Despite all the mythos and significance of the Founding Fathers to Americans, Hollywood has scarcely produced many films or adaptations of the War of Independence or the like. Mel Gibson’s The Patriot is a long, well-made movie that does not strive for historical accuracy. HBO’s John Adams is a faithful and inspirational biopic miniseries about one of the central figures in America’s founding. I’ve not seen AMC’s Turn. But suffice to say, Hollywood would rather make a movie about a WWII weatherman and female mail sorters than our Founding Fathers.
Enter Young Washington, one of two movies I thought compelling back when Angel Studios was fooling casual fans into investing. The other one was David, and perhaps I’ll soon write a deservedly scathing review. But Young Washington met my initial hype.
The story of Young Washington is simple. It tells the story of George Washington being taken under the wing of his half-brother, Lawrence Washington, following his father’s early death. Lawrence, being a Colonel in the Virginia Militia, advanced his station in life by marrying into the Fairfax family and teaches George Washington how to advance in high society. Through education and ambition, George Washington sneaks into high society and subsequently rizzes the aristocracy.
George Washington proposes to survey the acreage of the unexplored Fairfax lands, and the deal is accepted by Thomas Fairfax (Kelsey Grammar). From there, Washington recruits Christopher Gist to help him explore and survey the land, and the two are led by Indians to a French fort. They report the French fort, and George is recommended by Lawrence to take his place.
From there, Washington’s failure at the Battle of Fort Necessity is shown as a serious blow to his resolve, but learning from his mistakes, he volunteers once more, as a mere aide-de-camp to Thomas Gage, and redeems himself at the Battle of the Monongahela and is rewarded by being promoted to Colonel of the reconstituted Virginia Regiment.
Movies of this kind emphasize certain themes. Young Washington chooses to emphasize the class struggle of Washington, relegating him to a mere pawn, despite his major gentry family. It’s not as though the tension between the gentry and the aristocracy is not a real tension worth exploring, but this is the thickest the messaging of the movie gets. Interestingly enough, though portrayed as a prolific writer, the film does not delve into proto-revolutionary ideals, only that a pawn can overtake a king.
The biggest criticism of the film by far is the opening scene. By far the most unserious choice of the film was doing a flash forward to the Battle of the Monongahela, only to flash back 12 years to Washington’s childhood. The viewer is dropped in the middle of the battle without context, only to be removed before anything becomes of it. Worse yet, the entirety is replayed towards the penultimate climax, making the entire scene jarring and redundant. It seemed as though a truly pretentious way to help viewers engage with a movie because streaming requirements call for action in the first 5 minutes. George Washington is a big enough reason to engage with the film without doing demeaning Netflix tricks.
Aside from that first impression, the film recovered, in my opinion, to be a relatively immersive period piece and a decently gritty war drama exploring the unexplored Seven Years’ War and covering Washington’s life.
Verdict 8/10
Young Washington is a tale of ambition, failure, and a bit of divine providence. It remains shocking that this story has not been told on the big screen, yet credit to Angel Studios for their ambition as well. Great men aspire to be like great men, and Young Washington provides an inspirational tale for young great men.
