"Young Washington" Topic

Anyone seen it? Is it bearable? Or are the historical inaccuracies and melodrama too much?

I was put off by people hit by bullets being knocked backwards. I suspect they exaggerated the class system in Virginia. There were a number of things I am uncertain about, such as having 10-12 men form up in two ranks to fire volleys--I would have thought you would want at least a company of men, perhaps 30 or so, before you did that.

On the other hand, I now want to see who appropriate plastic figures for the French and Indian War or maybe the American Revolution.

Grelber

Enjoy it for what it is….a movie.

Going today!

There's a hilarious AI "trailer" that just showed up in my feed.
It has Washington break dancing, Franklin and Tom Paine rapping, and other goodies.

But remember. The real movie has Gollum as Braddock. 👍

So how was it?

Seems like the military historians are flaying it alive, while the historical biographer folks are saying it captured important aspects about Washington the man.

I'll have to wait for streaming at this point.

My wife had free tickets so we went. She enjoyed it quite a bit. I was put off by a number of things, but in general, I did enjoy it. I didn't like it when Washington said to his dying friend you will be "okay". I thought that term was invented by Andrew Jackson in the mid 1820s. The British flag was sometimes shown as the 1801 union jack with the Irish red X but sometimes not. I agree Grelber about the muskets shooting people so they made a backwards somersault but then again I've never seen anybody shot with a brown bass musket. The uniforms looked quite good for that era both British and French, and militia. I think Braddock was played by Gandhi.* I'm not sure about the class system. I think that it was similar to that in England with the upper class and the lower class. Enslaved people had a positive part, one saving the company by finding a barrel of powder when they were out of ammo, lots of excellent indigenous characters the Seneca chief was excellent. They were armed with bow and arrow as well as musket, but they did a lot of damage with their tomahawks , no scalping shown. Did Washington actually have a girlfriend at this time who ended up marrying into the nobility? I kept expecting to see Martha show up. I don't know the timeline of that.

All in all worthwhile watching especially with free tickets. The battle seems were good on the big screen better than on a TV or computer. Try to overlook the fact that Washington is portrayed much like a Captain America character, sort of Captain Virginia superhero.

Spoiler
One thing I forgot to mention was the ambush of Braddock. It seemed that they were camping and a small party went out ahead, led by major Gage. They were ambushed and then the camp was attacked and Braddock ended up in the front line somehow. Gage Deserted the front line telling Washington that Braddock ordered to retreat. Washington, of course, has to go rescue his militia men, so he goes to the front finds Craddick who said he didn't order a retreat and who makes Washington commander of the group. Washington saves everybody and gets them back to camp.

I forgot.*. Ben Kingsley.

Thanks.

Enjoy it for what it is….a movie.

If I am looking for mindless entertainment I can watch something streaming from the comfort of my home. If I am going to watch something that is being billed as based on history I'm going to want something generally following the historical outlines. Exploding roundshot and gratuitous eye candy I can live with. Making stuff up because "its cooler" is a killer.

correction: Ben Kingsly played Gov. Dimwiddie. John was correct, Gollum was Braddock

I just watched it with my 17 year old son. He liked it. I would rate it as "okay." We went to the ten dollar showing.

John, yes, Washington had one or two love interests at this period in his life before Martha came along.

I agree that the small firing lines seemed odd. Having never seen anyone get shot in the chest with a smoothbore musket, I don't consider the victims' reactions to be too over the top. We also see some people get shot and just fall over. It's a movie, not a documentary. Take it for what it is.

Watched it last night. I enjoyed it, but did catch a few out of place things.
Much better than Napoleon was.

Good to see the period getting into theaters.

In that regard, we need to take it as a win. My hope for movies like this is that someone in the audience feels motivated to do some reading on the subject at hand, whether it be George Washington the French in North America, etc., etc.

If this bunch can find positive things to say about it, it's probably a good flick!

I don't do cinema these days— hearing aids amplifying already over-amplified musket fire is NOT what I want in a theatre experience. So I'll wait for a DVD/Blu-Ray or other source, and watch it on my pretty-damn big 65" flat screen (which is at optimal viewing distance from my chair). Close enough to cinema for me these days, and a lot easier on the hearing.

But I'm pleased by what I've heard so far. No, I figure a few things will be muddled up— it's Hollywood, after all— but I can deal.

As for "Okay," this article puts the origin considerably later, in an entirely different century: link

So, no, probably not something GW would have uttered. We shall forgive the writers for not being linguistical historians, so long as nobody says "Let's do this."