12 06 24 The Order Screenwriter Zach Baylin discusses movie based on Alan Berg death

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lens, Gina Gandi, Good morning.
It is called The Order. It is a movie out
today about the Arian Brotherhood and the murder of Koa
talk show host Alan Berg Now on every revolution, someone
has to fire the first shot.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us now on the KA Commons Spirit Health Hotline.
Academy Award nominated for King Richard. He's also the screenwriter
of this film titled The Order. It's Zach Baylen. Zach,
thank you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Of course, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I want to thank you for allowing us to preview
this movie. I'm not just saying this for this interview.
It's very well done. It's very well written. It's i
want to say, hard to watch in the best way
possible because it really sends a message and tells the
story about something that has just hit so close to
the Denver area. And here at Koa as the screenwriter
of The Order, what really drew you to this story specifically, Well,

(00:50):
it turns out.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
I have a couple of personal connections to Denver. My wife,
Kate Suthman, grew up in Denver and her family had
been fairly close with Alan, and so you know, I
knew a bit of the story because I had always
heard from them that this stragedy had happened. And the

(01:11):
people who wrote the book that the movie is based on,
Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhart, were reporters from Denver that
we also sort of got in touch with because of
my family connections there. And you know, but I think personally,
for me, I wanted to try and understand why domestic
terrorism was happening and was becoming sort of a relevant

(01:33):
threat again in America, and that was the inspiration for
it for me.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
How do you distill the book into a movie form
while still remaining and I mean it's very true. I
mean there's composites and things, but being very true to
the written word of it when you put it up.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
On the screen, I think you're always trying to find
the heart of what you think the movie is when
you're doing an adaptation. And for me, you know, I
think the sort of structure I saw from the beginning
was that while it was incredibly horrific what happened, you know,
there were also these these very high adrenaline robberies and

(02:08):
armored car heights that had taken place, so you know,
I immediately sort of decided to frame the movie around
the sort of classic Heights film, and that allowed me
a certain sort of guardrails of what would be in
the movie and what wouldn't and then you know, and
then you sort of find thematically the things that you
want to talk about. And so, you know, I knew
that it was for me. It was a story about
trying to understand why people are drawn to these kind

(02:32):
of hateful ideologies, and what the people the investigators who
try to stop and track these people down, you know,
what challenges they face and both personally and professionally, and so, uh,
you know, then I just try to follow those threads
and the things that fit into those those storylines I
try to keep, and things that don't you sort of

(02:53):
have to start to shed. But the book is really
terrific and I recommend everyone out there go read it,
and it's you know, it had so much detail about
the actual case and the people who who track these guys.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Down and Zach. We had Kevin Flynn on earlier this
week as well. He had nothing but praise of how
the Order was able to mimic what he has written
in the book from the history in Kowa's perspective. I'm
curious in the movie was that actually the final script
of Alan Berg's final broadcast. Was it similar? Were their
adaptations or things taken from it? Or was it completely

(03:28):
different than just to play a different role in the movie.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
No, the actual final broadcast, I believe it is amalgamated
from other broadcasts of his. You know, there was one
piece that I wrote because we wanted to get a
very specific thing across for like sort of story wise
for the film, But otherwise, we listened to a lot
of Alan's actual programming and tried to use as much

(03:53):
of it as we could in the film because I think,
you know, he was incredibly He was obviously very provocative,
but he was he was well ahead of his time
and was already speaking to a lot of the issues
that you know, I think we're facing today, and so
his words felt pretty timeless and we wanted to use them.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Zach, is this an old story, news story, same story?
And I get the sense that the big takeaway, if
I heard you right, is the seeking of even if
it's bizarre, bad and horrible, the seeking of community. Am
I am I getting that takeaway right from you?

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah? I mean I think to the first part of
that question, I think, you know, while we try to
just sort of tell the story of what happened in
eighty three and eighty four accurately, I think it is
clearly relevant today, and so I think it it feels
like it is a contemporary story in that way. And
then in terms of community, I think we just looked

(04:49):
at it as the thing that does bond everyone is
that they're trying to build some kind of future for
their community and the people that they that they love.
And obviously the law enforcement agents who investigated this case
are trying to do that, and they have a very
different idea of what that future, what America should be,

(05:12):
and wanted to try and understand why people on the
other side of that might have been drawn to this
really hateful of ideology that Bob Matthews as spouted.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Zach. I feel like movies that are similar to this
dramatic thriller genre sometimes like to glamorize the officers or
glamorize the criminals in this plot, but it truly felt
like that wasn't the case in this movie, and it
really told real world events that were both timely now
and timely decades ago. Was that truly intentional when writing
this movie.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
It was certainly truly intentional to try and not you know,
valorize anyone unnecessarily. And you know, and I think Jude Law,
who plays the main FBI agent in the script, is
you know, his terrip it and he has this really
taggard worn performance that I think just speaks to the

(06:06):
toll that these kind of cases take on people and
the sacrifices that he's made in an effort to sort
of stamp out a lot of these groups over the
course of his career. So that was certainly very intentional.
And then we have a very great director of this guy,
Justin Kurzol, who's Australian who's who's made films about a
lot of true stories that deal with horrific events and

(06:28):
the people who who have participated them. And so we
knew that he was going to be able to sort
of shine an honest lens on this stuff without sensationalizing anything.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It's a very personal story from any fs here Koa.
I grew up in Denver. My father listened to the
late Alan Berg all the time, and you know, the
irony of me working here now and understanding the legacy
and the part of that history, and you did a
really nice job of keeping true to that. The movie
of the Orders in theaters and now it is fantastic.
Zach Braylan, the screenwriter, Thank you, Zach.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Thanks so much for having me. It's really nice to
be here and it feels an honor to get to
talk to you all on Aland Station. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's an honor to have you. Thank you.