December 15, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Justin Kurzel
Culture Representation: Taking place from 1983 to 1984, in Washington state, Colorado, Idaho, and California, the dramatic film “The Order” (based on real events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Law enforcement officials investigate and battle against a radical and violent group of white supremacists.
Culture Audience: “The Order” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and suspenseful and well-acted movies about cops versus criminals.
“The Order” capably tells a tension-filled story based on real events of American law enforcement battling against white supremacists in the 1980s. The acting performances are the main reason to watch this somewhat formulaic dramatic re-enactment. The fact that this true story was made into a movie is already an indication of which side won this battle.
Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, “The Order” is adapted from the 1989 non-fiction book “The Silent Brotherhood,” written by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt. “The Order” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, and then made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and AFI Fest. The movie takes place from 1983 to 1984, in the U.S. states of Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and California.
“The Order” begins with a brief scene taking place at KOA Radio studios in Denver. KOA talk show host Alan Berg (played by Marc Maron), who is politically liberal and Jewish, is having a heated discussion with a phone caller. The caller doesn’t say his real name, but he is Gary Yarbrough (played by George Tchortov), a ruthless member of the Order, a radical group of white supremacists who have splintered off from the Aryan Nation. Alan is an outspoken critic of these types of hate groups, who believe that people who are white, cisgender, heterosexual and Christian are superior to everyone else. And as soon as this argument is shown in the movie, you just know that Alan will be shown later in the movie in horrible circumstances.
“The Order” than has a scene of taking place in Spokane, Washington, on December 18, 1983. A man is taken into a wooded area at night and is shot dead. The murder victim is later revealed to be Walter “Walt” West (played by Daniel Doheny), who had been printing counterfeit bills for the Order. The Order members who murdered Walt are Gary (who looks like a scruffy militia man) and Bruce Pierce (played by Sebastian Pigott), Gary’s best friend, who is not as vicious as Gary, but he’s still full of hate and doesn’t hesitate to get violent.
The leader of the Order is Bob Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult), who deceptively looks like a clean-cut and upstanding family man. In reality, Bob is the mastermind of the violent crimes committed by the Order. Later scenes show that Bob created the Order because he thinks the Aryan Nation isn’t acting fast enough and is too “soft” on its goals for white supremacist domination. The Order uses the 1978 white nationalist novel “The Turner Diaries” (written by Andrew Macdonald, an alias for Luther Pierce) as a handbook for many of the Order’s goals and criminal activities.
After the murder of Walt (who was killed because he was perceived as a potential snitch), Bob, Gary, Bruce and a recent Order recruit named David Lane (played by Phillip Forest Lewitski) commit an armed robbery of a bank in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The four robbers (who wore masks during the bank robbery) are elated to get away with this crime, where luckily none of the robbery victims got killed or injured. It’s later revealed that the Order funds its activities and pays its members through robberies of banks and armored vehicles. The Order also bombs buildings that are owned by targets of their hate.
When Bob gets home, he shows his wife Debbie Mathews (played by Alison Oliver) the loot of cash that he got in the robbery. Debbie is happy to see the money that Bob shows to her, and she knows that it’s stolen money, but she has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude about Bob’s criminal activities. She doesn’t approve of people getting murdered, but Debbie’s ethical boundary on what she considers “unacceptable crimes” isn’t shown until much later in the movie.
These first few opening scenes are somewhat jumbled and could have done a better job of establishing the names of these characters. It isn’t until later in the movie that these characters’ names, roles and personalities are put into clearer perspective. It’s a flaw that the movie tends to repeat when introducing other characters.
The law enforcement official who leads the investigation of the Order is FBI agent Terry Husk (played by Jude Law), who has recently moved to Spokane. Terry is separated from his wife, who lives in another state with their two daughters, who are about 6 and 8 years old. Terry is hoping that his wife and daughters will eventually move to Spokane to live with him. But it eventually becomes obvious that this relocation won’t happen when Terry calls his estranged wife one day and finds out that her phone number has been disconnected.
The movie is purposely vague about other information about Terry’s life before he moved to Spokane. He has a surgery scar going down the middle of his chest. He gets nosebleeds. And when his FBI colleague Joanne Carney (played by Jurnee Smollett) shows up in Spokane, she mentions that she heard about Terry’s “scare in New York.” When Terry tells Joanne that his wife and children are expected to move to Spokane, so he “put the pieces back together,” Joanne looks very skeptical that Terry will be reunited with his family.
“The Order” doesn’t dwell too long on Terry’s personal problems because the bulk of the film is about tracking down and apprehending members of the Order. Joanne isn’t seen for most of the movie until near the end. Terry actually gets most of his help from Jamie Bowen (played by Tye Sheridan), a deputy in the local sheriff’s office, who is also eager to bring these criminals to justice.
Jamie is helpful because he grew up in the area where the Order is headquartered. In a scene where Jamie and Terry question Walt’s wife Bonnie Sue Harris (played by Geena Meszaros), Jamie is able to gain her trust because he’s known Bonnie Sue since they were students at the same high school. Bonnie Sue doesn’t trust Terry because she sees him as a “bad cop” outsider.
“The Order” spends a lot of time showing how Bob uses his influence to get his followers to do his bidding. At a church run by an Aryan Nation reverend named Richard Butler, Bob gets up during a service and upstages the reverend by giving a rousing speech that culminates with Bob leading the audience to chant “White power!” Bob thinks that the Aryan Nation plan to get the Aryan Nation members elected to political offices and other powerful positions is a strategy that is too old-fashioned and will take too long.
Bob is also shrewd about masking his radical intentions of the Order. In an early scene in the movie, he commands Gary and Bruce to stop burning crosses in front of the place where the Order’s meetings are held, because burning crosses will draw attention to their lair. Terry and Jamie later find out that Gary and Bruce were ousted from the Reverend Butler’s church because Gary and Bruce were using the church’s printing press to make counterfeit bills.
As the leader of the investigation, Terry is astute and logical, but he can sometimes rub people the wrong way, because he can be prickly and arrogant. With his personal life in shambles, Terry becomes consumed by the investigation and expects Jamie to have the same attitude. Jamie also has two underage kids. However, unlike Terry, Jamie is happily married.
Someone who is not a fan of Terry is Kimmy Bowen (played by Morgan Holmstrom), Jamie’s wife who was Jamie’s high school sweetheart. Kimmy tells Terry—in a conversation that starts out cordial and soon turns tense—that she doesn’t like it when Terry goes over to the Bowen family home and talks about the investigation while the kids are there. “You scare me,” Kimmy candidly tells Terry.
Bob’s home life is not as tranquil as it appears to be. Bob and Debbie have a son named Clinton (played by Huxley Fisher), who’s about 4 or 5 years old. Clinton is adopted because Debbie cannot biologically conceive children. Debbie is insecure about her infertility because she knows how important it is for white supremacist Bob to pass on his bloodline to biological children. Bob has a secret that he’s keeping from Debbie. This secret is eventually revealed to viewers.
During the course of the story, another recruit is welcomed into the Order: Tony Torres (played by Matias Lucas), who has recently moved from Seattle and is a friend of David, who introduces Tony to Bob. Tony blames black people for his recent job loss. Tony also hates black people because Tony’s best friend in high school was killed by a black person. Bob asks Tony what his ethnicity is because Tony’s last name is Torres. Tony is quick to say that he’s of white Spaniard heritage, so that he can be accepted into this hate group.
“The Order” is essentially becomes a “cat and mouse” type of hunt, with only two characters showing any complexity in their personalities: Terry and Bob. The movie’s other characters are not quite fully developed enough to be anything beyond generic, even though all of the principal cast members show talent in their performances. “The Order” is a crime thriller but it’s also a commentary on the insidiousness of hate groups and how they will continue to exist as long as people think that different identity groups are inferior.
Vertical released “The Order” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.
