OP-ED: Christopher Gist died to make us free
In the coming days, National Park rangers may find visitors asking about the location of Christopher Gist’s grave somewhere near Fort Necessity, this following the release of the splashy new film, the heavily advertised “Young Washington.”
A production of Angel Studios, the movie depicts a scene purporting to show Gist’s death at the hands of the French and Indians during the bloody skirmish at the Farmington redoubt on July 3, 1754.
In real life, Washington and Gist, a frontier guide who kept a cabin in the vicinity of present-day Laurel Mall, were friends and comrades in arms. “Young Washington” portrays the future first president silhouetted by fire bending over Gist’s burial place. Later in the film, Gist’s ghostly presence comes back to haunt Washington in a dream sequence before another encounter with the enemy.
Angel Studios, headquartered in Provo, Utah, specializes in “the power of storytelling to amplify light,” a murky enough goal to vex even the most avid movie fan. The studio says it focuses on “what is good, beautiful and worth sharing.”
One its founders, Neal Harmon, told Variety in 2025 that Angel Studios aims to release films for people who “think Hollywood is out of touch.
“We don’t have a problem with what’s being made,” Harmon continued. “We are doing what is not being made. There is so much room for growth. We don’t see this as a zero-sum game.”
Angel Studios has certainly been active. It will release “Hershey” on Thanksgiving Day. The story of Milton Hershey bringing chocolate to the masses was filmed partially in Brownsville.
Its past theatrical releases include “The Senior,” the story of an ex-college football player who failed to finish school. With a year of eligibility remaining, the character, now in his 50s, returns to the gridiron for a glorious last hurrah; and “Sound of Freedom,” about a U.S. government agent’s rescue of children from sex trafficking in Columbia.
Still in all, Angel is not so different from Hollywood as it might like to admit. For generations, Hollywood had been switching out fact for fiction. The “based on a true story” genre is a stable of U.S. filmmaking.
“Inherit The Wind,” about the 1920s Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee and starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly, is a prime example. It only occasionally sticks to the facts.
“They Died With Their Boots On,” about Gen. Custer’s last stand starring Errol Flynn and Gloria de Havilland, “managed to insult both Custer and his Indian foes,” according to historian Fred Anderson writing in American Heritage magazine in 1997.
Legendary Hollywood director John Ford filmed “Young Mr. Lincoln” with the equally legendary Henry Fonda in the lead role. In the film, young Abe the lawyer clears three defendants of murder. This climatic episode of the film never happened.
Nor was the trial the only thing Ford managed to fabricate for its impact on audiences.
Let’s be clear: Christopher Gist wasn’t killed at Fort Necessity. There is no grave that visitors to the fort may bow their heads over.
Nor is it true that Washington, as depicted in the film, got along well with his mother, or that she offered him life-changing advice that he took to heart. Likewise, Washington’s first encounter with the French, his relationship with Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie, his near death on the icy waters of the Allegheny River, should all be fact-checked.
“Young Washington” twists facts so frequently that it bears repeating: beware of “historical” films. Don’t be duped. You can’t trust Hollywood, or Provo, Utah, for that matter, to cross each and every historical bridge with the truth intact.
Nothing’s wrong with a film playing fast and loose with the facts. The historical drama, by highlighting character, is a veritable art form, and can be a valuable one at that. At the same time, audiences should not believe everything they see on the big screen. Ever.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.