“The Order” - Film Review
White supremacy is baked into the very DNA of the United States of America. In 1989, Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt wrote The Silent Brotherhood, a non-fiction book about the rise of underground radical-right hate groups. Their book covered white supremacist militias, including Aryan Nations and The Order. It’s this novel that served as source material for director Justin Kurzel’s latest film, The Order. Kurzel is no stranger to documenting violence, and while he may not be American, his work on The Order proves he has a deep understanding of the plague that is white supremacy and its historical and contemporary repercussions.
In 1983, FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) is sent to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to reopen a long-dormant field office. After spending many years working undercover in New York City, Terry is sent out West so he can begin to slow down professionally. Once he arrives, though, he’s immediately restless. Idaho cannot compete with New York City for hustle and bustle, so Terry throws himself into an open investigation of a white supremecist organization that appears to be responsible for a string of bank robberies and bombings in the Pacific Northwest. Terry meets Deputy Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), a local cop who offers to show him around the area. Together, the two men delve into the world of The Order, a violent splinter group of Aryan Nations, led by Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult).
courtesy of Vertical, Amazon MGM Studios
The Order finds its most striking imagery in the contrast between the wide-open American West and the brutal ugliness of white-supremacist ideology. For hundreds of years, “going west” meant a sense of possibility, of hope for a better future. That the world could be yours if you simply took matters into your own hands. It’s this set of beliefs that white supremacy has twisted to encourage violence against those they say have stolen opportunities from them. “It’s not your fault,” the members of The Order tell each other when they can’t find a job or provide for their families. The blame is placed on the faceless “other” so they can make themselves feel better. They believe they must use violence to right some sort of cosmic wrong and get what is promised to them as white men. There is perhaps nothing more unifying to a group of people who feel disenfranchised than an enemy to rally against – someone they’re at war with, even though they’re the ones who created the war in the first place.
At its core, The Order is reminiscent of a political thriller from the ’70s. It’s sleek, but never over-produced. A competently made, taut reflection on a time of American history that’s not far removed from where we are in the current moment. You can draw a line from the Ku Klux Klan to The Order and now to The Proud Boys. The same text, The Turner Diaries, has been used to inspire acts of domestic terrorism for decades. From the Oklahoma City bombing to the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, The Turner Diaries have acted as a blueprint to encourage white supremacists to inflict violence upon the country in the name of protecting the white race.
courtesy of Vertical, Amazon MGM Studios
Jed Kurzel’s score fluctuates from dreamy to shrill, the stringed instruments as beautiful as they are ugly. The Order begins with the understanding that there’s a clear line separating the good guys from the bad guys, but as the film unfolds, that distinction blurs. Terry has similar ideas in terms of masculinity, but because he’s an FBI agent, his outbursts of violence and anger are sanctioned in a way. It wouldn’t take much for Terry to end up on the other side with The Order. Terry and the men who joined The Order are looking for a brotherhood and a community, an outlet for the pain in their regular lives. Both paths are steeped in violence, but one is considered.
The Order ends with the audience waiting for a gun to go off. It speaks to where we are as a culture. White nationalism is spreading across the world and we’re all inevitably waiting for that next gun to go off. That next act of violence. The Order is bleak, and it should be. As a society, we must reckon with the realities of the world that have been brewing for hundreds of years.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, & YouTube. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.