Jude Law shines in Justin Kurzel's brilliantly filmed, stirring piece of political Americana — Venice Film Festival

At various points in the wide-ranging section of political Americana that The Ordera man will pull out a small paperback book with a red cover, which means The Turner Diarieswhich at first glance is an adventure for boys, about a man who sets out to live in the mountains like Daniel Boone. In fact, it is a book aimed at children. The main theme of The Turner Diariesis, however, a six-step path to a right-wing revolution, culminating in the “Day of the Ropes,” when people of color, Jews, and anyone who stands in the way of white supremacy will strike.

The Turner Diaries was an inspiration for the fanatics who stormed the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election. It was also a central text for The Order, a self-proclaimed army formed in the early 1980s behind a charismatic former Mormon, Bob Matthews, whose mission was to make America white again. As a member of the Aryan Nation community, he had had enough of the talk. Bombings, assassinations, and crime-funded wars were the way he had to go.

More from Deadline

RELATED: Harmony Korine says Hollywood is starting to 'creatively crumble' – Venice Film Festival

Australian director Justin Kurzel brings the same dark sense of outsider thinking to his Venice competition title The Order that made Nitramehis portrait of the young outsider who committed Australia's worst mass murder in 1996 is so harrowing. The Orderis, however, set up as a police thriller in which Jude Law's FBI agent Terry Husk convinces local law enforcement to help him take down the fascists after a synagogue and a porn cinema are bombed in suspiciously similar ways.

RELATED: Nicholas Hoult says he and Jude Law didn't speak for four weeks during filming of 'The Order' as they slipped into their roles as adversaries – Venice

And yet it's just as much an action movie, with hastily arranged bank robberies, shootouts between police and masked terrorists, and a chase through a burning house so brilliantly filmed it feels like hell itself has broken loose. What Zach Baylin's script doesn't offer is any kind of cheap psychology. Various characters guess at the origin of this kind of hatred and the gang members' devotion to their young leader, but none pretend to hit the mark. Hate groups usually do this, Husk will say. They don't do that. But as it turns out, they could do anything.

RELATED TOPICS: 'Families Like Ours' director Thomas Vinterberg on his apocalyptic series: “I started thinking about what would happen if we became refugees?”

Working with young local detective Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) and another FBI agent he once mentored, the gritty but commanding Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), Husk uses his decades of experience tracking down mobsters and Klansmen to hunt down these gun-crazy conspirators. The place Husk has been sent to – a small enclave in Washington state – is in the middle of the Cascades.

RELATED: Photo gallery from the world premiere of “Babygirl” at the Venice Film Festival

Husk is, after all, a hunter by trade. His refuge is to aim his rifle at moose, but not kill them. Bob Matthews seeks the same refuge. There are hints that they are doppelgängers, single-minded men who will take on any enemies the world throws at them, but that is just a hint from the author. The audience must interpret these undercurrents for themselves.

RELATED TOPICS: ‘Maria’ – Venice Film Festival Red Carpet Photos: Angelina Jolie, Pablo Larraín, Kodi Smit-McPhee and More

The order was real, the investigation was real; the cop characters, however, are not individually real. Terry Husk is hardly an unknown fictional stand-in – a grizzled cop who drinks too much, focuses on his job with such ferocity that he doesn't notice his family has abandoned him, and is inches from being completely wrecked: there's never been a better name for a character. He might feel like nothing more than a cliche, but Jude Law brings such a range of nuance to every line of dialogue that he's always fully and intricately human. Tye Sheridan, as the no-nonsense cop Bowen, establishes his character's space as a man who stays calm in the face of noise. Bowen grew up here, knows these men, and knows equally – without joy but with the knowledge of his duty – that he can hold them to account. A scene in which he loses his nerve and stares at the car's dashboard while Husk chases the bad guys is a master class in the power of silence.

RELATED: 'Chain Reactions' Director Alexandre O. Philippe on Celebrating 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' with Stephen King and Rediscovering Kim Novak – Venice Film Festival

On the other hand, Nicholas Hoult as Bob, the intense blue-eyed look that Emperor Peter in The great a touch of royal madness is used here as a captivating look that captivates his followers. Alison Oliver plays Matthews' doubtful wife and presents us with a fully fleshed-out character in just a few meaningful scenes.

Like all cult leaders, Matthews has a lover, Zillah (Odessa Young), a true believer who is expecting a child from him.

Life is humble for these people; for the police and the dissident malcontents, a backyard barbecue is the height of pleasure. Even the Order's hideout, a huge barn-like room hung with swastikas, targets and anti-Semitic posters, is more tasteless than frightening – the work of small, mean minds.

Even more frightening are the hints in the script and in some sober end credits that while the Order's survivors are still behind bars, their heirs are still ready for war.

Title: The Order

Festival: Venice (Competition)

Director: Justin Kurzel

Screenwriter: Zach Baylin

Pour: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Marc Maron

Sales partners: AGC Studios

Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes

The best of Deadline

Subscribe to the Deadline newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.