The Order: Review. By Nick Boyd.
“The Order,” a tense thriller, which mostly takes place in rural Washington and Idaho is an insightful and sobering look at antisemitic ideology in 1980s America. Based on true events, the film stars Jude Law as veteran FBI agent Terry Husk, who is trying to penetrate a white supremacist group led by Bob Mathews, charismatically played by Nicholas Hoult. Husk is aided by a young police officer named Jamie Bowen, endearingly portrayed by Tye Sheridan, who fills in the newly arrived FBI agent on the town and the surrounding area.
The Aryan Nation group, always looking to recruit and train new members, resembles a cult in its inner workings and appearance. This anti-government group has no qualms with committing violent acts, including bank robbing, killing, and bombing a synagogue. Their goal is to forcefully begin a new world order. In the film, the women seem to be passive bystanders, merely going along with whatever the men say and do. The indoctrination we see starts young, as Mathews reads to his young son The Turner Diaries, a book espousing violent and hateful rhetoric, which has inspired many hate crimes and acts of terrorism.
As the group seems to be building toward something big, Husk and his team try to stay one step ahead of them to prevent something catastrophic from occurring. The film increases in momentum and intensity as it goes along, taking on a suspense thriller feel to it.
I did find fault with some of the character motivations. When Husk goes into a burning house, I thought that defied logic. Also, when Husk and Bowen go into a motel where Mathews and his guys are hiding without any back-up, this recklessness did not seem believable to me.
The look of the movie is evocative of the times and the editing has an immediacy to it. The photography of the rural landscapes is beautiful and haunting. Hoult in his look and rhetoric resembles a much younger Tom Cruise and completely masks his British accent. Sheridan, despite his profession, displays both an optimism and a vulnerability to his character. Meanwhile, Law is cynical, disgruntled, and on a fierce cat-and-mouse mission.
While the events in the film took place 40 years ago, its America first extremism has chilling reverberations felt today.
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