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When “The Oath” was filmed, the 45th President of the United States had yet to complete his first year in office. The film centers around a contentious Thanksgiving dinner where a politically divided family attempts to keep the peace during a meal. Though rooted in the reality of the time, the film’s core dramatic departure surrounds the Patriotic Oath, a literal pledge of fealty to the (unnamed but Trump-coded) Commander-in-Chief. The core conceit of the film is that we, as a nation, were only seeing the tip of an Orwellian iceberg still to come. The 2018 film begins as an uncomfortable dark comedy, but slowly morphs into a dystopian thriller.
The core conceit of the film is that we, as a nation, were only seeing the tip of an Orwellian iceberg still to come. The 2018 film begins as an uncomfortable dark comedy, but slowly morphs into a dystopian thriller.
By the 2017 holiday season, we had witnessed innumerable lies made from the Oval Office, two Supreme Court justices chosen, and a disgraceful response to a trio of devastating hurricanes. But this was before COVID-19, George Floyd, and the January 6 riots. The seven years between this film’s production and this month’s election results may as well be a lifetime. Revisiting its main conflicts through fresh eyes, however, proves illuminating.
In the film, writer/director Ike Barinholtz stars as Chris, a run-of-the-mill lib guy who means well but is insufferable despite his “correct” moral views. After Trump was first elected, the resistance movement activated formerly casual voters into rabid keyboard warriors. Watching coverage on 24-hour news networks and maintaining perpetual connections to social media turned debating right wingers into an addictive sport. Chris captures this archetype with vivid specificity. In his office, he’s got a poster of George McGovern, 1972’s failed Democratic candidate for President. In justifying calling his brother’s conservative girlfriend the “c-word,” he imparts an anecdote about waiting in life for hours to have Roxane Gay sign a book for his wife.
It’s one of many times he uses Kai (Tiffany Haddish), his Black wife, as an impenetrable shield whenever anyone calls out what they consider to be his self-righteous virtue signaling. On a case-by-case basis, Chris isn’t wrong for his indignation, but all his wife wants is a peaceful three days without having to cool his jets as he jousts with her in-laws. Every attempt at casual socialization is a minefield for him to call out microaggressions excitedly.
But Chris doesn’t do anything. He refuses to sign the oath accurately and references a protest or two, but his crusade isn’t about any community building or mutual aid. It’s a literal addiction to digital pugilism. Even as he insists he can behave for the week, he scurries off to unoccupied rooms to sneak away and watch the news like it’s pornography.
On Black Friday, two agents from an offshoot of the Department of Homeland Security get into the house without a warrant on suspicion that Chris is impeding his fellow citizens from signing the oath. Barber (John Cho) is more of a straightforward workman, but Mason (Billy Magnussen) is a believer. The “routine visit” quickly devolves into a violent hostage situation as everyone involved unravels and the stakes escalate at an alarming rate.
When it was initially released, “The Oath” was well received, if minutely seen, as a mean and necessary respite from some of the toothless, resistance media of the time. But the film feels different upon rewatch. Its enjoyable skewering of its protagonist, though no less on the nose, feels less impactful. Instead, it’s Magnussen’s Mason who sticks out the most.
Usually typecast quite effectively as a ditzy himbo type, Magnussen delivers the most chilling performance of the year. He perfectly captures precisely the sort of disaffected white male who worships false idols and sees himself as a natural authority. In the end, he’s revealed to be hollow and performative in diametrically opposed ways to Barinholtz’s Chris.
When it was originally delivered, it seemed like Magnussen based his performance on the Proud Boys and their tiki torch demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. Revisiting it again, there’s this spiritual wrongness emanating off Magnussen in his depiction that reads like foreshadowing. His Mason now doubles as a stand-in for the younger, influencer-radicalized Trump supporters who made their way into the tent from video game streams and bodybuilding enthusiasts.
At the time, the film posited that some liberals insisted on breaking bread with their conservative cousins for the thrill of the fight. It was invigorating for guys like Chris to “take it outside,” or in this case, from the Facebook comment section to “irl.” It seems even the softest, most conciliatory Kamala voters aren’t taking the bait today. This year, it’s the Trumpers begging to have a nice, quiet meal with the relatives whose rights they just voted against.
Back then, though? “The Oath” presents a world of paranoia at how much worse things could get, and Thanksgiving feels like a microcosm of civic normalcy still within the individual citizen’s control. Soon, some felt that things would get bad in a way we could not, on our own, curtail. Instead of thinking about life beyond their home’s walls, they shut out the orange man’s rhetoric and stuffed their faces with turkey. They metaphorically surrounded the house with a circle of salt to keep the evil at bay.
This year, everyone has seen more than enough to know that breaking bread with the enemy is a wasted effort.
This year, everyone has seen more than enough to know that breaking bread with the enemy is a wasted effort.
“The Oath” is available to stream for free using your library card on Kanopy.
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