We start with eleven-year-old George Washington (Will Joseph) after the death of his father. He had hoped to continue at school, but now he has to help his mother on the family farm. His half-brother Lawrence (John Foss) tutors him in the classics, including Cato and Plutarch, Seneca and Cincinnatus.
The grown Washington (William Frankly-Miller) earnestly desires to be a British officer. But to be an officer, he must be a gentleman—a member of the upper class. He strives to have all the qualities of a gentleman, but he was not born into the correct family for that.
George Washington starts out as a surveyor. Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammer) agrees to have him survey the Fairfax lands in the Ohio Valley. Washington does better than that, trying to survey the entire Ohio Valley—a vast, unsettled wilderness. He discovers a French fort in British territory.
When he brings back the news, he is made a major in the Virginia Militia. Since this is a colonial militia, he is not officially a British officer, so he still has not achieved his goal.
The disastrous battle that ensues at the start of the French and Indian War is the center of the movie. Washington is not an effective leader. He blunders badly by ordering his men to build a fort with short walls in the middle of a lake bed. All the French and their Indian* allies have to do is wait for it to flood.
Experts who know better than I say the costumes and settings are accurate. The combat scenes are riveting. They have a “you are there” quality with a real dirtside view, without being explicit in the violence. And there is lots of mud. The contrast between those scenes and the elegant chambers of the aristocracy is purposefully jarring.
Critics pretty much agree with all of the above, then opinions diverge. Some say the movie has a made-for-TV quality, or that it is only useful for stirring up childhood patriotism. Did they just watch the trailers and fudge it from there? Young Washington is a great movie, and I don’t often say that.
This is a badly-needed exploration of the early years of George Washington, when he fought for the British Empire. No man starts out as a great leader. This is shown to be painfully true in the case of Washington. This is no hagiography or children’s story. The movie convincingly shows how he learned from his blunders to become not only a man, but a leader of men.
His bad decision concerning Fort Necessity might not be covered much in schoolbooks. But it is essential to understanding the man. William Frankly-Miller does a fantastic job of showing Washington as a young officer way out of his depth, fanatically yelling at his men to prepare for battle, then not knowing what to do when the French and Indians rain murderous bullets onto them.
Mary-Louise Parker does not quite look convincing as his mother Mary Washington, who was a hard-working farmer’s widow. But her harangue to George that the Lord wants him to learn wisdom from his mistakes is a fascinating scene. Also, Ben Kingsley is just about perfect as the snobbish Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie, who is unimpressed by Washington when he sends him out to give an ultimatum to the French, and who is then outraged that a battle ensued.
The main inaccuracy in the movie is showing a romance between Washington and Sally Cary. This did not happen. In reality he only met her after she married. Apparently this was added to appeal to women.
An anachronistic element was added by showing an Indian chief wanting to meet Washington. He had instructed his men to shoot Washington, but none of them could. The chief concluded a great spirit was protecting him. In more than one battle, Washington did have bullets tear through his uniform without leaving a scratch on him, and he did have two horses shot out from under him in a single battle. But this particular conversation occurred later in his career.
These minor criticisms do no serious injury to the film. Young Washington is a great movie that not only shows George Washington’s role in the French and Indian War, but also the tumultuous events that made him the leader he ultimately became.
*A historically accurate term for Native-Americans at the time.
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