{"id":384924,"date":"2026-07-03T13:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384924\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:07:04","slug":"young-washington-review-we-deserve-a-more-exciting-founding-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384924\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Young Washington’ review: We deserve a more exciting founding father"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s the 250th birthday<\/a> of the United States of America and how better to celebrate than with a big-screen hagiography of America\u2019s first president, George Washington? \u201cYoung Washington\u201d arrives in theaters just in time for the Fourth of July with a chiseled, hot young actor in the lead role and the sheen of a prestige HBO drama, though the result isn\u2019t really big-screen spectacle or appointment television. It feels more like something to be watched on the AV rig in a middle school social studies class. At least there won\u2019t be a quiz at the end.<\/p>\n

But there could be, because the plot of \u201cYoung Washington\u201d plays out with all the thrill of a textbook chapter. It takes place mostly around 1753-55, at the advent of the French and Indian War. We open in medias res when the 23-year-old Col. Washington (William Franklyn-Miller) lurches from a dysentery-riddled nap directly into battle in the Pennsylvania woods, his battalion on the back foot, surrounded by gore and gunpowder. Another officer describes how dire the situation is while George ponders saving his men and asks, \u201cWhat could be worth the risk?\u201d Washington steels his gaze and we cut to black. You can almost hear the eagles scream, guitars riff and engines rev.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung Washington\u201d is produced and distributed by Angel Studios, the faith-based movie studio that churns out films based on true stories that either feature freak accidents, strange illnesses or, more recently, unique stories from the past in which faith in God is a factor. Apparently, our nation\u2019s founding also falls under this umbrella.<\/p>\n

The film is directed by Jon Erwin, one of the in-house Angel Studios mainstays, who also helmed \u201cJesus Revolution,\u201d<\/a> \u201cI Still Believe\u201d<\/a> and \u201cI Can Only Imagine.\u201d<\/a> Erwin gives the whole project a kind of gritty, visceral approach \u2014 very \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d in red coats. It\u2019s violent, muddy, the contrast is high and too many drone shots soar over the forest treetops.<\/p>\n

Though it opens with a bang, this 1755 battle framing device gives way to the George origin story, starting with his father\u2019s death 12 years earlier, when the 11-year-old George is bereft that he\u2019ll have to sacrifice his education in order to become a tenant farmer and provide for his family including his mother, Mary (Mary-Louise Parker, doing a bizarre accent).<\/p>\n

His older half-brother Lawrence (John Foss) takes him under his wing and teaches him, and the young George grows into a smart, bright, ambitious young man, whose dreams of becoming a British officer are dashed because he doesn\u2019t have formal education, a fortuitous marriage or his own land. But he\u2019s bootstrapped himself into intelligence and with savvy networking and know-how, he becomes indispensable to the British, volunteering as a major to survey land and negotiate treaties with the Native tribes and French army. It\u2019s all a bunch of politicking and petty disputes until it escalates into all-out war thanks to an ill-advised ambush.<\/p>\n

Sir Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammar (who starred in \u201cJesus Revolution\u201d) and Andy Serkis play the British officers who begrudgingly, at times, believe in George and his capabilities, though a lot of the film is about a young man getting rebuffed by snobbish British officers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the kind of character who always makes the noble choice, does and says what\u2019s right, and sees everyone as equals (including enslaved African men and Native American allies). He inspires his brother and others that the world can change and takes inspiration from his mother, who encourages him to continue his path and do it as God\u2019s servant.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this doesn\u2019t make for a character that\u2019s in any way complex or interesting at all. Franklyn-Miller is certainly pretty, serving as a fine face for this story, but the screenplay (by Erwin, Diederik Hoogstraten and Tom Provost) flattens his character into a basic cookie-cutter hero. Audiences, including the middle school social studies students, deserve better and more nuanced stories about this country and the values it was built upon.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung Washington\u201d is propaganda in the form of a history lesson wrapped in a summer blockbuster. If only it were even slightly entertaining \u2014 maybe they\u2019ll tackle that in the inevitable sequel.<\/p>\n

‘Young Washington’<\/p>\n

Rated: PG-13, for sequences of strong war violence and some bloody images<\/p>\n

Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes<\/p>\n

Playing: Opens Friday, July 3 in wide release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the 250th birthday of the United States of America and how better to celebrate than with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7625,20358,155364,6193,1924,26822,14876,131244,6195,48,52,51,47,50,49,6316,155366,315,8843,155365,155363],"class_list":["post-384924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-america","tag-battle","tag-british-officer","tag-character","tag-film","tag-george-washington","tag-god","tag-jon-erwin","tag-kind","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mother","tag-own-land","tag-time","tag-way","tag-william-franklyn-miller","tag-young-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}