The Order
In early 1984, F.B.I. agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), who'd investigated both the KKK and the mafia, was assigned to reopen a post in
Coeur d’Alene where The Aryan Nation was headquartered. He asks the town's Sheriff Loftlin (Philip Granger) if the White Power flyers he's seen posted about town might have something to do with a spate of armed robberies, but the Sheriff dismisses the idea. But a junior deputy, Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), follows Husk outside to tell him he believes there is a connection and the two will track down leads that take them to a dangerous Aryan offshoot known as "The Order."
Laura's Review: B
I was floored back in 1988 seeing the Costa-Gavras film "Betrayed," a fictitious account of this same story, as I couldn't believe people like this existed in the United States of America. Now almost forty years later, the more horrifying issue is that this film, which hews more closely to real events, had trouble finding a distributor due to the current political climate.
Director Justin Kurzel has frequently turned to societal outcasts who acted out with horrific crime sprees with such films as "The Snowtown Murders," "True History of the Kelly Gang," and "Nitram," all involving cases in his native Australia. Now he turns his sights to the U.S. with a script by Zach Baylin ("King Richard") adapting Gary Gerhardt and Kevin Flynn's book 'The Silent Brotherhood,' which charts the rise of The Order's Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult) under the tutelage of Richard Butler (Victor Slezak), founder of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations. They've changed the name of real-life F.B.I. agent Wayne Manis to Terry Husk and given Husk fictional family issues which really only distract from the otherwise lean and suspenseful narrative.
The film opens with late radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron), who would later be gunned down by The Order as he was leaving the station, being called a Jewish slur by one of his callers before cutting to a car that's driver opines 'he needs a couple of barrels in his mouth.' This would be Gary Yarbrough (George Tchortov, "Goon") who, along with Bruce Pierce (Sebastian Pigott), would lure their friend Walter West (Daniel Doheny) into the woods and shoot him because he 'ran his mouth.' It's a chilling opening, and one which kickstarts Husk's investigation, Bowen having noted Walt's disappearance and taking him to question Walt's wife, Bonnie Sue (Geena Meszaros) where Husk will shock him with his bad cop routine. But they get the names of the two men Walt left to go hunting with.
They also visit Butler, informing him that his strays are forming their own groups. The scene is strange, Husk and Bowen sitting in pews in a Church adorned with Nazi symbolism looking for cooperation from the lesser of two evils. Butler informs them that Gary and Bruce were thrown out of the Church for using its printing press for counterfeit cash, but Husk warns him to get his house in order. Later we'll see Butler fold like a cheap tent when Matthews stands up during his sermon and takes over his oratory, leading the congregation in a 'White Power' chant.
Hoult, initially unrecognizable beneath a dorky bowl cut, radiates clean cut 'family values' that belie the terrifying armed robberies his gang has been perpetrating (while some of his men's wives delight in the cash hauls they bring home, Bob's is disturbed). Kurzel stages Husk orchestrating a sting operation on an armed car robbery that is breathtaking, if a frustrating failure. He also introduces special agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett) who appears to have a past with Husk that may be the cause of his marital problems, an attempt to parallel Husk with Matthews that is too ambiguous to quite work, but let's just say that it will be revealed Bob's wife has a very specific, ideological axe to grind that plays into the film's fiery climax on Whidbey Island.
Kurzel also highlights 'The Turner Diaries' throughout, the 1978 book, written by a neo-Nazi who imagines the overthrow of the U.S. Government and a race war, first noted during a raid on Bruce Pierce's home. It's six instructional levels, which include assassination, the bombing of buildings and attacking the U.S. Capitol(!), are illustrated as escalating warfare tactics. (The book used to be available for purchase on Amazon, but they withdrew it for sale the week after January 6.)
"The Order" works in fits and starts as a procedural crime thriller, its finale, which leans on questionable symbolism, something of a letdown. But put into context of what is going on in the U.S. today, it is a chilling historical reminder.
Robin's Review: C+
In 1983, the citizens of the Pacific Northwest were terrorized by a series of bombings, violent bank robberies, armored car heists and a large-scale counterfeiting operation. What seems to be work of organized crime turns out to be something far scarier in “The Order.”
“Based on true events” leads off this telling of the white supremacist terror group named, by its founder Robert “Bob” Matthews (Nicolas Hoult), The Order. Bob is heavily influenced by the extreme right wing 1978 novel, The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce and borrows heavily from it in forming his hate-ridden manifesto.
Bob plans and leads the increasingly violent, and profitable, string of robberies and terror attacks with his growing army of fanatics. This comes to the attention of FBI field special agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) who recognizes the crimes as more than a profit scheme by the mob. His attempt to get cooperation from local law enforcement fails, except for one young cop, Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), whom he recruits into his investigation.
Director Justin Kurzel (with writers Zach Baylin, Gary Gerhardt and Kevin Flynn) does a yeoman’s job in telling a little know true story about a white supremacist terror group that wanted all non-whites, Jews and Catholics put to death – not so different from current far-right philosophies and plans.
Jude Law plays agent Terry Husk with a kind of resigning that says he has investigated hate and its crimes for far too long, costing him his family in the process. Nicolas Hoult uses his boyish good-looks to help create the monster that was Bob Matthews – shows the man as a fervent, dedicated killer whose beliefs were more important than the lives of “lesser” beings. Tye Sheridan gives substance to the young cop who wants to right Bob’s dreadful wrongs and save the world. The story allows each to flesh out his character to three dimensions.
The whole underworld of The Order is populated with numbers of players but not with characters. Aside from the three leads, the rest of the soldiers in the hate army led by Bob are pretty interchangeable so the burden of character is on the stars. This all limits the impact of the true story, making it more a portent of things to come. I hope that is not true.
Vertical releases "The Order" in theaters on 12/6/24.
