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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/29/2012 : 14:03:40
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This is a vile film. Vile. The kind of film that gives vile films a bad name.
Remember The Road - Viggo Mortensen and his kid walking, walking, walking down that long and winding road. It was terrific, the road itself being a framing device for novelist Cormac McCarthy's exploration of what it means to be human.
The film was directed with skill and atmosphere by former Australian music vid-meister John Hillcoat. Who also directed Lawless.
It, too, has been adapted from a novel called The Wettest County in the World. It's by Matt Bondurant, relative of a near-legendary boot-legging Virginia family - down-home boys whose lives appear to be spent either seeking or running from trouble. For boot-legging was a profession spawned by the Devil during America's Prohibition Era. That's Devil - with a capital D and that rhymes with T and that stands for Trouble.
I haven't read Bondurant's fictionalized version of his ancestors; I know it received some rather mixed reviews. Praised were the "lively" writing and skill at describing life's more putrid manifestations. There's mention of what might motivate the Bondurant brothers to choose a path of constant gore.
Sadly, in Hillcoat's film, only the gore oozes onto the screen. It's almost torture porn. So why are the brothers the fucking heroes! Maybe if we knew them as people, we might be tempted to watch from something other than blood lust.
I mean - what's the point? Why on earth should we care about these vile, vile people? These - and their several nemeses - are the kind of low-lifes who hit the dailies with tales of such depravity that impel folk to declare that hanging's too good for 'em.
We know, yes, yes we know already, that if such ham-fisted laws are passed and framed so conveniently for their abuse, that people will circumvent. President Kennedy's father, let's not forget, made his immense fortune during this era in the booze-running business.
If, as is hinted, Bondurant's book does fill in the gaps about these brothers - if he really has provided human stories that define the tragedy of their life-choices - well, then - then - we can watch their sad, inevitable tale evolve. And possibly be enlightened in some way, grab some meaning from this swamp tale.
But not this movie. And [I wonder why it couldn't get any studio finance a couple of years ago] - and - a movie that flows with such copious amounts of blood needs us desperately to care. Sadly, Cave's script reduces any hints of humanity to silly drop-in shots: e.g. the youngest brother, pursuing a religious-minded young woman to her daddy's church and then embarrassing himself big-time when she begins the ritualistic washing of his feet.
After about six million shots of people being punched and shot at and sliced - we sure could use more cleansing waters to remind us that's not acceptable behavior. No, no, junior. And wash behind your ears while you're at it.
Vile. It's vile. And, like the Bondurants and the Kennedys, it'll probably make a fortune.
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 12/29/2012 17:20:02 |
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Lawless
