Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

bkoganbing No true stories touched America during World War II as that of The Sullivans. The five Irish Catholic brothers who grew up in Ames, Iowa and had the all American boyhood that is idealized who all died in the same ship at the battle for Guadalcanal. It was inevitable that a film be made of their lives as soon as it was feasible to do so.By that I mean that with war time restrictions on battle news the whole Solomon Islands struggle had to be well in the past before the Armed Forces would give out with any details. Although it's not spelled out in the film it was two months before the parents of The Sullivans were given details of what happened to all five of their sons. And it was two years before the film was made.The story of The Sullivans and the film made from it had special significance of course to Irish Catholics. It was sixteen years before that the first Catholic candidate ran for president on a major party. At that time Alfred E. Smith's loyalty was questioned, the whole notion that a Catholic would have first allegiance to a foreign church headquartered in Rome came into play in that campaign. The story of The Sullivans had a special significance for the time that we in this new century can't possibly appreciate.20th Century Fox opted to give five fairly unknown actors the roles of The Sullivans as adults. To have cast folks as Tyrone Power or Don Ameche as one or two of the brothers would probably have detracted from the story. Sad to say the five players, Edmond Ryan, John Campbell, James Cardwell, John Alvin, and George Offerman, Jr. stayed obscure even after the film was released.The parents were played by Thomas Mitchell and Selena Royle with Anne Baxter as their sister who joined the WAVES after her brothers were killed. Not mentioned, but in real life she was married and lost a husband at Pearl Harbor. Ward Bond plays the Navy recruiter who signed up the five Sullivan boys and who also brings the most awful news that any parent could possibly hear.The Sullivans still holds up well today as a fine piece of film making and a tribute to America's fighting spirit. Which we hope will never waver.

professoreugene The Fighting Sullivans Like many promotional motion pictures made in wartime, this one was very moving, especially when all five of the brothers died when USS Juneau was sunk by enemy action at the Battle of Guadalcanal in November, 1942.Out came the tissues at the end.It was disappointing to see the five brothers apparently walking up to heaven at the end.This is quite offensive to many people I know, since I have little doubt that there is no place in heaven for men who kill other men, war or no war. (My family lost relatives in both world wars.) It's easy for a clergyman, who doesn't believe in a Creator anyway, to pray dead soldiers, criminals, even tiny infants, off to heaven saying God needed another angel.What an insult to God! That posture says that God was directly responsible for the death of your loved one, or mine.God does not seem to need more angels, he has over 100 million of them already. Anyway, if he decides he does need more, he is quite capable of creating them, without destroying the happiness of humans.55 million lives were lost in World War II (about 15 million in World War I). Did God 'need' 70 million more angels? According to the information He has given to humankind, a provision has been made for all of the ones lost in war (as well as all others who have died in the past), to be restored to life, but life, not in heaven, but rather here on earth, (not immediately) after it has been restored to a condition of paradise.Why would our Creator bother to make a promise, such as that found at Apocalypse/Revelation 21:4, if it was just a pipe dream, or pie in the sky? You will never hear this in any church, since the pastors do not believe this promise, nor any other that God makes. They would never admit it, because, no matter what they say, most of them are atheists.

moonspinner55 So jaded our we as a nation that the scenario of this patriotic family drama today looks like it was created by aliens--foreigners who got the impression that WWII-era America may have resembled just this, conjured up through memories of spreads in the Saturday Evening Post. Close-knit, church-going kin with five sons and one daughter josh and rib and 'lick' each other throughout the 1930s, the children growing into fine, upstanding young adults by the dawn of the next decade. True story decked out with Hollywood trimmings, though most of the actors are so sincere that the sentiment doesn't feel heavy-handed. Still, these brothers (who march off in unison to the Naval Recruiter's office after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor) aren't given much individual character; we see them just as the director and scenarists hope we'll see them: as a fighting unit, so brave they don't even have second thoughts. These Fighting Sullivans were instant heroes to a rapturous war-time America, so much so that any hint of complexity in their characters has been scrubbed clean. Edward Ryan (as Al) looks a little puny taking womanly Anne Baxter into his arms, but Thomas Mitchell is wonderful as the patriarch of the family, and the child actors are each quite good. **1/2 from ****

Danny Tharpe I understand this movie did not do well when it was released (1944). At that time, when American hearts were so tender with pain, it is understandable. Today, it reminds us of the magnitude of sacrifice of human life and grief it cost families across this nation.I have acquired a deeper appreciation for those who went before us so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.I hope everyone who reads this will have the opportunity to see this movie. Though a classic it has not lost its ability to stir the mind and heart.May God hold and keep all those who have lost loved ones in the conflicts this nation has faced in the past and today.