February 9, 2025 Samuel Hames 0

‘The Order’ – Review

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Filmmaker Justin Kurzel delivers audiences into the mouth of the beast with the pulse-pounding true story that saw the FBI take on homegrown domestic terrorism with his pulse-pounding thriller The Order.

A string of violent robberies in the Pacific Northwest leads veteran FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) to a white supremacist group; the group plans to overthrow the federal government.

Justin Kurzel is a filmmaker who is known for pushing these boundaries and who is unafraid to tackle subject matter from a slightly different viewpoint, as we’ve seen with his works such as Macbeth, Nitram and The True History of the Kelly Gang. There’s an almost punk rock sensibility to his style as a filmmaker, and his films are always captured in a rugged, gritty style. His style and aesthetic as a filmmaker are a perfect fit for The Order, the true story of a cat-and-mouse game between the FBI and a group of fringe white supremacists in the early 1980s, and the results are a gripping and psychologically intense piece of filmmaking.

At the centre of the picture is Jude Law makes a complete 180 turn as FBI Special Agent Terry Husk, a burn-out, scarred-up has-been who has been sent to the middle of nowhere America in Idaho and who stumbles upon a dangerous right-wing movement under the leadership of the white supremacist movement of the Aryan Nation, and a growing violent splinter faction that will become known as The Order. The character of Husk is something completely different for Law to take on, and he’s a volatile and snappy creature who is more than happy to move the line or take things too far if it means nabbing his prey, But a life lived on the edge has taken it’s toll on Husk, and it’s starting to show in this his last gunfight. Law delivers on the complete spectrum of emotions when it comes to Husk, and audiences will be prime by his intense and pulsating presence as he goes to extremes to make his arrests, and is willing to push any boundary to do it.

Playing opposite Law is Nicholas Hoult, who delivers a chilling portrayal of real-life white supremacist and domestic terrorist, Bob Matthews. With a volatile hatred for the US government and growing tired of the established white separatist moment under the Aryan Nations and its founder, the charismatic yet sinister Richard Butler, Matthews orchestrates a series of rapidly dangerous bank robberies in an effort to finance his plans for multiple terrorist attacks inspired by his obsession with the book, The Turner Diaries, a piece of White Supremacist fiction that delivers him his ideas for mass destruction. Hoult disappears into the role and delivers a performance of a fanatic who is as repulsive as he is fascinating, and his charismatic and terrifying performance grabs your attention as an audience member.

As a viewing experience, The Order is a powder keg of a movie that builds at a slow pace before erupting into moments of absolute carnage. Its storytelling is multilayered, and Kurzel builds a portrait of all of the characters, both law enforcement and the criminals and terrorists they are hunting. Kurzel also makes this picture very much a detective story, and we see Law’s Husk, an outsider, finding his way into this murky and dangerous new world that he uncovers in the picturesque country of America. It’s almost like there’s a hidden rot that he uncovers amongst the beautiful landscape of the open frontier, and Kurzel digs deep into the dangers that lie beneath the surface.

The fact that this film is based on a completely true story makes it all the more scarier, and Kurzel hones in on the detail of the film’s setting, and this makes the experience of the film that much more gripping and intense because of it. While it is primarily a cat-and-mouse detective story, Kurzel also brings a subtle Western quality to the storytelling and setting of the picture, and the final showdown between Husk and Matthews goes out with a literal bang!

Justin Kurzel’s The Order is a film that delivers on its palpable sense of dread with a narrative that unfolds methodically and amps up the tension for a gripping detective story. You’ll be holding your breath right up until the very end with this one.