When he is not making Shakespeare or video game adaptations with Michael Fassbender, director Justin Kurzel is well at home making films based on true crime events. The Snowtown Murders, Nitram and True History of the Kelly Gang were all set in his homeland of Australia. The Order is his first film set on American soil, which premiered next to the waters of The Lido at the Venice Film Festival.
Whilst the true events depicted in the film are set in 1983, with the antagonists of the tale being a band of White Supremacists, it is not too difficult to see why the filmmakers have chosen this moment in time to tell this story.
Back then, all they really had were posters around town, a book called The Turner Diaries, and in-person meetings in order to share their beliefs and encourage more people to join their cause. Now of course, the white supremacy rhetoric is simultaneously insidious and also blatant, in-your-face thanks to social media.
For anyone unable to join the dots between the six steps of their handbook (recruiting, fundraising, training, domestic terrorism, assassination, “the day of the rope” aka attack on government), there is a direct reference to potential actions by the group which includes “an attack on the Capitol”. Yes, just like we saw on Jan 6th 2021.
For many, the enemy is within. They are just looking for the opportunity to announce themselves to the world.
The film introduces us to the eponymous The Order in stage two of their six part plan: fundraising. In this case, not rattling buckets in the town square but rather knocking off banks and armoured trucks.
There is an energy to these sequences that is strangely absent from the rest of the movie. An exciting momentum that is driven forward by a pulsating score by Jed Kurzel before coming to a screeching halt when they end.
“I’m taking it slow” says world-weary FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), when asked why he had moved from New York to the supposedly more sedate Mid-West. It is a phrase that sums up the pacing of the movie. At one point Bob Matthews (Nicolas Hoult), the leader of The Order, stands up at a Aryan Nation church meeting and complains of how all he hears is “talk, talk, talk” and no action. It feels like that here for the longest time too.
It is a film that takes itself very seriously. The only brief moment of levity comes when Tye Sheridan’s deputy sheriff blasts a team of agents on the delay getting the ID on ownership of a recovered firearm, when the store is a short drive away. “You’re the FUCKING FBI?!”
The FBI is represented here predominantly by Husk. A character that, as Shrek would put it when describing an onion, “has layers!”. His backstory hinted at, and drip fed, throughout the film. Separated from his family due to the stress and violence of the job, which also led him to heart surgery. It is a role that Jude Law gives both barrels too. A grizzled, tortured and angry performance.
It seems early on that the film is setting Law and Hoult up for a Heat-style relationship, as evidenced by a meeting between the two during a hunting trip (#symbolism). Unfortunately it doesn’t pull the trigger on this, instead opting for a cat-and-mouse game that culminates in two truly shocking acts of disturbing violence.
A straight-forward, functional crime drama, sadly The Order does not do enough to showcase the true danger posed by domestic terrorism, or give confidence in the men and women attempting to diffuse the threat. It does not make the American crime film great again.
The Order had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and is in US cinemas from December 6
Rating: 
Director: Justin Kurzel
Stars: Jude Law, Nicolas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Marc Maron
Runtime: 114 minutes
Country: USA/Canada
