John Wayne and Dennis O'Keefe butt heads in The Fighting Seabees, and not just over military strategy. This WW2 war movie is also a love triangle, as both men fight over the beautiful and smart Susan Hayward. I thought the romance was the most interesting part of the movie, but unfortunately for me, the war scenes were more frequent. However, if you're looking for a straight war movie, you'll probably think the romantic scenes are the unnecessary ones!The film was made during WW2, and it was mostly a pro-American propaganda film to boost morale and ensure the folks at home, "Have no fear, we'll lick this thing!" The Duke is the head of a construction company building in the South Pacific. When the Japanese invade, the "fighting" Seabees must come together and protect the island. If you're a John Wayne fan, which I am not, you probably won't find any problem with this one. If you're looking for a young Susan Hayward flick, rent Adam Had Four Sons instead.

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

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.

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.