‘Young Washington’ Review: George Washington Goes to War in an Angel Studios Film That’s Like the Great-Man Biographies You Read in Grade School
SkimNews Take
Angel's Fourth of July timing for a reverential Washington biopic positions traditional civic narrative as edifying family viewing, suggesting patriotic origin stories have carved out a theatrical niche distinct from summer spectacle.
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- Angel Studios released 'Young Washington' for the Fourth of July as neo-traditional, right-wing-adjacent counterprogramming, with Jon Erwin directing a coming-of-age military adventure set in 1755.
- William Franklyn-Miller stars as a 23-year-old George Washington who volunteers to lead 150 militia into the Ohio Territory to contest French claims at the start of the French and Indian War.
- The film features Ben Kingsley as haughty colonial administrator Robert Dinwiddie, Kelsey Grammer as Washington's benefactor Lord Fairfax, and Andy Serkis as blustery Gen. Braddock.
- Ryan Begay plays Seneca leader Tanacharison, who warns the British and French: 'This land does not belong to you... while you kill each other, we wait to reclaim it' — an irony the review flags given what later happened to Indigenous nations.
- The film depicts Washington's ragtag militia preferring blue uniforms for stealth, framing early American fighters as among the first guerrillas against the British redcoats' open-field tactics.
- Washington's older half-brother Lawrence (John Foss) teaches him the chess aphorism 'Even a pawn can take the king,' which becomes the film's ruling theme after Washington loses his father and his chance at formal schooling.
- The Variety review calls the film 'stolid' and 'Masterpiece Theatre'-like, praising its patriotic pull but criticizing Franklyn-Miller's model-handsome look as feeling out of period and disconnected from the mythic older Washington.
Why it matters: Angel Studios, the distributor behind 'Sound of Freedom,' is doubling down on patriotic holiday counterprogramming aimed at faith-and-family audiences, betting that a grade-school-style Founding Father biopic can compete in the July 4th window against studio tentpoles.
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