Eighty-seven years ago, John Ford made a movie called Young Mr. Lincoln, which looked at America’s most celebrated president in his younger years, when Abraham Lincoln was just an idealistic lawyer whose future civic-mindedness manifested in the courtroom. It was one of 1939’s most beloved films that to this day has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. (You’ll be surprised to learn Rotten Tomatoes didn’t exist back then.) Henry Fonda perfectly encapsulated Lincoln’s mythic image and seemed like a very nice young man.
The contrasts couldn’t be greater with Jon Erwin’s Young Washington, which looks at the younger years of America’s second most celebrated president. Sure, George Washington was the first to hold that title and they named the country’s capital after him, but in terms of what we know about his life from history’s adulation, he’s a clear second. If he and Lincoln were contemporaries and Washington had been given to the sort of second banana envy that plagues Donald Trump, he might like to see an equivalent movie that showed him in his own youth. The fact that this one came out in the U.S. just in time to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, and that its dog whistle conservatism was endorsed by noted right-winger Kelsey Grammer by appearing in one of the starring roles, just cements the association with all things Trump.
Washington likely doesn’t deserve such toxic bedfellows, though it’s of course true he was a slave owner, which is mentioned only once in this movie, and which only worsens the already anachronistic focus of Young Washington on the accomplishments of a “great white man” from history. But he does certainly suffer in terms of our preconceived notions of the man. We’re all familiar with the classic Washington from the one-dollar bill, but the young version of that man holds no place in our imagination, nor does William Franklyn-Miller’s performance in the role increase that place. Certainly not like rival Abraham Lincoln, whose identifying features are so iconic that his origin story was almost like the 1939 version of fan service. (And in 1939, there were even people alive who might have seen the man himself before his death in 1865).
The reality of Young Washington is that this is a movie about a man who showed courage and suffered defeat on the battlefield, and that makes the character, at his core, no different from 974 other movie characters who have come before him. The battles can be staged well, the extras can be dressed in immaculate versions of their mid-18th century garb, and the supporting cast can lend plenty of credibility to the whole affair. But without anything that makes George Washington GEORGE WASHINGTON, it’s lacking in distinguishing elements.
Washington’s greatest hope is to serve in the British army in the colony of Virginia, but a poncy senior officer tells him he hasn’t the learning nor the land to attain the position. So instead Washington proposes that he survey parts of the uncharted Ohio country property owned by Thomas Fairfax (Grammer), during which he encounters natives and manages to lay the groundwork for future collaboration. He ultimately joins the Virginia militia under the sponsorship of lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie (Ben Kingsley) and is tasked with returning to the Ohio country to deliver a message to the French that they must leave. This goes abominably and the French leader is killed, which plants the seeds for the conflict that became known problematically as the French and Indian Wars.
Along the way toward many conflicts with the French, some victorious and some disastrous, Washington falls in love with a woman, Sally (Mia Rodgers), who becomes the bride of his rival George William Fairfax (Joel David Smallbone), and sees his older brother Lawrence (John Foss) die of tuberculosis. Meanwhile, his mother Mary (Mary-Louise Parker) continues to pray over him and say he’s being protected in battle by divine providence, which indeed seems to be borne about by Washington surviving some serious scrapes where numerous others around him fell.
Probably Young Washington would appeal most to history buffs, who might be keen to get a window into this lesser explored part of American history. Without checking every detail for accuracy, the events here have a ring of truth and are documented with workmanlike competence.
However, details of battles rarely make a movie sing for the average punter, and where Young Washington falls down is as a piece of drama. That’s not to say there aren’t conventional emotional conflicts built into the narrative, just that they don’t penetrate very deeply nor get us to the core of this man. He’s got a chip on his shoulder for his failure to be deemed a gentleman, which was more a result of his father’s untimely death than any actual poor breeding. Washington’s striving to be more respected, to do the thankless tasks that will get him in good with the elite, does carry some interest.
Most of the film’s second half is a succession of interchangeable battles, and what’s won and lost in these is abstract at best. And this may not be entirely the fault of the film, since it isn’t a failure to explain what might be at stake. Part of this section operates as a redemption story for Washington, which should connect to us on some level.
No, what really leaves this feeling short of modern relevance is that it’s an old-fashioned sort of film that makes little attempt to speak to today’s viewers. At least, not today’s progressive-leaning viewers, who are accustomed to race-blind casting and attempts to apologise for the myopic ways of the past.
Young Washington was produced by Angel Studios, which specialises in faith-based and right-leaning films. That doesn’t mean it’s pushing a right-wing agenda, necessarily, or that even if it were, that would disqualify it as a film. Race-blind casting probably wouldn’t work in a story where slaves are featured, however briefly, as characters.
The fact that the film doesn’t make even a token gesture toward being more woke, though, leaves it feeling like an artefact, musty and dated, rather than figuring out a way to make Washington feel as essential to the origins of the country – the ideal version of the country being celebrated in a 250th birthday – as Lincoln, warts and all. History is full of warts, and to deny them is to hold onto something not worth holding. Young Washington is by no means a terrible movie, but maybe it has nothing to offer us.
Young Washington opens today in Australian cinemas.