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The
Order
Directed by Sheldon Lettich, 2001
The Order starts
with an expository sequence that takes place during the
Crusades with Christian soldiers arriving to Jerusalem and
slaughtering the local population. A Christian soldier (who
seems to be played by Jean Claude van Damme) becomes
demoralized by the horrors of war and decides to create a
new religious order. This new order brings together, in a
peaceful manner, members from the three religions of the
region: Christians, Jews and Muslims. As a self-imposed
leader and messiah, he writes the sacred texts of the
Order. The Christian Crusaders accuse him of heresy and
attack him and his disciples. During the attack, the last
chapter from their religious text becomes lost in the
desert.
However, The Order is not a historic drama, so the film
fast-forwards to present time and appears to switch to an
entirely different subject. Here we are introduced to Rudy
(Van Damme, again), a thief and smuggler of valuable
historical artifacts. Rudy manages to break into a high
security building where he steals a precious Faberge Egg (those
egg-like objects decorated with precious stones and
manufactured expressly for the Russian Tsars). Needless to
say, the alarm goes off and Rudy has to fight his way out
of the building.
Despite his thievery, Rudy is not really a bad guy. He
stole such precious object from the personal collection of
a powerful Russian mafia boss, which redeems him of any
sin according to the film’s narrative. As a matter of
fact, Rudy is a good and loving son, who would do anything
for his father.
It is at this point, once the film seems to be about
the terrible repercussions of stealing from the Russian
mafia, that the plot changes for a second time. Rudy's
father, an archaeologist and a museum-curator, discovers
the ancient manuscript that was lost at the beginning of
the film. In those manuscripts there is also an ancient
map of Jerusalem, which shows the location of a mythical
Jewish treasure. Rudy’s father travels to Israel and
gets kidnapped by the descendants of the secretive Order,
who want to keep those manuscripts secret. Rudy travels to
Jerusalem to rescue his father.
Most of the exterior shots for The Order were filmed in
Jerusalem, and the locales are cleverly used. For example,
there is an exciting car chase that takes place on a
narrow, picturesque road. Also, the cinematography nicely
captures the beautiful and enigmatic city.
Jean Claude Van Damme is the highlight of this film. After
nearly twenty years of doing all sorts of action films,
Van Damme is still able to deliver a powerful and
hyper-kinetic performance based on his outstanding
fighting skills. The many fights are very exciting and
nicely choreographed, and although these fighting scenes
do not present anything new, they are still very
entertaining to watch. As a matter of fact, just before
the end titletitles roll, there is a brief montage that
shows some of the best fighting scenes from the film. |
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