit down and watch Lawless. I was pleasantly surprised. The story is good, the acting is great – standouts for me were Tom Hardy (of course) and Guy Pearce, who was just plain evil. There is lots of shooting and blood, but that seems to go with the territory. What makes it more amazing is that it’s based on a true story – based on the book “The Wettest County in the World”, written by Jack’s grandson Matt Bondurant.