‘The Order’ Review — A decades-old battle for the soul of America

A review of the new thriller, in theaters December 6th, 2024

Last week, when Donald Trump won the election and ensured his return to the White House, I told myself I wasn’t going to let These Uncertain Times affect my movie-reviewing. It’s so tempting to view everything through the lens of What It Says About Us Now… whether it might offer comfort, or whether it might make us more scared.

For a film like Justin Kurzel’s The Order, though, there’s no getting around it. Its action is set in the early 1980s, tracing out a yearlong period from 1983–1984, but The Order is very much in direct conversation with Where We Are Today. Unsettlingly, it’s also in conversation with Where We Might’ve Been Had The Election Gone Differently.

Let me explain.

In this film, which is based on true events, Jude Law plays an FBI agent named Terry Husk. He’s just been relocated to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a far cry from the New York City organized crime beat he once walked. He’s tackled the KKK and the Cosa Nostra, the Lucchese crime family and the Aryan Nation. That’s why Terry thinks he might be useful here anyway, in this sleepy city that feels mostly empty. After all, there are White Power flyers hanging in the local bar, and there’s a…