I saw it this afternoon...
I was not impressed.
I was expecting something along the lines of his conversion to American revolutionary ideals... That didn’t happen at all. There was nothing really “American” about this movie at all.
It pretty much peaked with British praise for his bravery in the 2nd battle, after he failed and quit after his first battle.
Battle scenes were not really captivating or realistic... They just showed him being unbelievably lucky (Divine protection) not getting shot at point blank range.
Directing could have been a LOT better.
Nobody seemed to know why they were fighting, or who they were fighting for. It seemed somewhat pointless... In the end they cheered for “Virginia!”... not “Liberty”.
I assume you do know they were British subjects at the time. There was no sentiment of independency at that time. They were LOYAL British subjects. In 1755, he wasn’t in the least bit close to any kind of “conversion to “American revolutionary ideals”.
That “conversion” would happen many years later after he had become mired in the mercantilistic relation with England, where many Colonial farmers were in hock to British merchants who sold them goods at an unfair exchange rate. If anything, it was probably the Stamp Act that began to drive him inexorably towards a separation, and that was a somewhat exponential rise with a long, gradual slope, then suddenly spiking upwards as they moved past the Boston Massacre in 1773.
They weren’t fighting for “liberty” at that time. That would have been historically inaccurate to the point of absurdity. And, they would have absolutely cheered for “Virgina”. 100% they would have cheered for Virginia.
That is an accurate portrayal of his actions at that time. Horse shot out, bullet holes in his coat and his hat, that is all true.
But the movie wasn’t made to show George Washington as he was in 1775. It was made to show him in 1755, and the various things that turned him into the George Washington history largely knows him as.
That is why one need to understand a little of the French and Indian war before viewing. Very few Americans have a clue about that time period and how it transitioned our relationship with England
Salutary neglect to more fiscal and legal oversight of the colonies