The True Story of a Racist Gang: Kurzel Explores Formative Chapter of American Domestic Terrorism

There’s a brooding, sinister quality to Justin Kurzel’s filmmaking, whose body of work almost always deals with, either directly or indirectly, the dangerous combination of bruised masculinity and/or wounded nationality entitling men to engage in violence. This was evident in his formidable breakout debut Snowtown (2011), about an Australian serial killer, and continued through his exploration of the mythic in The True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) before he turned to one of Australia’s most infamous incidents of mass shooting in Nitram (2021). Based on his interests, Kurzel seems a perfect fit for wading into the violence which defines and supports America’s belief systems, and soberingly does so in The Order.…...