Dakota Beacon

 Last week I went with my daughter to a screening of Young Washington.  This seems to be the movie of the hour, with more internet hype than anything I have seen for some time.  As the latest from independent Angel Productions it seemed worth a look.  It’s received mixed reviews - some disparaging and others glowing, so I was really curious.

The movie does not attempt a comprehensive biography; as its title proclaims, it covers Washington’s early adult life.  There is a flashback to his childhood.  We meet him (Will Joseph), desolate, on the death of his father.  Not only has he lost a beloved parent; with this loss his hopes of a respectable education in Europe are now gone.  Enter half-brother Lawrence Washington (John Foss), one of the unsung, unrecognized heroes who should be credited with our founding, really.  For Lawrence has a deep affection for his little brother and sees not only potential but an unusual ambition.  George’s bitterness at his future being limited by this lack of education causes him to act out in anger, but Lawrence promises him, “I will teach you.”  And George studies math, the classics, learns to survey and earns his surveyor’s certificate.  He might not have learned this in Oxford, but he learned it nevertheless.  Lawrence, his senior by 14 years, trains him in fencing and riding.  George also took great pains to cultivate the manners of the Vrginia aristocracy.  He dreams of becoming an officer in the British army.  This door will remain closed to him.  Lacking an English education he will be denied any kind of royal commission.  This is the backdrop and context for the story.

Many of us know of Washington’s service in the French and Indian War but probably not that he was blamed for starting it.  The circumstances are a part of this tale.  We have also heard of his fascination with one Sally Fairfax of the Virgina elite.  That, too, is a part of the history here.  

George Washington of the mid-Eighteenth Century is an ambitious, frustrated, well-educated young man with something to prove.  He is also possessed of an extraordinary courage and resourcefulness.  Where there is a wall he finds - or makes - a door.   His obsession with earning a place among his social “superiors” leads him to create his own opportunities.  

I felt that the movie showed a side of Washington that many of us have not seen.  Restless, capable, determined to “be  somebody”, yet humble.  Most of us tend to think of George Washington as “privileged”, and in many ways he was.  He inherited a huge estate and pursued his studies with an eagerness and application that demanded success.  His often strained  relationship with his mother, Mary Ball Washington (played by Mary Louise Parker)  is also part of this tug of war.  Although she helped to instill in him those qualities that made him stand out and shine, yet she was also an active antagonist to what she saw as his dangerous ambition.  She’d have like him to find contentment as a wealthy and responsible landowner and no more.

We see his intrepid dash into battle again and again, having no experience, but learning as he went along, his bold advances with generals and the “important people”, seeking ever-elusive acceptance and the prized commission.  We see his disappointment in love.  

The film was shot mostly in Ireland, which imparted a mistiness to the scenes.  Battle scenes were convincing.  Some well known vterans rounded out the list of star players:  Kelsey Grammer, Ben Kingsley, among others.  The acting was overall superb. William Franklyn-Miller gives an impressive performance as Washington and should have a great future in films.  There is a grayness, however, in most of the love-interest scenes and Sally Fairfax, played by Mia Rodgers, might be said to get short shrift or maybe is just not as captivating in her setting as one might have expected.  In fact, most interior sets seemed to have this cool grayness.  Maybe it’s just me.  The mystery and wildness of the colonial frontier, however, is well depicted.   Sunshine seems to be a rare commodity in the movie, visually speaking.

What I left with was an expanded understanding of the status of Washington in his world and the infuriating obstacles he found at every turn in pursuit of his goals.  We see not the supposedly lesser-educated military man but an intense, highly motivated, self-directed, self-taught intellectual, someone who read and re-read Cato, someone searching for information and meaning, a highly capable surveyor, an incredibly courageous - if inexperienced - military leader.  This is a man who had great compassion and regard for his Virginia volunteers, unlike his military British superiors.  A man with unusual charisma and the devotion of the men he inspired.  We see at the same time an ambitious, bold and assertive man on a quest for greatness as a leader and acceptance in a world not really worthy of him and at the same time a humble young man aware of his station and also aware of its limitations, indeed, reminded rudely of them at every turn, without losing grace.  We see a deeply disappointed lover seeking constantly to  improve himself and prove his worth.  

And we see astonishing evidence that George Washington was not only the lynch pin of our founding, the man on whom so much depended when a rag-tag America embarked on a deadly serious war with the world’s greatest power to simply assert its right to freedom and self-government, but a man who, exhibiting incredible personal physical courage, was somehow left standing in the midst of the carnage, to continue on his path to lead his nation.  It is almost inconceivable that he could have done this without divine intervention.  And we can contemplate this and while some may argue, it cannot be explained.  The circumstances of the life of a man like Washington indeed seems to make inevitable the outcome of what seemed an impossible enterprise.  Washington was made and conditioned to become the man to lead a nation and every setback, every mistake, was a step toward this end.

Although my generation was taught that Washington was a “great man” and leader, this film brought into sharp focus why we must regard him as such even if we cannot explain it.  Washington was destined to be the leader who took us from British serfs to sovereign American citizens on the battlefield.  At every juncture some fate seemed to preserve him for just this task.   I don’t hesitate to recommend Young Washington to anyone who wants some insight into our first president and perhaps our greatest leader.