Australian director Justin Kurzel adapts true events and delivers a gripping thriller about a notorious hate group in the United States, as well as a cautionary tale about the current heirs of white supremacists.
Based on the non-fiction book ‘The Silent Brotherhood’ by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, ‘The Order’ by Justin Kurzel, takes its name from the white supremacist terrorist organization who murdered three people and committed numerous robberies with the intention of provoking a race war.
The group was inspired by the racist book ‘The Turner Diaries’, which takes center stage in Kurzel’s film. Called the “bible of the racist right” by the FBI, it describes the necessary steps to start a revolution in the United States that will lead to the overthrow of the federal government and a race war culminating in the extermination of non-whites and Jews. “The day of the noose,” neo-Nazi author William Luther Pierce calls it.
If all of this sounds worrying to you regarding the “Jews will not replace us” chants led by white supremacists in Charlottesville, the 2021 Capitol insurrection and the gallows prepared for former Vice President Mike Pence, is by design. ‘Turner Diaries’ has inspired numerous acts of violence and remains go-to reading for many active hate groups and domestic terrorists. This resonance with current extremism and the divided political landscape of the United States is at the core of ‘The Order,’ although go back in time to 1983.
‘The Order’ an extremist thriller from the 80s
We meet him FBI agent Terry Husk (a mustachioed, gum-chewing Jude Law), who arrives in Coeur d’Alene, in northwestern Idaho, where he quickly locates several posters and pamphlets belonging to the Aryan Nation.
His eyes are trained, as the gray-haired veteran has earned a reputation for investigate the KKK and similar racist factions. He soon discovers, with the help of local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), that a Ever-expanding hate group is preparing something bigpreceded by a series of bank robberies, armored van robberies and bomb attacks.
Although hate groups don’t typically rob banks, ‘The Order’ leader Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult) is on his way to create a militiatired of the “all talk, no action” stance of hate preacher Reverend Richard Butler and his Church of Jesus Christ Christian.
“We are in the middle of a war,” Mathews tells his flock. And his intention is to carry it out, even if that means sacrificing himself and not seeing his precious lineage prosper: “One thing that never dies is the fame of the deeds of a dead man.”
After shocking films like ‘Snowtown’, ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ and ‘Nitram’, the Australian filmmaker Kurzel continues to impress when it comes to depicting violence in a realistic and forceful way. From bank robberies and resounding gunshots to the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron), the violence seems choreographed without seeming affected.
In this sense, and thanks to the stellar work of editor Nick Fentonit’s not hard to compare some of the heists, shootouts, and cat-and-mouse game between Husk and Mathews to Michael Mann’s ‘Heat,’ and even David Mackenzie’s underrated crime western ‘Hell or High Water.’ ‘The Order’ may not reach the same levels or impress in the same way as these films, but it remains a gripping thriller throughout.
The story and its plots can be predictable at times -the dour old agent who teams up with the eager rookie who has everything to lose-, but the performances carry ‘The Order’ forward. Jude Law and Nicolas Hoult convince in their two roles, and the latter takes the cake as a subtly charismatic embodiment of everyday evil. Thanks to the strength of Hoult’s performance, the film becomes a disturbing cautionary tale about today.
The Order may have been dismantled and some of its members remain behind bars, but Christian nationalism and the extreme branches of the MAGA crowd demonstrate that, regardless of what form their beliefs take, the descendants of the real-life sect They are still alive. And, more ominously, they thrive.
The Order premieredin the 81st edition of theVenice Festival.
