The Fighting Seabees (1944)

The fighting seabees is an excellent little war movie and John Wayne is terrific in the lead role.The film has a good storyline and there is a lot of action and battles. The action is extremely loud and heavy use is made of rifles,machine guns, gattling guns, grenades and cannons. The final battle is the best part of the movie, in which the duke heroically risks his life to blow up a fuel tank.I liked the fighting seabees because of the action and the storyline. Its just as good as the dukes other war movies like back to bataan and flying tigers. Highly recommended

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.

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.

Saying this film is "propaganda" is not an insult. No, it was deliberately crafted to encourage Americans that we can and will win the war if we stand firm. And what better image of this than the ever-vigilant John Wayne--the embodiment of the Hollywood image of heroism.This film reminds me a lot of The Flying Tigers, though the plot isn't so melodramatic. It's about a crew of civilian engineers sent overseas to do construction for our troops (such as building runways and other projects). BUT, the evil Japanese in the movie take advantage of the fact that these are unarmed civilians and butcher them at every opportunity. So, what is The Duke and his trusted pals to do? Take up arms and use their own equipment when necessary to beat the stuffing out of the Japs! Yes, guys with bulldozers and clubs NEVER could have inflicted the casualties you witness in the movie, but man if it isn't entertaining to watch--particularly the explosive ending.