Where was Frau Blucher?
Happy America 250, everybody! Your humble Average Dude hopes you had a joyous and safe long holiday weekend! This year, Hollywood has given us not one but TWO options deserving a view and review. Option 1 was always going to be option 1 for America 250 weekend…Young Washington (not to be confused with Young Frankenstein). And it did not disappoint.
Historical accuracy counts…but not this weekend
Now, the Average Dude has no illusions that Young Washington is a strictly accurate historical telling of our first president and great national icon. Maybe I’ll do an update sometime and maybe it will affect my overall rating. But not right now. Nope. We love our 4th of July and we love it even more this year. So, let’s take a moment and breathe in the freedom. And in the recent words of an infamous celebrity…
Perspective, people
Pro-American sentiment has not been this high since probably 9/11/2001. World Cup visitors are everywhere you look online, heaping praises on Americans in general. They are voicing astonishment at the endless blessings that we enjoy daily. If we can’t set aside politics for one day and just recognize that we have more (of everything) than any other country in the world (and in all of history) then…well, there’s something wrong with your thinking.
Wherever you fall on the Have to Have Not spectrum, objectively, your place on a worldwide scale is much, much higher than it may be on a strictly US scale. And NOWHERE ELSE do you have MORE freedom to change that. Again, not political. Just truth. But I digress.
I blame Nintendo
Young Washington is less about patriotism and more about ambition and the will to achieve. George was not born into the privileged class. While not exactly poor (his family were tenant farmers and definitely looked down upon by the British high-borne of the day), George was not content with what everyone told him was his lot in life.
Denied even a basic formal schooling, he threw himself into what we would now consider a ‘home school’ education. At an age when most of current American youth are watching Transformers or Spidey and Friends or Encanto for the 30th time, Young Washington was reading philosophers and books on etiquette and social practical skills. He was constantly, fervently trying to improve himself. Wow. What more need we say about how he came to be one of the greatest heroes in any era, in any history. Just…wow.
Bold, bordering on brash, Young Washington used an illusion of breeding, guile, an intricate knowledge of social etiquette and buckets of charm to finagle his name onto some influential lips. Having gained a surveyor’s license along with inherited equipment, Young Washington parlayed those small skills into the employ of the Fairfax family, one of the most influential landowners of the era. This kind of stepping-stone becomes a theme in this movie. And George is ever looking for the next stone.
Few names, but one you will soon see more of
There are not many known names associated with Young Washington. Kelsey Grammar had a small part (Lord Thomas Fairfax). Mary-Louise Parker as George’s mother. Andy Serkis played a proper English [insert your preferred vulgar British sobriquet). And of course, the always amazing Ben Kingsley. But make no mistake, William Franklyn-Miller as Young Washington is an absolute revelation. I’ll be keeping an eye out for his next film. A quick check of his IMDB resume showed me absolutely nothing that I recognized, but whatever. Young Washington is Miller’s launch pad. Mark my words.
SO…the Average Dude is giving Young Washington a revolutionary score of 4/5. Not an annual watch, for sure. But totally worth your time and corn. Now, on to the second feature…
Was Lucky Strike a lucky find?
Right out of the gate, I have to wonder why Lucky Strike had only a single showing each day. Opening weekend? That’s a bit of a red flag and I’ll see what I can find out about why that was. But it was a WII movie, and it’s Fourth of July weekend AND it stars Scott Eastwood (the progeny of one Clint Eastwood) so sure. We’ll give it a try. Plus, we’ve been starved for good movies for so long and we’re kind of desperate. So. Long.
Lucky Strike is the ‘based on actual events’ story of…no one in particular. From what I can gather (post viewing), the ‘actual events’ claim comes by way of ‘these things did happen in the war’. Seems kind of disingenuous but again…
Lucky Strike tells the story of fictitious Army Captain Castle, tasked with taking out a road and preventing a German SS Panzer division from getting to Allied forces during the Battle of the Bulge. Capt. Castle’s entire squad it mowed down by a German patrol, but Castle manages to complete his mission. The bulk of Lucky Strike is about how an injured American soldier, wounded and alone, makes his way nearly 20 miles to safety across terrain crawling with German soldiers. Pretty typical WWII scenario.
Pretty much, the whole of this movie was Scott Eastwood overcoming obstacles (and Germans) in a ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ type of get home safe movie. He didn’t have any secret plans, no mission critical intel that would save the battalion. Just one dude trying to get home alive. And that was enough. The pacing was tight, the perils believable*. The outcomes were never in doubt. That didn’t take anything away from Lucky Strike. Knowing he would survive (because we learned it in the first 5 minutes of the movie) only changed the focus from ‘will he make it’ to ‘how much sh!t will he go through to make it?’.
I learned after the fact that there were quite a few technical details that this movie got wrong or completely ignored. WWII buffs might be disappointed by these details. Even now, knowing what they got wrong does not detract from my enjoyment of Lucky Strike (to any significant degree, anyway). In the end, it was about one dude overcoming obstacles to survive. And again, that was enough.
So, the Average Dude is giving Lucky Strike a serviceable 3.5 out of 5. Also not an annual watch but a nice way to finish off the holiday weekend. See it now, while the spirit of America 250 still lingers. That should help your enjoyment factor.
*If you want unbelievable WWII perils, might I suggest SISU. You’re welcome.
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