George Washington

George Washington is one in a fairly long line of films that deal honestly with the lives of children, and, specifically, how they deal with some of the big issues of humanity. In the case of films such as Ponette and Forbidden Games, the subject is death, and the children's’ naturally childlike approach to it, while a movie like The 400 Blows deals with a child’s troubled life in general. George Washington has elements of all of these films, but also has something that’s just plain bizarre enough to make it stand out of the crowd, if not make it a total classic in my eyes.

The film takes place in some unknown small village. Many of the shots suggest that this village is cut off from the rest of the world somehow - no big city elements seem to find their way here, probably because this place is in the middle of nowhere. The central characters are a group of kids who hang out together. The story begins when Buddy is dumped by his girlfriend, who tells him that he acts just like a little kid (this coming from a 12 year old!), and that he found somebody more “mature”. That person is George (the narration says that George is sometimes nicknamed George Washington, which gives us the film’s title), a fairly quiet individual, with a condition in which the skin over his skull and brain is soft. He has to wear a helmet or some sort of protection in order not to injure his head, which would cause his brain to swell up. He’s also not allowed to swim for the same reasons. Much of the first part of the film deals with the “romantic” situation, with Buddy discussing the problem with a grown-up friend, and with Buddy’s pal visiting the girl to ask her why she would dump Buddy for George.

One day Buddy, his pal, George, and a rather disturbed young girl (you’ll understand when you see the movie) goof off in the public washroom, pushing each other around. Buddy pushes George, and his head falls against the wall. Even with the helmet on, this would certainly hurt in George’s condition. I was worried, that, oh no, George was going to die.... but that’s not what happens. George pushes back, and the goofing off continues, until Buddy slips and falls, banging his head on the hard floor. He staggers about until he reaches a stall, before collapsing, and is dead. The kids all react in their own different ways, but they all agree that nobody should find out what happened. One kid, in particular, is afraid that he will be sent to jail or worse. So they hide his body behind the building (the building appears to be abandoned, so there’s little chance of the average person just stumbling on to the body), and stay silent when calls go out to find this missing child.

At this point, the film truly becomes bizarre. For one thing, most people have probably thought that Buddy was the focal point of the drama, but now he’s dead. Also, George, in my view, goes utterly mad, but in a very interesting way. He feels guilt for what he thinks he did, and suddenly is able to redeem himself when he saves a local kid from drowning in a swimming pool. This lands George in the hospital, as the water against his brain makes it swell, but it also makes George a hero to the town. George’s head soon swells in a completely figurative way, now, as he actually dresses up in a cheesy super hero costume, and goes about town doing things such as traffic policing, and picking out property violations at his uncle’s run-down residence. (The uncle himself is one strange fellow; he has a fear of animals, and his story about why he has a fear of dogs in particular is so strange, you don’t know whether to laugh or be horrified. It sort of reminds me of something that Caligula might have said or done in I, Claudius, and creates the same effect!)

The narration implies, simply, that George wants to be noticed, he wants the fame, basically that he’s looking out for himself. But it’s clear that he has to do this, or else live the rest of his life thinking that he’s a horrible person, who killed his friend. Sure, it was clearly an accident, without malice, but a kid (or anyone else) would probably not conduct sober thinking if he was the one who played a part in the accident. One mysterious and interesting scene has George at the prison, talking to his father, in prison, apparently for the murder of his mother. The scene consists only of George telling his dad that his anger is gone, he understands that accidents can happen. We don’t know of course what really happened with his dad -- this is one of George’s ways of trying to forgive himself, more than anything else.

The film is definitely original, and deserves to be seen. The direction is great, and some of the images are almost like a weird kind of poetry, especially with Buddy’s rambling, enigmatic, awkward narration. I wondered if the film perhaps went over the top occassionally, though..... especially with the whole superhero bit, which comes out of left field so bluntly that some people will probably either roll their eyes or simply lose thier footing with the story. But the story is still compelling for the child actors; some of them are amazing, especially another one of Buddy’s friends who played a part in the accident. These kids don’t feel like actors, they feel like the real thing. George Washington is a very unique film that needs to be seen at least once, and probably ought to be seen again, in order to figure out at least some of its mysteries.

Rating: ***

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