‘Young Washington’ Mixes Faith And The Limits Of A Hero’s Transformation
(REVIEW) The faith-based film industry was born to tell stories that resonated with American evangelicals, but that Hollywood wasn’t making. In the early 2000s, it was largely family-friendly, apolitical inspirational dramas for Christian moms. But today the audience is shifting toward theologically conservative men who don’t feel represented by “woke Hollywood.”
As a result, faith-based films and shows are starting to make content geared toward that audience like “House of David,” “Sound of Freedom” and “The Pendragon Cycle.”
“Young Washington” is a huge example of this shift. Director Jon Erwin was one of the biggest names in the old faith-based film industry, co-helming such classics as “I Can Only Imagine.” But he’s now started “The Wonder Project” where he makes male-focused adventure stories like “House of David.”
READ: Was George Washington Really A Practicing Christian?
With “Young Washington,” Erwin is making one of the first blockbuster faith-based patriotic action movies of the modern era, staking a claim on the ground for that growing faith-based audience. It’s the same ground Angel Studios (who partnered with Wonder Project to bring “Young Washington” to the screen) has long also tried to claim. They are surely hoping this will bring that audience back after they were offended by their “Animal Farm” movie.
So is “Young Washington” destined to supercharge this next era of faith-based films the way “I Can Only Imagine” did the last one?
It's hard to say. There's a lot to like about “Young Washington.” But it feels caught between the values of the old faith-based regime and the emerging one, undermining its ability to deliver the emotional punch it clearly wants to land.
“Young Washington” explores the formative years of America’s first president. After losing his father and finding himself shut out of elite society, a young George Washington works to rise above his station through the ranks of the British Army. As he gains command during the French and Indian War, Washington must decide whether the horrors of war — and his own ambitions — will break him or shape him into a true leader.
The film stars William Franklyn-Miller in the title role and features a powerhouse supporting cast, including Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley, Golden Globe winners Kelsey Grammer and Mary-Louise Parker, along with Golden Globe nominee Andy Serkis and Joel Smallbone.
The film surprisingly hits most of the beats of a coming-of-age blockbuster. The action and battle sequences are often thrilling and are shot with an unusual degree of artistry for a faith-based film, including several well-executed oners, beginning with the opening sequence.
Washington's character arc resembles a compelling superhero origin story, with shades of Spider-Man and Iron Man. The cast is consistently charismatic and believable, whether it’s Franklyn-Miller delivering a solid young Washington or the impressive supporting ensemble — Parker, Kingsley, Grammer and Serkis — turning in engaging performances.
There's also a welcome amount of nuance. Washington's ambition — in both his career and his romantic life — is enjoyable and it's difficult not to root for him. Yet the film also shows that all of his romantic maneuvering cannot win the woman he wants, while his relentless pursuit of status ultimately costs both him and the people he loves. It also gestures toward the historical injustices suffered by Black and Native Americans while remaining grounded in the worldview of people who regarded those realities as commonplace.
Faith plays an important but smaller role than one might expect from a film directed by a well-known faith-based filmmaker. While historians continue to debate the depth and sincerity of Washington’s personal faith, most agree — whether one reads Dr. William Federer Lilback's strongly pro-Christian “George Washington's Sacred Fire” or Ron Chernow's more restrained Pulitzer Prize-winning “Washington: A Life” — that the first president was a faithful Anglican who participated in the practices of his church and quoted Scripture frequently.
Yet the Washington of this film rarely quotes the Bible or practices his faith explicitly for most of the story. Instead, it is his mother, Mary Washington, who speaks most often about God, frequently referring to Him as “Providence.”
She repeatedly reminds her son that it has a plan for his life. Then, at a pivotal moment near the end of the film, she tells him that if he is going to fight, he should no longer fight for his own ambition but as God's servant. Washington takes her words to heart and returns to battle determined to serve both his commanders and the men under his care. The film also recreates the famous story in which a Native American tells Washington that the reason he survived battle after battle unharmed was because the Great Spirit was protecting him.
Washington’s transformation, however, is also the film’s greatest weakness. “Washington: A Life” offers numerous examples showing that, although Washington grew in his concern for the soldiers under his command and increasingly embraced the principles of fairness that would later shape the American Revolution, he never abandoned his ambition. He did not resign his commission out of guilt, as the film suggests, and he continued maneuvering for military advancement throughout this period of his life.
More importantly, the film's version of Washington's transformation doesn’t quite work emotionally. Everything we've come to admire about him is rooted in his defiant ambition. When that ambition seemingly disappears, the audience is left with little of his personality to hold onto.
The resolution also risks feeling like a “nice guy” fantasy: if you stop wanting power, you'll be rewarded with it anyway. Rather than deepening Washington's complexity, the film simplifies him into a “bad Washington” who becomes “good Washington” by the final act.
That tension reflects one of the biggest divides between older and newer faith-based audiences. The older model often reflected evangelical mom culture's suspicion that male ambition naturally led men away from home — and, by extension, away from faith.
The emerging audience has been shaped, in part, by voices like Jordan Peterson, who argues that a young man's desire to “have a woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to heaven to build” is a feature of healthy masculinity rather than a flaw.
These days, men are caught between voices that far too often encourage male ambition that’s exploitative and ones — Christian and secular alike — that pathologize male ambition as suspect.
Given recent research shows modern men’s ambitions are primarily things that Christians and non-Christians alike would affirm — such as “responsibility, sacrifice, and the capacity to provide for others” — Christian movies about young men are an amazing opportunity for Christian voices to show men how to have “Godly Ambition” (to borrow Christian personality Ruslan’s book title) and thread that needle.
Had “Young Washington” become that film, it might have been a genuinely important work of cultural ministry. It also would have been a better movie. Even so, this film remains good. And for viewers simply looking for a story that affirms both their love of God and their love of country, that may well be enough.
“Young Washington” opens in theaters nationwide on July 3.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.