LAWLESS | The True Story of the Wettest County in the World

we'd like to come around me sometime know who you are oh yeah who's that one of them bond grand boys my daddy says you boys are the worst thing ever to hit Franklin tell you dad yesterday these were the new American I think even involved certainly legal activity this is really about the bond the state's brothers I'm the one who's going to make your life feel difficult from now on if you don't pull the line in country boy I need all day down low by any idea what a constant submachine gun does to immortal this dynamic it's shocking and the love story is really moving the flower amidst this kind of Keio workable it is not violence except manpower the distance that he's prepared to go everything's bubbling underneath and at any moment the whole things about to blow this is their story this is what happens you know this is a true story of prohibition-era gangsters story for me it began with discovery elusive articles that described an incident in December of nineteen thirty at a bridge over a creek called magnetic reconnection Callie where some officers actually shot my grandfather and his brother Forrest when they were trying to transport some liquor across the county [Music] [Applause] this colonial period there's a long-standing tradition of gentleman farmers and poor farmers from making their own liquor and Franklin County was sort of an ideal location for moonshine wherever you could hide that's where you would find a lot of liquor and in West Virginia you could hide quite easily you know at the time all they had was their skill and their skills at least for this family was making liquor [Music] in Franklin County if you wanted to make any kind of extra money there were few possibilities the more you talk to the people that were involved in bootlegging they were all good people they were just trying to get by with a couple bags of sugar you could make a product that you could sell the problem came with prohibition and the fact that liquor was suddenly made illegal wasn't gonna solve them if anything they found an opportunity to actually make a lot of money out of it when Prohibition comes into effect it had a kind of unusual impact because suddenly there was more demand for the liquor they were producing prices went up the money became better and more people started making it and it was sort of high time for Franklin County this area became the new gold rush and a lot of people moved into West Virginia on top of long grass [Music] people weren't allowed to make alcoholic drink publicly in pictures so this whole idea of an underground society I think really kind of took off and clearly you know black market and the under that syllogistic go prohibition created the biggest crime wave in history at that time there was such an appetite there that the street folks in the big cities moved up a notch like Capone and literally overnight they became powerful mobsters in terms of control over who was gonna distribute and sell the liquor this family the Bondurant were spearheading this rebellion in the 30s and the coolest thing you could be if to be a bootleg driver the bootlegger was a super hero of the time a lot of it was going on in a very offhand friendly sort of way so what Whatman sheriff you know the sheriff's deputy was somebody that you gave him an extra case of liquor you know didn't seem so much like bribes but as a way of just kind of you know greasing the tracks as they say turn off your phone but when the combo attorney organized the thing and had the money all funneling up to him is when things changed and it became a system government operation basically extorting money from all these individual people and that's when the brother said we're not going to go along with it we're not going to do it all right force we got a chance to make a good stack of money here while getting this good well for things to run smooth you got the here useful tracks on a bond Iran and we don't lay down from the body will continue to operate free and clear and always me I'll never pay no money no Mesa Wardell or mixed in blood 7 come out date it's a classic sort of American story of the little guy refusing to give in you know refusing to go along with which is sort of the story of the Appalachian the three brothers are really representative of the small town that I live in Internet I stick by each other's I have a great tend to respect for each other and they and they protect each other really at the hardest movie is about family trying to overcome these many problems that they're dealing with all at once it's about a family falling apart it's a survivors tale about these three brothers who had so much against them I think their strength came from their relationships with each other as long as you are my brother you will never let this happen again dealer Gideon I don't think you do jack it is not the violence that sets a man apart all right it is the distance that he's prepared to go these brothers became almost like legends in Franklin County they were like immortal because they kept surviving so many brutal encounters Forrest particularly seems unstoppable it's sort of a mythology about him I suppose I mean he got shot a number of times he got into numerous fight you know situations with normal people would either bow out or die me one of the most interesting aspects of their story was that rather started believing their own immortality is a feeling around these parts that correspond Iran is different than other folks different indestructible do you mean immortal [ __ ] Beauty Hicks or a sideshow into yourself Jack Bondurant is my father and of Jack Bondurant Jr he was kind of a rascal type he never really helped a full-time job for a long period of time and of course we did do a lot of moonshining partner oh that's the stupidest thing I were senior you some kind of ingenious so the youngest brother in the story is Jackie and that is my grandfather at the time he's 18 years old he's a young man he wasn't a particularly talkative person he had that kind of Stoicism that runs in my family and also in Franklin County he is young its impressionable he so much wants to be like the larger-than-life characters the Cagney's of the world i lo fell across the counter I'll take your whole world my goals although and yet actually Jack's got a broader vision he's got a business sense that they don't have done envision husbands come straight get out of here he's got ambition to go beyond the compliance of this little backward family I'm done we take a scrap grand wash car going wash you tell me where you wanna go the lease so he gets them into blockading which is moving the liquor across the county line selling to other people you know expanding the operation and hold for $5 old barrel that's twiced you get writer $2,000 last my commission the whole thing is bubbling underneath and is threatening to erupt at any moment and then at the same time there's two really beautiful love stories it creates this kind of tension I'm Maggie Beaufort what really drew me to the character was the love story between Maggie and forests I like that it was too damaged people that have one shot at happiness and the other person my I thought I was really moving it's like hopefully photography must be Ginga brand if you think I'm an idiot in the car with the likes of you Shawna's love story with Mia is very classic and old-school you sure got a funny way accord and Jack bomb that is what you're doing right course it's so beautiful and so lyrically old-fashioned yeah and action I'm Maggie broke one of the things that's really special about this from other performances Tom Hardy Jessica Chastain Shire Mia Wasikowska Gary Oldman it's a cuff that was quite spectacular just reading the names on the page let alone seeing how that transformed on screen Tom Hardy plays Forrest Bondurant and it's so brilliant that Tom is playing the role because he is the most exciting actor I've seen in a long time oh boy he is just extraordinary and brings a weight and integrity and a power to the screen that is incredibly compelling and I have to go up against this guy the first thing that we have together is me feeling like I'm running rings around this guy and not being intimidated by him and it was very difficult because he is like a mountain piece and rail is their son of a [ __ ] me I'm the one who's going to make your life a little difficult from now on if you don't fold the line country boy don't you ever touch me I take characters if they come that interests me to have a diversity of different ranges that colors that characteristics that are interesting and trying to find paradoxes and dichotomies of man and also habitability be so violent yeah the same time could be such a little boy and so intrinsically innocent and naive and have such a heart but you could do something so incredibly horrible where their fault from is in the middle you saw them at the end of this film you know this place care about that question when I get involved with the film most important thing is who am i working with and knowing that my things are gonna be with Tom Hardy was a huge plus well Jessica Chastain another extraordinary actor plays Maggie who is a girl from Chicago who for whatever reason had to get out of town I saw it was abundantly she sort of brings a beautiful feminine energy to this to this group of to the dirties brothers you just got to watch me forever this completely catches forest off-guard she she undoes him what you know you ain't never gonna believe what I just seen slaw diner shoot the tires on a game eighty you call right smack in the middle talents Dan Tommy good long bed a little better oh hey look here middle all out think about you got you in his showcases cream oh thanks Jay Shia LeBeouf plays Jack Bondurant the younger of the tree and clearly the young buck with all the stars in his eyes and excitement about leading a life that isn't hindered by parental pressure or authority structure who is it you want to appraise you from that church for Chile her daddy over there he's only a preacher this song is really a coming-of-age tale jock looks up to just two really tough brothers and he wants to be like somebody can't rather jack horse I got no aspirations just leaks on that from 4chan who somebody who's afraid of violence and afraid of standing up for himself it's a story of becoming a man jack is sort of he's like the lion from The Wizard of Oz but in Reverse right he has a whole lot of heart and that's the hindrance you first meet him he's full of empathy and that empathy is hindering his criminal career not gonna shoot me yeah look at you boom coup how long mother we start talking about soul Vani off herself relation in cancer I play Bertha she's a young Mennonite and she's grown up very sheltered and protected she a really independent spirit and I thought her story was really cool I kind of admired the journey that she went on you can sit down that gate you shake your head talking about daddy this daddy that you dream face or you can comment off that guy with a little bit it's on my car I get a cold on burgers the best part there's cousin fear behind there's stuff yeah she got a price tag on account I have a crush on me I had a crush on Mia before I have a crush on me and now I had a crush all the way through doing this film when she landed it was heavy and hard immediately I was all over me actually I thought he was scared of me at first so hats off to her because I was full blown in saying when she landed she's a very strong person to be able to get past all that we exploit been a Gary Oldman plays Floyd banner and we wanted Floyd banner to be this kind of and all that kind of city gangs - ain't no honor in the business anything shoot him Gary he has that power and you just feel like his part of that world and he is just phenomenal that's impressive [Applause] I'll give you $4 or keep it for yourself Gary Oldman is one of the greatest actors to ever do this he's the guy I would like to be in real life and it's that in the story so you know a lot of the things that were happening in real life completely mirrored what we were filming goes till about 20k look you are i play Charlie Reich who was a city cop brought down from Chicago who has a real disdain for country folk and action curious that's all it was perfume he's dressed the way that he used that to makes it at the same time he's incredibly violent and incredibly corrupt and I think the local police and the mayor and the various people that have involved them suddenly realized that he's actually more trouble than the bootleggers mr. town guy Pearce's I promise you Matt professional needs to know every single little thing about everything about his character and why is doing this and why is doing that in the grabbing is what tentative like ultimately the biggest challenge for me is being convincing is just playing somebody who feels real and honest even in the extremity of their personality and particularly if somebody is extreme I like his haircut it's pretty spooky haircut I had going hey Mark you looking for me son John very creative and encouraging he's got aggression as if humans it's so awful to be around I had insight he loves extremities he loves crazy strange things and so you come up with things that you know why I'm drawn to working with him I think that's why people enjoy John thrust detectors and to always feel like I'm part of a collaboration in an ensemble which can be is very important you do like is ready the one thing you can come away from John's films with is that they're all very visceral tangible he works at the truth of the documentarian he the truth here and you know there's not many guys who really work like that anymore I love those great American genre films I grew up watching them and what was interesting when I came across this book is I thought hang on is this a Western or a gangster film and I realized what this was a hybrid where one ended and the other began and cut as we were looking for a writer to adapt the book John Hill caught up in a cave and one things that was exciting to us right away was taking a rock-and-roll guy a guy who makes music about liberation about defying Authority about breaking out and that was so much the right spirit to it to write about bootlegging never gonna believe what iris lee this particular story was the right kind of movie for me and John to me it's something that's extremely exciting to be in the process of rehearsing with the actors and see the words come alive greater I was in the film actually but I was played a dead gangster at the start of the film there's a gangster that's all shot up in a car and that's me when you start a movie with Nic Cage you're going to know you're going to have a script that has dialogue that nobody else could ever write and you're going to have amazing music the idea really was to take a bunch of contemporary songs and perform them in a style that was similar to the style of that period the reason for that but it was that we thought that there were themes within the film that were contemporary things especially prohibition and the continuing war on drugs Nick and Warren Ellis who is his musical partner created a great mixture of the kind of iconic voices of country with their musical sensibility these Velvet Underground song called white light/white Heat while I [Music] a great one for us was to also get the credible voice of Emmylou Harris you can [Music] I got mudbud Emmylou Harris only has to open her mouth and she breaks your heart and so we used an eclectic mix of songs that you wouldn't expect and the great country voices even Willie Nelson saying something did not run now cold our roll load a little child on a flatbed people tend to focus on the city gangsters but we wanted to look at it foot soldiers people in the Hills were actually making the illegal liquor oh man we drown everything I actually think it's about family more than a family's falling apart trying to keep all the loose ends together it's them against the rest of the world [Music] goddag on one of the things that I think makes the movie so singular is this combination as hard at men doing violent things and the softness that they have in terms of love stories the most beautiful love story that I came in one time the combination of ensemble is electric and very exciting baby play distinct foot there you go down said okay you know how can we join forces to create something which is clearly fabulous the outlaw was the rock star they were the people who were fighting for the pieces it's a fascinating time in American history at all based on a true story which makes it even more remarkable [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Annapurna Pictures

Views: 973,132

Rating: 4.8603473 out of 5

Keywords: lawless, trailer, featurette, deleted, scene, promo, annapurna pictures, john hillcoat, nick cave, shia labeouf, tom hardy, guy pearce, jessica chastain, mia waskiowska, jason clarke, gary oldman, action, thriller, drama, movie, film, official, hd

Id: uxxtYXWUsfk

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2017