This film could not be more relevant today. It is based on true events that occurred when a 1980’s violent White Supremacist organization in Idaho were hell bent on raising enough money to violently overthrow the U.S. government. Their plan included conducting violent bank and armored-car heists in rural Idaho, even printing their own counterfeit currency to buy weapons to foment their revolution. Their guide was a book titled “The Turner Diaries,” which also became a blueprint influencing Timothy McVey to carry out the devastating 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing that killed 168 people and was also found at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Watch our interviews with Tye Sheridan talk his character and Writer Zach Baylin talk about his research adapting the 40-year-old event to screen at Austin Film Festival. And we attended the Virtual Press Conference for the film as well.
Director Justin Kurzel based the film on facts in Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book, “The Silent Brotherhood.” The Order follows FBI Agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) with his no-nonsense boss Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), assisted by local police officer, Jamie Bowen, (Tye Sheridan) as they try to head off a violent uprising that could have produced incalculable violence. Tye Sheridan is a fairly inexperienced small town cop with good instincts. He knows something’s wrong, but doesn’t have the authority to do anything about it until he’s enlisted to help when Husk shows up.
Director Justin Kurzel based the film on facts in Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book, “The Silent Brotherhood.” The Order follows FBI Agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) with his no-nonsense boss Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), assisted by local police officer, Jamie Bowen, (Tye Sheridan) as they try to head off a violent uprising that could have produced incalculable violence. Tye Sheridan is a fairly inexperienced small town cop with good instincts. He knows something’s wrong, but doesn’t have the authority to do anything about it until he’s enlisted to help when Husk shows up.
Writer Zach Baylin did a lot of research on the militia movement and terrorism when he found “The Silent Brotherhood” which gave he and Kurzel the bones to make it like those good 70’s style action films and it works. Director Kurzel shot the film in Canada with a grainy film texture from cinematographer Adam Arkapaw. The mood was set with music by Jed Kurzel, using dissonant chords to give the audience an unsettling feeling, which it does.
Law plays gruff and stoic in the role. He doesn’t do a whole lot of talking. He was on his way to retirement, and this was supposed to be an easy transition. He’s already messed up his marriage because he was more married to the job than to his wife and two little girls. He smokes, drinks and his heart’s in bad shape. Husk’s reputation is as a dogged investigator, but he plays close to the chest. Sheridan plays the timid, young police officer and family man. He looks up to the FBI pro, learning whatever he can while he brings Husk up to speed on the guy he knows, cult leader Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult).
Hoult shows how versatile an actor he is as this frightening leader of the The Order, even through his calm, but controlled exterior giving orders to his henchmen. Matthews is on a mission and his dark soul is filled with hate, racism, anti-semitism, you name it, as the ringleader.
But Kurzel makes Hoult’s big scene at the meeting where his character revs up the crowd, staging a coup to take over leadership there and motivate his followers toward his ultimate goal; to topple the federal government.
Marc Maron does a great job as the outspoken Jewish Denver Radio talk-show host, Alan Berg. He routinely mocked and belittled the cult on the air, and pays dearly for it. You see Berg brutally gunned down by Matthews’ minions.
Husk pursues the malevolent racist cult leader Matthews, first to a tense standoff, but, finally, to a bloody rampage of major proportions that takes a sad turn. Waco, Oklahoma and Ruby Ridge, show history repeats itself. Based on true events, Kurzel’s action thriller/investigative procedural is taut, gripping and a cautionary tale. Jude Law has even been quoted, “The relevance of this film speaks for itself.”
Vertical 1 Hour 54 Minutes R
