Lawless

By Meg Sugden

Lawless is a film set in America during 1931 about 3 brothers, Forrest, Howard and Jack, who stick together no matter what even if there life depends on it, and it does. When Charlie Rakes appears on the seen to kill them for selling alcohol illegally they do anything to keep selling and stay alive.

The story begins with a background opening, we find out where they live, what they do for a living, which is obviously produce and sell moonshine, and we also find that the youngest brother Jack has his eye on a girl that he meets at a funeral. During 1931 moonshine is still illegal to make and sell so the brother sell it secretly at the back of bars and then also deliver to houses to people who are willing to pay. At the current time they are looking for someone to help run there bar where they lived and they end up hiring Maggie, an attractive red head that is bound to cause some trouble later on.


The movie cuts on a few scenes and we see Jack witness Rakes gunning down a man to get information on the brothers, so he gathers up the bullets and takes them too his brothers to show they that someone is after him. Throughout the film there is a lot of speculation that goes around the town about the fact that Forest is immortal as he survived a lot of trauma in the past, this is actually seen as true later on as he survives a lot of things despite the odds. Later on that same day we see Rakes come round the house and beat up Jack to show his family that he can get to them whenever he wants and Forrest, the oldest brother, appears to be disappointed in him; whether this is because he sees the whole family as being invincible, I'm not sure, but he does seem to get annoyed when he's hurt, but at him not at Rakes.

Throughout the film there is the continuing romance sparking between Maggie and Forrest and this is seen more after a man pulls a gun on her in the bar and Forrest beats them up, dumping them outside. But this does not go well for him later on that night, just as hes said goodbye to Maggie for the night he is attacked outside and has his throat slit by the men from earlier. Maggie comes back to tell Forrest that she's interested and ends up being attacked by them as well as Forrest is taken to hospital having survived his injury's.

Now we see the brothers in more trouble then ever as Rakes gets closer to them with every step, especially as the brothers get more cocky and start shipping across the border as well to make more money, and they should have stayed in hiding. But Jack, being the youngest is still quite naive and takes Bertha, the lady he has his eye on, for a drive and shows her the distillery where they make moonshine. Little do they know that Rake's is following them in order to kill Jack. But as they enter the distillery Howard and Cricket, Jacks friend who walks funny after having rickets as a child, come to the rescue only for Cricket to be captures by Rakes and strangled.

As the film comes to a close we see Jack go out to get Rakes for revenge, and his brothers aren't far behind him to order to help. This then leads to a stand off between Rakes' men and the brothers and their friends only for Jack to get shot in the stomach and minutes after Forrest getting shot a number of times in the torso. Rakes starts to run but Jack and Howard track him down and kill him for good before all of them going to hospital.

The film is mainly about the relationships the brothers have. Although they might not get along all the time but when they need to save another brother they come together so easily and nothing will stop them in getting what they want. The interesting part to the story is this part about the brothers not being able to die, which is taken into the story well as you can see how people might think they are invincible, especially Forrest.