In 1983 a group of Neo-Nazis, calling themselves “The Order” (because of course) committed some bank robberies and stole cars in Idaho. I was alive in 1983, and this is the first I’ve heard of this, probably because they never made it outside Idaho before the FBI brought the hammer down on them. I suppose I could check Wikipedia for research this, but I don’t feel like it.
The important thing is that Jude Law made a movie about it, soon to be dumped released on Amazon Prime. Because Jude Law wants to remind us that Nazis are Bad You Guys. And someone on Variety wanted to write about it. So… Original in bold, my responses in italic.
Jude Law Says Neo-Nazi Crime Thriller ‘The Order’ ‘Needed to Be Made Now’: ‘Sadly, the Relevance Speaks for Itself’
Did it really take two people to write this? How many editors?
Jude Law said that his new crime thriller, “The Order,” about the FBI investigation of a Neo-Nazi terrorist group in the ’80s, “needed to be made now.”
Were the rights expiring, or are you just worried that Zoomers don’t recognize your name? Because I can reassure you: they don’t. I’m in my 40’s, and I barely remember you. What were you in again? Hallmark movies, was it?
At a Venice Film Festival press conference, Law spoke about the importance of the film at a time when far-right ideologies are rising again.
And when, exactly, are far-right ideologies not “rising”? Seems like any time a progressive drives out to his country house or accidentally turns on Fox News, he gets terrified that the Freikorps are on the warpath, burning villages and sacrificing BIPOCs to Adolf Reagan Cthuhulu. It’s never a bad time to remind everyone that you think the right thoughts.
“Sadly, the relevance speaks for itself,” he continued. “It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now. It’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relevant relationship to the present day.”
Cool. Now do the Stamp Act.
Based on true events, the film is set in 1983 Idaho and sees a lone FBI agent (Law) follow a series of increasingly violent bank robberies and car heists, coming to realize that they’re the work of a group of dangerous domestic Neo-Nazi terrorists, inspired by the radical leader Robert Jay Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), who are plotting a war against the U.S. government.
Considering the work of a Lone FBI Agent was sufficient to stop them, I’m guessing their dreams were nowhere near within their grasp.
Based on the 1989 book “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, the film also stars Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver and Odessa Young.
Someone had the surname “Gerhardt and named their son “Gary”. When does the book about that cruelty come out?
Director Justin Kurzel agreed with Law,
adding that the film’s parallels with today’s world were what made it so interesting to make.
Everyone we don’t like or who disagrees with us is exactly like a Neo-Nazi who robbed banks in Idaho, you see…
“It’s always an extraordinary thing when you find a piece of writing or event from the past that has some sort of perspective that can have a conversation with today’s politics,” he said. “That’s a rare gem. So we felt that there was a lot that was being said about today.”
Rare, yeah, that’s what it is, Rare. No one ever makes these connections or mines history to make clumsy parallels to current-year politics. You guys are visionaries.
To create the intensity between Law and Hoult’s characters, the two actors were kept apart until the very first time they shot a scene together.
“We didn’t even speak for the first four or five weeks of filming,” Hoult revealed. “The crew really enjoyed this idea of keeping us as different forces. The first time we spoke was in the first scene where we interact.”
Whoa Method Acting you guys so cool and unique they never do this in movies wow
Law was also tasked with trailing Hoult for a day, like his FBI agent would have done. But it wasn’t something that Hoult was even told about until coming to Venice.
“I just found out on the boat here!” he exclaimed.
Yeah, I’m not buying any of this. This is ad-copy. Maybe in some coke-swirl Law or Kurzel said they should totally do this, but it didn’t happen. Actor’s time is valuable in a production. It sounds cool to say, and people who write for Variety will repeat it without checking, so there’s no point in actually bothering.
“The Order” sees Sheridan’s young police officer join Law’s FBI agent on the hunt for the supremacist group, and the actor said he had some experience of the film’s themes from his childhood.
“I got caught carving Swastikas in my desk in third grade, and I blamed it on older kids. I got beat up a lot that year.”
“It’s a great piece exploring how people from a small community can be manipulated by extreme ideology,” Sheridan said.
Make sure you pound those buzzwords, guy: “small community”, “Manipulated”, “extreme ideology.” It doesn’t matter that you have no explanation, or even the intellectual curiosity to come up with an explanation, of how “ideology” grows strong enough to “manipulate” people. Just so long as you remind the normies that Out There in the Wild Lands Be Dragons.
“I grew up in a small town with a population of 1,200, so I’ve definitely seen certain things growing up where people are probably getting violent, especially in these subcultures.
“probably” is doing Herculean work in this sentence, especially paired with “definitely”. Don’t for a moment allow your mind to wonder how these two contradictory terms modify the content of the statement. Subcultures there are in Small Towns. Certain Things There are. Booooo Scary.
In the U.S. you have a specific ideology that is descended from generations living in a small community and not having any exposure, so that was one thing that really drew to the project.”
Mmmm yes, this Specific Ideology in the U.S., in a Small Community. Not exposed to, you know, Things. So mindful. So demure.
This is the way Klansmen used to talk. A whole bunch of “Y’all know what I’m sayin’… I cain’t tell no more, but … Y’all know how it is. Them folks ain’t our folks.”
But there’s a deeper take, which is that this jibber-jabber is so obvious, uninspired, and treacly as to be pure Marketing. Does Law et. al really think that this Crime Potboiler NeEdS tO bE mAdE nOw? Or did he jump on the project saying “Well, I’m in the Old Cop B-Movie phase of my career, but let’s do something Headline-y. Neo-Nazis in Idaho, brilliant,” and now we’re in the Second Performance that is Press Junkets and the Rubber Chicken Festivals?
Show Business is never Off.
Content Blues 