The Reel Review
An FBI agent investigating a missing persons case in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s discovers that a series of increasingly violent bank robberies are the work of the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi white supremacist group planning a war of domestic terrorism against the U.S. government. Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan and Jurnee Smollett star in this crime thriller based on actual events.
Under the guidance of director Justin Kurzel (Nitram, True History of the Kelly Gang), both Law and Hoult give commanding performances as the respective loners – one a grizzled, imperfect FBI agent and other a philandering white supremacist. Other than being on opposite sides of the law, the two have similarly aggressive personalities. The bank robberies are terrifying. And the scene where Hoult’s Bob Mathews is stalking Law’s Agent Husk while he stalks a huge elk is chilling.
Refreshingly, the screenplay from Zach Baylin (Bob Marley: One Love, Gran Turismo, King Richard) is a pretty straightforward tell, staying truthful to the essence of the book (The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement), upon which the film is based and letting the events of what happened speak for itself.
REEL FACTS
• Bob Mathews joined the far-right conservative John Birch Society at the age of 11, and as an adult formed the Sons of Liberty, an anti-communist militia made up of mainly Mormon survivalists, before forming The Order in 1983. None of the 75 law enforcement officers were injuring during the final standoff with Mathews at a house on Washington’s Whidbey Island, despite Mathews firing more than 1000 rounds at them. Flares fired by authorities set fire to the house, with Mathews’ burned remains later found with a pistol in his hand.
• The Turner Diaries, as described in the film, is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, founder of the white nationalist group National Alliance. Depicting a violent revolution against the United States, it has inspired numerous hate crimes including the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing and the 2021 January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• In The Order, Agent Terry Husk is actually a composite of several law enforcement officers who worked on the case against neo-Nazi white supremacist Bob Mathews.
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