This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

First of all, be aware that several of the reviews here give away the ending of this story. Probably, at the time of release, most people knew about the tragic event, but you may want to enjoy the story without knowing what happens, exactly… In the years before World War II, small-town Iowa train conductor Thomas Mitchell (as Thomas "Tom" Sullivan) and his wife Selena Royle (as Alleta) raise five eventually draft-aged boys. When the Japanese attack American troops at Pearl Harbor, the US enters the war. Many young men volunteer. Close from birth to young adulthood, the Sullivan sons insist on serving together. Based on a true story, this film might qualify as the first five-handkerchief tear-jerker. It's manipulative and maudlin, but difficult to argue against...Of the five sons, the camera focus mainly on youngest Edward Ryan (as Albert "Al" Sullivan); he is played by Bobby Driscoll as a boy. Only Mr. Ryan gets a real romance – with pretty Anne Baxter (as Katherine Mary Roof). Secondary story concern goes to Buddy Swan (as George Sullivan); he is played by James Cardwell as a young man. Otherwise, the ten actors are treated as a unit, which certainly seems appropriate. Producer Sam Jaffe presents it as Americana –blissful family interaction with mishaps; notably, Mr. Mitchell's father has some management problems when it comes to disciplining his children. Director Lloyd Bacon guides the story well; the bracketing scenes involving Mitchell on his train, looking for his sons on a water tower, are beautifully done.******* The Sullivans (2/3/44) Lloyd Bacon ~ Edward Ryan, Thomas Mitchell, Anne Baxter, Selena Royle

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.

One little war propaganda film that has a certain charm. The charm comes from the five brothers that can never do anything separately. By insisting on being the five of them on the same ship they were all killed at the same time. That is no heroism in itself. That is just slightly sad and moving. Never put all your eggs in the same basket. If that basket gets run over you lose all your eggs. Yet the film has a charm beyond that and the charm comes from the number five, for one, and the reversal of age order for two. Five is a strange number. The Sullivans are a good Catholic Irish family. So six should be a better number and actually it is reached with the daughter and that brings the family to eight, Christ in his glory. Note when the five boys are dead, if we take into account the wife of the youngest son and their son that makes five again. Five is a deeply pagan number associated with life, the enjoyment of life and here it is inverted by the tragic death of the five sons leaving five people behind them. That is also surprising because of the satanic dimension of this number in a catholic dimension, and this inversion is typically American: the revisiting and de-diabolizing of this number, especially since they become heroes and their name is given to a war ship. Note the last vision of them is a dream when the ship is christened: four sons at first in two groups of two and the fifth one, the only married one, the youngest one coming running after. And then this number five becomes the basic symbol of the western civilization, the five fingers of a hand, the five senses and so many other things that come in five, especially the five cent nickel. Apart from that the film is nothing but propaganda, even when showing the suffering of the survivors, parents, sister and wife: very soft suffering indeed.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Very seldom when I was small, we would be allowed to sit up late to catch a movie, but always to the distaste of my mother, who was adamant that bedtime was bedtime, movie or not. So I'll never forget the night that we were actually called out of bed to come up and watch this, the fighting Sullivan's. We sat, engrossed in the lives of these young men, convinced that it was a comedy we were watching. The little rascals-esquire capers of the boys always stuck with me, especially the "dentist" scene. As the Sullivan's grew, we grew closer and closer to them, until the tragic finale; words cannot describe the wave of emotion that flowed over me. In the end, i turned to my dad, teary eyed, to ask him if it really was a true story; more sensitive parents would have said yes, its all made up... A truly special movie, one for everybody.