It’s strange that, as the country celebrates its 250th birthday, there aren’t more historical dramas honoring the Founding Fathers. Maybe it has something to do with the United States teetering on the brink again. Or it’s just they don’t make blockbuster movies like that anymore. I feel like Mel Gibson once occupied this space pretty well, back in the day. Stepping in to fill the void is Angel Studios with Young Washington, a handsomely made, reasonably inoffensive look at the making of our first President of the United States, George Washington. Yes, Angel Studios are the outfit behind a number of faith-based, conservative dramas, some proven to be quite successful, but if your concern is that the movie has an overtly right-wing agenda, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Directed by Jon Erwin, Young Washington stars William Franklyn-Miller as a young George Washington, set during the events of the French and Indian War around 1755. George is a natural leader, a born athlete, and smart beyond his youth. Mary Louise Parker plays his mother, Mary, a widow just trying to keep it together in the face of a growing uncertainty in the world. Things are hard for George, who realizes his rather low social standing is more of an obstacle to his career trajectory than his ability. Kelsey Grammer plays Lord Fairfax, related to George by marriage, who is instrumental to his elevation. It’s also through him that George falls for Sally, played by Mia Rodgers, whose headstrong attitude and fierce rejection of sexism make her a rare breed. Meanwhile, George faces headwinds from the elitist Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie, played by a rather bored Ben Kingsley, who has no love for hard-scrabble types trying to improve their lot in life.
Young Washington is about the factors that molded and shaped George Washington into the man who would become the ideal for U.S. Presidents for generations to come. If anything, it shows that George’s life was complicated before he ever took the battlefield or got into politics. The problem is that it doesn’t let us into his head nearly often enough. Things just sort of happen to him, and there’s little examination of them or how he feels about them. The issue of slavery is largely overlooked, even as it’s the slaves who help George into Fairfax’s lavish parties. For a film that clocks in at over two hours, it’s shockingly light on insight into George Washington.
That said, the film actually looks pretty good even though it likely had a tight production budget. Erwin might’ve taken a few artistic cues from The Last of the Mohicans, set in the same time period, in capturing the romanticized tone and the using of gorgeous natural locations. Young Washington isn’t deep enough to present a full picture of who George Washington was; to go further would veer into sticky ideological territory. This film avoids controversy in favor of an old fashioned tale of leadership and patrotism at a time when our country could use a Hell of a lot more of both.
Young Washington is in theaters now.
