The Fighting Seabees (1944)

Too much of everything

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

THE FIGHTING SEABEES is a standard WW2 propaganda film featuring John Wayne in a typically gruff role as a leader of men. It's an example of routine wartime heroics that follows the adventures of one of the Construction Battalions that toured the Pacific islands, helping to build bases and providing aid to the soldiers and pilots using the area.The film is briskly plotted and follows all of the usual routines, with a little romance and characterisation of the main characters and plenty of action for the ground-level troops. Wayne is his usual likable hero although he doesn't get as much screen time to swagger this time around due to the amount of supporting characters. The best part of the film is the climactic battle, as violent and explosive as it is.

Has there ever been a film about the SeeBees? I had heard the term but was unaware of their contribution. Hence, I thank the war propaganda movement for this education.I assume that each branch and sub division were happy to merit film representation and exhibit capability, challenge, and bravery. Since I have limited experience with WWII, military channel primarily, I found this film watchable and suspenseful enough to captivate.The most shocking moment was not war related but the Duke doing the jitterbug with slick adroitness! How they managed to complement his image as the proverbial tough guy is beyond me, but perhaps he was delighted to get the heck outta Dodge with his typical character.Overall recommend for appreciating this group of brave men!

Construction boss Wayne and Navy lieutenant Dennis O'Keefe try to convince the Navy that wartime construction workers need to be armed. Meanwhile the two men vie for Susan Hayward. Good WW2 John Wayne movie about the formation of the seabees (CBs = construction battalion). Wayne is heroic in this one but also kind of a bullheaded reckless sort of guy who endangers his men. I was kind of surprised to see O'Keefe get to be the white knight here. He even gets the girl. Hayward offers little except to look pretty and be torn between two men. The supporting cast is good. The action is exciting. The highlight of the film, though, is seeing John Wayne dance the jitterbug with a blonde.

Before writing this review I took a quick look at Wikipedia and the article they have on the Seabees. Despite the fanciful story that Borden Chase wrote here about how the service was founded, the Seabees were actually an idea already thought of by Admiral Ben Morreell the Chief of Navy Supply even before Pearl Harbor. Unlike the war in Europe where the Allies would be looking to take an hold cities with facilities already there, like air fields for example, those planning the war in the Pacific knew that they would be starting from scratch. Airfields, fuel depots, etc. would have to be constructed on jungle islands in the Pacific. So the idea of a separate service for the construction trade was born.Now that we know that the plot of The Fighting Seabees is so much hogwash, let me say that what the film does do very well is show the hazards of what the men in that service faced. Trying to build facilities at the same time as the enemy is firing on them. The scenario in this film is repeated many times over on the islands of the Pacific.As to the story of this film, John Wayne reverses roles here. In most of his war films he's usually the professional military man, here he's the tough, but inpatient civilian who never seems to learn the value of military discipline. Of course being this is the Duke, he does redeem himself in the end in a spectacular manner.A love triangle is tossed in here, rather unnecessarily in my opinion, a straightforward account of Seabee heroism would have been sufficient. Wayne and Navy Commander Dennis O'Keefe are both interested in war correspondent Susan Hayward. This was Hayward's second film with John Wayne, who along with Clark Gable, and Dean Martin, she once described as her three favorite leading men. Her big scene is when she's wounded and thinks she's cashing in, she declares her love for the Duke. Susan Hayward has always been a favorite of mine, but it's on the strength of her performances in her starring roles in the Fifties, not as the sex object in The Fighting Seabees.The Fighting Seabees isn't one of the Duke's top 10 or even top 20, but it's a decent enough film to sit through even with the World War II heroic bravado that was obligatory at the time this was made. You even get to see John Wayne attempt the jitterbug. During that scene, the Duke looks mighty uncomfortable. He was never going to compete with Fred Astaire for roles.