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‘Young Washington’: The Other War That Made the Man

‘Young Washington’: The Other War That Made the Man

Last updated on: June 28, 2026 at 10:06 pm by Kate O'Hare

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‘Young Washington’: The Other War That Made the Man 2026-06-28T22:06:53-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Young Washington, in theaters on July 3, asks the question, “How did George Washington become, well, George Washington?”

He was the Father of Our Country. The Indispensable Man. The man who stepped up to lead the ragtag army of a fledgling nation in a war against one of the most powerful empires on Earth.

He rallied the troops at Valley Forge. He crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve. He had bad teeth.

As John Adams observed in an 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson:

The essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklin’s electric rod smote the earth and out sprang General Washington. Then Franklin electrified him, and thence forward those two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislations, and War.

Kind of sounds like a superhero, huh? But every superhero has an origin story, and, despite Adams’ explanation, this one doesn’t have electric shock, gamma rays or a radioactive spider.

The story does have a war, but maybe not the one you think.

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The Origin Story of Young Washington

If you’ve ever read or watched The Last of the Mohicans, (or grew up, as I did, in the middle of such famous locations as Fort William Henry, Fort Edward, Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga) then you’ve been introduced to the French and Indian War (1754-1763), a subset of the global Seven Years’ War.

In North America, the British took on the French over trade and dominion. Different Native American tribes fought on both sides.

A fatherless but ambitious young Virginian, Washington is widely believed to have inadvertently started the war in North America.

In May 1754, as a 22-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, Washington led a surprise attack on a French scouting party in the Pennsylvania wilderness. It ended in the death of the French commander.

One thing led to another, and eventually war broke out.

The Day Washington Was Nearly Assassinated … in Butler

The day of the surprise attack may have been unlucky for young George (played in the film by British actor William Franklyn-Miller), but he was lucky to be there at all.

The previous December, when still a major in the militia, Washington had a narrow escape, when an enemy bullet whizzed past his ear.

This happened in what is now Butler County, in Western Pennsylvania, site of another attack, this time on a former president and presidential candidate, in July 2024.

Journalist and Pittsburgh native Salena Zito, who was present for the event, opens her book on it, titled Butler, with the story about Washington. You can listen to the opening few minutes of the audiobook version here.

The French and Indian War accelerated Washington’s military career and gave him the leadership and battlefield experience he would later need for the Revolutionary War.

Is Young Washington a Good Movie?

Presented by Wonder Project and Angel Studios, Young Washington is directed by Jon Erwin, best known for such faith-based projects as I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, American Underdog and the hit House of David series. Writers are Erwin, Tom Provost and Diederik Hoogstraten.

I had a conversation about the film with the Dutch-born Hoogstraten, and it’s embedded at the bottom.

Along with newcomer Franklyn-Miller, the cast includes Mary-Louise Parker as his devout Christian mother Mary, along with Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis and Kelsey Grammer.

Young Washington is a handsome production that effectively captures how Washington evolves from an eager teenager into a leader of men — but his journey is not without missteps along the way.

Ambitious and self-assured almost to a fault, Washington has to learn the limits of his own abilities.

This inculcated a humility that would surprise many in years to come … especially when he walked away from the presidency after two terms.

Says Hoogstraten:

We do not pretend to be historians, but based on what we learned, it was our strong sense that humility, I think that’s ultimately what it is.

He will always be an enigma, in part, because we’re talking about the 1750s and there’s just so little that survived, and he was a very deeply private person, of course.

But we tried to look underneath or behind the enigma and tried to show that what we believe is that yes, through failure, through experience, he learned that sense of humility.

And his mother, I don’t want to underestimate the beautiful role by Mary-Louise Parker, really loved what she did with the character of Mary, the mother, to [make her son] think less highly of himself.

He was brilliant, he was athletic, he was magnetic, he was so tall and strapping, and smart … and very handsome.

William Franklyn-Miller, that actor is a good-looking man, and who knows, might be better looking than George Washington actually was. We don’t know. But brilliant role by him.

The way he shows it is that yes, as you see in the film, when he first really, really fails on the battlefield with these horrific circumstances and consequences, he accepts the consequences, and he steps back and he says, “I am not fit to lead.”

We have him say that quite literally.

Of course, whether he said it just like that to the governor of Virginia, we don’t know, but we imagine that he did as a precursor to what you’re saying, as someone who recognizes the limits of his own abilities, of his power, and maybe suggesting that the integrity that we get to know him for later is rooted in that.

So to answer your question, yes, we do believe that this formative time of his life is where we start to see the very beginnings of these attributes that we know him for later.

Is Faith a Part of Young Washington?

Washington’s personal religious convictions have long been a source of controversy. We do know he was baptized into the Anglican faith and attended church, if irregularly.

While he rarely mentioned Christ by name, Washington did refer to God in other ways frequently, in public speeches and writings (not unlike many other educated men during the Enlightenment).

He was a strong supporter of religious freedom, though, including advocating strongly for equal rights for Catholics.

But he was not a demonstrative believer, especially in youth. In Young Washington, that role falls to his mother, Mary.

Says Hoogstraten:

Having Mary as someone who is not afraid to, especially in that dialogue that they have at some point, to bring in the faith, to bring up the faith, to encourage him based on that faith, I think it’s an important moment to John and to the film, even if we never quite go deeply into what we think George might’ve believed at that stage in his life, because we just don’t know.

Should Families See Young Washington?

The film is rated PG-13 for wartime violence and some bloody images. I’d say that sounds just about right, but I think mature 12-year-olds and tweens might be OK.

Some critics have complained about the pacing, and the use of generative AI — similar to what Erwin employs to good effect in House of David.

Young Washington is a costume drama of 18th-Century Colonial America and the frontier, dealing with a near-mythic historical figure, so, no, it’s not zippy or irreverent.

Overall, I think Young Washington is an old-fashioned, well-crafted historical biopic, with solid performances and excellent cinematography.

It shows Washington as a human being with flaws and fears, not the marble statue he too often becomes in Revolutionary War-era productions.

Also, the film sheds light on the lesser-known French and Indian War, reminding us that America’s quest for national identity and independence didn’t spring out of nothing.

While I always recommend HBO’s John Adams and the movie of the musical 1776 for July 4 viewing, this film is a worthy addition to America’s 250th-birthday celebration.

Here’s my detailed conversation with Hoogstraten:

Image: Angel Studios

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French and Indian War

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About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a veteran entertainment journalist, Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor for Family Theater Productions and a screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

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