Praise for Angel Studio's Young Washington

It happened again. A wholesome, family-oriented film made by Angel Studios has outperformed the typical Hollywood summer blockbuster, and critics are once again dumbfounded. As one headline put it, 'Supergirl' suffers catastrophic 73% drop, gets obliterated at box office by patriotic 'Young Washington'...

“A film (Warner Bros.’ Supergirl) that needed to make $200 million+ at US theaters to break even may not even reach $80 million. And considering the woeful international numbers, it's going to cost Warner Bros. hundreds of millions in losses. For context, Young Washington, a patriotic film about George Washington's early life and military service from Angel Studios, carried just a $20 million budget. It made an estimated $21 million in its first weekend, per tracking site The Numbers. Playing in just 2,700 theaters, that's a $7,721 per-theater average. Supergirl? Just $2,665.” 1

While it’s easy to critique the state of modern entertainment, Angel Studios continues to provide a refreshing alternative. Their latest project is another beautifully crafted, high-quality work that offers audiences an opportunity to be lifted up. By prioritizing good storytelling about virtue, Angel's Studio are helping to shape a more positive and Christian-friendly cultural landscape for everyday viewers.

Young Washington was directed by Jon Erwin, the same guy who directed the 2018 Christian biographical drama I Can Only Imagine, which tells the inspiring true story behind the hit MercyMe song. Erwin partnered with Angel Studios, which has enjoyed a string of "surprising" blockbuster films such as The Chosen, Sound of Freedom, Cabrini, David, and now Young Washington, featuring accomplished actors Gen-Xers would know: Ben Kingsley and Kelsey Grammer.

I liked Young Washington because it tells the origin story of a hero most of us know only as a portrait on our money or a statue in our Capitol, whom we don't know as a real person. At the same time, the film captures Washington's epic, mythic status as the ultimate American legend. It is a delicate balance between highlighting one’s character flaws and mistakes, and the virtue and wisdom attained after learning from those mistakes.

As his mother, Mary Ball Washington, so eloquently proclaims in the film, "Failure is a tutor sent by God. If you don't learn from it, you fail twice. If you do learn from it, you've earned wisdom." George Washington was a fallen creature, as we all are, yet he feels called to advance the cause of justice and liberty in the face of the English system of aristocratic class advantage based on genetics.

We learn that Young Washington was born knowing that he was called to become a great man, in spite of his being an anonymous American-born tenant farmer.

His life can be thought of as a case study for how Divine Providence acts in setting the stage for our greatest (future) hour. Washington wasn’t prepared by a careful, man-made plan of a formal education, gentlemanly credentials, or his father’s tutelage in order to produce an obvious, polished leader.

Instead, his qualifications were almost totally by happenstance. He was born with a natural set of leadership qualities and gifts. He was a tall, confident man with clean, masculine facial features who had a knack for horse riding and frontier know-how. When combined with a fierce will to achieve greatness and a mysterious, limitless well of perseverance in the reservoir of his soul, his resolute character became unstoppable. It was forged by Providence through a series of setbacks full of failure and suffering to eventually meet the kairos moments of his life, always with a burst of willingness and optimism.

Lord Fairfax tries to get George to accept the fallenness of the world: "George, there's no fairness here. That is not the way the world works..." George responds with a call for redemption or revolution to reverse things from what they are to what they ought to be: “Then someone should remake it", replied George.

That “someone”  was George Washington, and deep down he knows that is his destiny. His older (half) brother, Spencer Washington, took it upon himself to form the eleven-year-old George after the death of their father. In one scene, the brothers are playing chess. Young George asks the question, “What are we?” The answer given by his older, experienced brother and mentor was at first stark, then hopeful: “We are the pawns... but even a pawn can take down a king.” In light of the destiny of George Washington to lead a revolution to overthrow the crown, that was perhaps the best line in the whole film.

Another great scene was when George was called to meet with the Native Americans who had been firing their guns directly at him in the preceding Battle of the Monongahela, but somehow they missed every time. The tribal chief confirmed Washington’s special destiny: "Our people have a legend—a spirit of protection that shields those chosen, those who walk in destiny. The Creator chose you. You have been shielded by the spirit."

Young Washington learned early on from experience that "respect is not commanded but must be earned." He not only earned the respect of his enemies, but he carried out his call to be the perfect person in the perfect time period to unite the people whom he commanded: the American-born Virginians. He came to realize he was never meant to be an English gentleman officer because he was even better—he was one of them, an American.

The film, which was only the beginning of a great story, ends by leaving the American audience with a sense of patriotic pride and a misty-eyed desire to see the next stage (hopefully in a series of films by Angel Studios) in the life of our most important Founding Father. I highly recommend this film.