6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Wedge Donovan is the civilian head of a construction company approached by the Navy to train their men as specialists. Instead, the impetuous Donovan wants to prove his crew are up to the job, but they are shot up by the Japanese.
Starring: John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Dennis O'Keefe, William Frawley, Leonid KinskeyWar | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Would you have had the guts to have called The Duke a “chicken hawk”? Most sensible people would probably instantly answer “no”, but there are recurrent legends that actual servicemen took John Wayne to task during the filming of The Fighting Seabees that the only “fighting” Wayne was seeing was courtesy of the rah-rah war films he was making. The ranks of Hollywood leading men soon became actual ranks during the war years, with a lot of major stars enlisting in “the cause”, with many of them going on to establish laudable military careers. But Wayne continued to receive deferments through the war, something which evidently created some fiction not just with Wayne’s fan base but also within the actor himself. Perhaps that’s one reason why he associated himself with films of such hyperbolic jingoistic fervor like The Fighting Seabees, a factually ludicrous account of the founding of the so-called Construction Battalions (CB or Seabee for short) which started out as the building forces for the armed services but which ultimately graduated into quasi-fighting units themselves. The Fighting Seabees proved to be one of Wayne’s most popular features when it was released in 1944, and while it may strike some modern viewers as hopelessly corny and even problematic, when placed within the context of its time, it’s not hard to understand why it was met with such acclaim. In the early days of 1944 the end of the war seemed a far distant horizon. Few if any knew about the nascent plans of Operation Overlord and while Hitler’s forces were beginning to get significant pushback from the Russians especially, the Pacific theater (despite Midway) was still anyone’s game.
The Fighting Seabees is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is yet another generally solid looking Republic catalog release from Olive, though in this case there's quite a bit of stock footage that is noticeably more ragged, including lots of evident damage as well as less fulsome contrast than the bulk of the picture offers. The elements for the non-stock footage are in very good shape overall, with only very minor damage to report. Contrast is also generally strong, though once again has moments of relative milkiness along the way. Fine detail is acceptable if not overwhelming.
The Fighting Seabees' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix sounds surprisingly spry for its age, with a decently full midrange and very little clipping in the higher registers. Walter Scharf's Oscar nominated score, which is rife with blaring brass cues, sounds great. (Scharf is one of the unsung—no pun intended—masters of the Golden Era of Hollywood, one who continued working, racking up several Academy Award nominations, for decades. In fact, one of Scharf's later film projects, adapting the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill score for the film version of Funny Girl, is about to debut on Blu-ray. Scharf also adapted the charming Anthony Newley-Leslie Bricusse score for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Both of these films added to Scharf's Oscar nomination count.) Dialogue is cleanly presented and there's very little in the way of noticeable damage to report here.
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
My late father was one of the so-called Greatest Generation, and in fact the battalion he commanded helped take Utah Beach on D-Day and went on to liberate most of the northwestern French peninsula, a campaign for which they were awarded the Silver Star. The French magazine Militaria did a big two part article on my father last year and I'm thrilled that this summer I'm taking my own sons to revisit my father's route in Normandy courtesy of a tour put together by the author of the article. For perhaps personal reasons, then, I tend to react with a certain lack of enthusiasm toward films that over fictionalize true historic events with regard to World War II. The Fighting Seabees was no doubt an exciting film in 1944, but it appears awfully dated and even downright silly to modern eyes, especially since it spends so much time setting up various conditions before the big battle finally unspools in the last act of the film. That said, Wayne, O'Keefe and Hayward (as well as a large supporting cast that includes William Frawley and Paul Fix) are excellent. Wayne fans will certainly want to check this film out one way or the other. This Blu-ray offers very good video and audio and with caveats noted comes Recommended.
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