Jeff Silverman, Daily Variety
Producer-director David Sutherland and writer William Martin have constructed a memerizing
psychological study of Washington from his youth through a disastrous
early military career to the end of the American
Revolution and the moment he seized his place in history by eschewing power
and rejecting complete control over a nation desperate to give birth to itself.
Washington could have become a king. He chose to remain a man. For more than 200 years, the nation has been building
momuments to that choice. Sutherland and Martin shows us why he deserves them.
Review from The Chicago Sun-Times
By Ginny Holbert
November 18, 1992
In George Washington: The Man Would Wouldn't Be King independent
filmmaker David Sutherland goes beyond the stiff textbook portrait to
fill in the details of a complex man. Using dramatic re-enactments of
battle scenes and beautiful footage of eastern landscapes,
Sutherland's unconventional documentary portrays Washington as a man
who started his career as a social-climbing, land-hungry opportunist.
This Washington--who would never make it through the campaign media
gauntlet today--reflected the values of the times. He owned slaves and
evidence suggests that he married Martha mainly for her money. He even
swindled his own men out of prime land and blamed his military mistakes
on his subordinates.
But The Man Who Wouldn't Be King also shows the creation of a hero.
Washington, who was educated by the trials of war, became a
self sacrificing patriot who could have been king but chose instead to
honor the fledgling democracy he fought to create. For Sutherland,
[Washington's growth] suggests that a man can't be judged
by what he did in his 20s, whether it's draft-dodging or land-grabbing.
"If we've taken him [Washington] off of his pedestal, I think it's
basically because nobody is perfect," says Sutherland. "He grew in the
job.... If you look at Clinton in this last presidential election, it
sort of offers a little hope."
Today, we expect casual, intimate images of our presidents, whether they
are golfing or jogging. But Sutherland faced the daunting task of
humanizing a man who lived long before photography. Although many
portraits of Washington exist, Sutherland wanted to go beyond the formal
pose of the civic leader-military commander.
Sutherland, who has made a number of films that have appeared on PBS,
used an innovative approach that borrows heavily from feature films.
The Man Who Wouldn't Be King features historically correct
reenactments shot in grainy, sepiatoned black and white. To achieve
authenticity, Sutherland braved rain,
40-m.p.h. winds and real bayonets to shoot the scenes. To heighten the
feeling of fast-moving chaos, Sutherland added spaghetti western music
and some odd, barely discernible sound effects--lions and elephants
roaring in the background.
...With The Man Who Wouldn't Be King, Sutherland goes a long way toward
making Washington real.
- Gold Plaque Award for Specialty in Directing, Chicago International Film and Video Festival- 1993
- Certificate for Creative Excellence: Biography, U.S. International Film and Video Festival- 1993
- Special Merit Award-TV Series-Documentary, Houston International Film and Video Festival- 1993
- CINE Golden Eagle- 1993
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