Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Young Washington

"Washington! Washington!"

To Internet users of a particular vintage, those two words spoken together immediately trigger a semi-musical rapid hyper-ventilation and a litany of unlikely attributes and accomplishments ascribed to our first President. But The Boy and I kept that to a minimum as we partook of Young Washington on this 250th anniversary of our independence.

This is the latest big effort from Angel Studios, who did The Sound of Freedom, among others, complete with a pitch for you to buy tickets for people to come see the movie.

This is much like Sound of Freedom now that I think about it, with many of the same strengths and flaws. I think it's better overall, and highly enjoyable, yet not quite to the level of the Korean historical dramas we used to be able to see in Koreatown.

Significantly, however, it serves the same purpose. And it earned its $20M budget back at the box office on the first weekend, so it won't be a money loser. For The Boy and I, it increased our hunger for more such material, basically unplumbed since I was a child.

"Oh, there he goes again, revoluting."

We begin with Washington desperate to find his own men at The Battle of the Monongahela, which they manage to pronounce less silly than I always do ("mun-ON-gah-HEE-la") and which they are losing, until a dysenteric young Washington charges into (against Thomas Gage's advice) to find the Virginia militia.

12 years earlier...

I was on the fence about the flashback. At first I thought, well, this is a start-the-movie-off-with-a-bang thing when I would've appreciated a slow build-up to get to this point. By the end of the movie, I thought they had done a good job with getting back to that point, and the movie was almost a superhero origin story as the socially adventurous Washington tries to climb through the British ranks only to get ahead of his own abilities and to lose the very wealthy girl to the more socially appropriate British noble, culminating in losing valuable men to his stubbornness in a humiliating defeat against the French.

The arc is very good, and very "Korean", if you will. The capable but proud leader finds humility in failure and learns the important thing is serving others. Sorry if that's trite: That's the way it plays out in the history books and it's a good lesson for everyone. 

To be great, you have to faceplant.

William Farnklin-Meyer does a good job in the lead. He's handsome and believable, both in proud and petulant moments. Mia Rogers as love-interest Sally is beautiful and...uh...heaving...and is very convincing as the woman who loved Washington but gave him up for the more socially correct choice. They're both actually English, too, which is sort of amusing.

The big names in the cast are Kelsey Grammar, Andy Serkis and Ben Kingsley, all with small but meaty roles. Oh, and Mary Louise-Parker does an excellent job as Ma Washington. Great casting choice.

Good acting all around, in other words, which helps tremendously. It's also well edited. The sound—I thought some of the dialogue wasn't as crisp as it should've been, but otherwise it was quite good. Good use of score. 

The action is pretty good. It's Hollywood-ified, but if I'm not going to ding a Korean movie for that (and I never have), I'm certainly not going to ding an American one for it. The pacing is occasionally odd, reminding me a bit of Sound of Freedom. 

Storytelling like this is a muscle, and in America it's a muscle that's been underused since the Bicentennial.

Having Sally Fairfax be a knockout makes George seem less like a social adventurer. (Jaclyn Smith played her in the 1984 "Washington" miniseries.)

On a technical level The Boy felt the portrayal of the battle scenes wasn't spot on. He didn't hold it against the movie much but he's jonesing for a movie that understands Linear warfare. Me hearing Bach and Petzold* at a 1755 English ball rankled me.

The Rotten Tomatoes split on this is predictable: 92% for audiences, 60% for America-hating critics, and for all the expected nonsense reasons. It's no Braveheart and not even The Patriot, but those movies were even more brutal to history than this was. This one very nicely blends true elements with a little modern education and some myth-building. I particularly enjoyed Washington's penchant for hacking away at trees when he was mad, and then having him chip in during the Ohio campaign to hack apart a tree that had stopped Braddock's army.

There is a wide range of juicy historical "Easter eggs" for the America Cinematic Universe, from the easiest ("Oh, you say there's an identity separate from the British here?") to more subtle ones ("Oh, you say Thomas Gage doesn't care about the colonials.") Lots of good classist snobbery (which is probably authentic, and even played down, honestly). Lots of, "Huh, slaves...are going to be a problem eventually, ain't they?" that recall the Nate Bargatze "Washington" sketch.

Good stuff. Recommended if you don't hate America. Even if you're so-so on America, you can have a good time.

I stole this from a story with the caption "Ben Kinglsey says he won't stop acting." Why would he? He's great!

*I just this second learned that Bach's Minuet in G was actually written by Christian Petzold, and this was discovered in the late '70s. News just reached me, some 50 years later.

OTHER MOVIES & THINGS:
I was busy finalizing my cover and glossary for my next book, "Lair of the White Worm" and pickin's were slim, but here's what we saw this past fortnight-and-a-half:

The Fisher King: From Terry Gilliam's golden period ("Time Bandits" to "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas"), Jeff Bridges is a shock-jock (remember how much they hated Rush and blamed him for everything?) whose antics result in Robin Williams' wife being murdered. Williams ventures into hell to get her back. (Wait, no...)

12 Monkeys: Arguably Gilliam's best film (though I still favor "Munchausen"), Bruce Willis is a time-traveler trying to mitigate the apocalypse. Brad Pitt is a crazy man running a pro-animal death cult that may have caused it. Brad Pitt is better at being authentically crazy than Robin Williams was. Plot twist: Pitt achieves this by literally imitating Terry Gilliam.

Network: Massive 1976 Oscar Juggernaut featuring Faye Dunaway as a rapacious network entertainment executive with a vision of corrupting the news to make it profitable. I was struck by how relevant it all felt today. Highlight: Communist revolutionaries arguing over ancillary residuals they'll receive from the TV show based on their terrorist antics.

The Samurai and the Prisoner: Terrific new Japanese historical drama based on a leader whose main problem seems to be an unwillingness to brutally murder the people he's supposed to, which includes children and harmless people. (Or are they?)

Sheep in the Box: Kore-eda's new drama about a couple that replaces their dead son with a robot, and realizes they can't replace their dead son with a robot, and a whole bunch of other things. Interesting but unfocused.

White Nights: Luchino Vischonti's 1957 classic based on a story by Dostoevsky. Filmed at Cinecitta, elements of this Russian drama don't literally work, but it's a gorgeous film with gorgeous Italians in it.

The Rivals of Amziah King: A unique musical/comedy/crime/thriller/drama which is marvellous for the first 45 minutes. Brilliantly edited, heartfelt and good-looking with some fabulous music, it suffers from one unrecoverable issue at the end of the first act which, while absolutely necessary to the plot, dooms the rest of the movie.

Score an ebook ($4!) or a signed copy of Lair of the White Worm from my Kickstarter today!