RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Ehwaz Probably the least sympathetic character ever played by The Duke. How many times is his character "Donovan" going to make the same mistake? This highly fictionalized account of the birth of the Seabees does little to inform OR entertain. I know that the war in the Pacific was still raging in 1944 when this was filmed but the constant stereotypes became tiresome very quickly. Every shot of Japanese fighters showed them as grinning baboons. The construction workers were all shown as drunks or incompetents. The love triangle was never believable and the misogynistic treatment of Susan Hayward was laughable as she was alternately treated like baggage or acted like a lapdog. Still, Susan Hayward was a bright spot in this picture if only for her occasional glimpse of potential as an actualized professional woman and her undeniable attractiveness.View if you must but don't expect any great (or even small) expositions about Seabees, war or love. This was a badly made propaganda film that should have been retired in 1946 when we didn't need to sign-on anymore Seabees to finish WWII. No doubt John Wayne was trying to do his patriotic duty by making this call-to-arms/shovels biopic but it misses on every cylinder to a "modern" viewer. There are too many decent WWII era films available to waste your time on this dog.

nick_elliston Picked this up as a cheap DVD as I am a sucker for 40's/50's WW2 films.Taken as a bit of propaganda and entertainment, and not reflecting in any way historical fact, it achieves it's aim. IMO, it is not up to the standard of some of Wayne's other WW2 films of this period such as Sands of Iwo Jima and They Were Expendable.It is somewhat disjointed, but I can imagine it having a positive effect on recruitment for the US Forces. Some earlier threads have commented on the reasons why Wayne did not have active war service. Whatever the reason, I would think he had a more positive effect on by being on film rather than seeing active service.

verbusen About the stupidest war movie ever made, but boy did I eat it up as a kid! This movie put a whole lot of glamour into building shacks and paving airfields so it really is excellent propaganda. My experience with this film is watching it in bits and pieces as a kid growing up. This is, in my opinion, probably William Frawley's best picture. I love the battle scenes with him on a bulldozer blasting Japs, its an American icon for me. I just started watching some of it sans thirty plus years later on TCM and it is sooooo stupid I just had to comment on it here. I'm actually thinking of the real life civilians that were captured on Wake Island and their horrific life and execution in Jap captivity, that movie is totally unwatchable for me after I learned of those facts. Anyway, I was attached in real life shortly with Seabees waiting for my next assignment and I was making sandbags and painting old shacks, thats the real Seabees. That and talking with some whose unit were killed while in morning formation in the middle east, some of whom went on door to door combat missions with Marines. The Seabees are quasi ground troops for the Navy, with skills that are necessary to establish beachheads and airfields and ports. They do a hard unglamourous job, but they do have a great cohesion among themselves and I'm sure they are proud to have the name Seabee, no doubt in part to being associated with this John Wayne comic book tale and that great fight song that you hear in the beginning (and that cool bee mascot with the machine gun). The movie is great for kids maybe like it was for me but wont stand for anyone now other than war movie junkies. When they are on island X something the whole combat compliment is Navy, where were the Marines? Hey I know my place in this military system and I know they are the ones who are their to fight on land. I'll do my fighting in the sea and the air, thats why I joined the Navy, lol. 7 of 10 for the gung ho propaganda tale and the way its told. It must have had them lining up to enlist.

sol1218 ***SOME SPOILERS*** One of John Wayne's best WWII movies has him in charge of the first Seebee construction battalion in the Pacific building airfields and port facilities for the US Navy and Air Force as well as fighting off hundreds of wild eyed and charging Japanese soldiers. Things at first didn't go too well from the men of the Wayde Donovan, John Wayne, Corps. Construction Company. Searving the US military in the Pacific their easy marks for Japanese snipers who pick off the unarmed construction workers. while the US Army and Marine Corps. are busy fighting the main Japanese forces on the many islands contested by in that theater of war.Demanding to be armed and part of the US military, not contract workers, has Donovan's men incorporated into the Army. Donovan's Seebees are then sent fully armed to island X-214 to build a base for the US Navy to refuel it's war-ships. Right from the start Donovan doesn't have the discipline thats demanded of him and is men by engaging the enemy. When told by his superior Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow,Dennis O'Keefe, to stay in the barracks and, in what looks like an American version of a Bonzai charge, Donovan has almost his entire construction company wiped out by the invading Japanese forces! Donavon, now a Lt. Commander, also screws up an ambush that the US Army had set up to stop the Japanese. That resulted in his, and Yarrow's, girlfriend war corespondent Constence Chesley, Susan Hayward,to be gunned down but not killed by a wounded Japanese soldier. Back in the states Donovan tries to make amends with the US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow and Constance over his bullheadedness on the battlefield that cost scores of US military and Seebee's lives. His relationship with Constance is handicapped by her also being in love with Wayde's commander Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow who, unlike Wayde,is a handsome and refined spit and polish Annapolis Navy man. Given a second chance to show his, and his Seebees, worth on the field of battle Wayde Donovan's construction battalion is sent ashore on island X-371. Not only to build a fuel depot and airfield but to defend if against a possible Japanese invasion of the island. Rip roaring battle scenes, some of the best ever put on film without the benefit of computer enhancement, makes "The Fighting Seebees" stand out among the score of war movies released during WWII by the major Hollywood studios. In fact the film was released by Republic Pictures which only specialized in low budget B and C movies up until then. Taking heavy casualties from Japanese fire Donovan decides, against orders, to take it, the fight, to em' and organizes another Banzai-like charge on the Japanese forces, which seems like a full division, that are invading island X-371. The US forces, Army & Marines, deafening the island are badly chopped up with Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow seriously wounded in the fighting and Donovan's Seebees are on the verge of being overrun by the fanatical Japanese troops. Having nothing but earth-moving and construction equipment to fight off the hoards of highly motivated and heavily armed Japanese troops supported by tanks the Seebees still hold on to the fuel tanks that's desperately needed for the US Navy Task Force in the area. Donavan told by the wounded Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow that he'll see to it that's he's court-martial-ed if he survives this action takes matters into his own hands. With a steam shovel loaded with explosives Donovan drives it into one of the fuel tanks causing it to explode and smoke out and drive into the open the attacking Japanese troops, their then mowed down by the Seebees and US Army and Marines.Donovan for his bravery got a medal, posthumously, not a court-martial at the end of the film, Let. Cmdr Yarrow gets the girl that both he and Donovan left behind Constance Chesely.