Plantiana
Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
AutCuddly
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Benedito Dias Rodrigues
It's quite understandable that wartime this ultra nationalism propaganda make sense,war is war including this unreliable movie even more with John Wayne leading the process,works to Americans who needed to be convincing your people to die for the country....typical movie that didn't add to much in nothing...only to Americans whose are blind about the war!! Resume: First watch: 1993 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6
Jeff (actionrating.com)
See it –In a nutshell, it's the story of a group of construction workers in World War 2 who are contracted to build airfields in the Pacific. But when the Japanese invade their island, they are forced to help fight. They are a Construction Battalion, or CB (which sounds like Seabee), thus the name. It's hard to compare this to any other movie because it hasn't been done before or since. But fans of John Wayne movies like "Back to Bataan" will enjoy it. One of the Duke's earlier films, there are parts of The Fighting Seabees that haven't aged well. If you overlook some of the cheesiness of it, you'll enjoy it. In the final battle, we see the good guys using bulldozers and other construction equipment to fight the bad guys. What's not to like about that? 2.5 out of 5 action rating
daviddaveinternational
To paraphrase Willy G. Davidson, "How did I get into the Seabees? I was BORN!" In December of 1954, I was born in the Port Hueneme SeaBee Hospital. I was too young to remember, though. My Father was stationed at Point Mugu in Naval Aviation. We lived in Oxnard at the time. I have seen the movie, I just can't remember it. I saw one entry from the son of a SeaBee who said his Father called the movie "rubbish". You have to understand, if it were completely factual, 99% of it would be boring to the point of tears. Another entry from a Viet Nam SeaBee (thanks for your service and work, my friend!) said it was about as factual as you can get. Who's to say? Anybody wanting to really know, JOIN! I delayed-entered the U.S. Army as a mechanic (52B20) and was in basic training 2 weeks after high school graduation. Looking back, had I known better, I was more cut out to be a SeaBee. The Army was a joke (at least at Giebelstadt Air Base in West Germany in 1975) We would have continuous guard duty but were not issued any ammo for our M16. Huh? No ammo? Now, THAT'S a joke! Of course before Germany, I was stationed at Fort Sill, OK. (14th. Aviation Battalion) and it was beautiful! No guard duty and the brass was very professional. I heard John Wayne could not serve due to his bad back. His macho-like walk was not "macho". His back just hurt like hell!
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.
