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In 1931 Virginia, backwoods brothers dealing in moonshine are not so much concerned with their competitors as they are with the new (and utterly corrupt) deputy in-cahoots with the weak-willed local law. Screenwriter Nick Cave, adapting Matt Bondurant's factual book, writes pummeling scenes of violence, all of which director John Hillcoat appears to revel in. For every interesting scene of human interaction, there are two or more sequences of bloody brutality (culminating in a castration bit--apparently played for a squeamish guffaw--which is as purposeless as it is revolting). The well-produced picture has a solid cast, though it wastes its actors on poorly-conceived material (particularly Gary Oldman, in a glorified cameo, playing a suave gangster who just about evaporates). And with whom are we supposed to root for? These siblings, hellbent on retaliation, are just as nasty and ruthless as their enemies. ** from ****

First, Tom Hardy is one of my favorite all-time actors. His slow, lackadaisical manner in this movie is so much like Southern "boys", then and now. No, I am not exactly a Southern Boy, but I served with a number of them in the Military. I am a transplanted Lower Indiana boy, in the East. This movie will get my third viewing, having finished watching it 2x already. The comment by "WildBullWriter" is spot on: Southern rural hill people. Unless one understands the guts and glory of the hard-scrubbed rural folk across our land in the 1900s through WWII, they will not understand how historical fiction speaks to historical reality in this film. Guy Pearce as Charlie Rakes is superb in his role as a Chicago "gangsta". Ruthless to his core, Rakes "gets his" in the end. Country folk never have cared much for the high falutin Dandies from the big cities! 😃