Eram Cinco Irmãos

THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS, as it was known by the time I saw it, is a fantastic WW2 era film. It's more Americana than War film, but it's a truly engrossing story about the loyalty of family and the tragedy of sacrifice. The video box calls it a "story of the fighting navy!" That's not really true, half of the story takes place when the Sullivan brothers are boys, and the sinking of the Juneau is only a five minute scene at the end of the film. They're only in the navy for a few minutes of screen time. The relationships between the brothers and their distinct personalities is what makes this film stand out, and no person with a heart beating in his chest can sit dry eyed through the ending when the father goes to work as usual, even after hearing some devastating news. This film pushes all the right buttons and is a wonderful example of just how strongly a film can manipulate your emotions. I can't watch it without getting a lump in the old throat.

I first saw this film as an eight year old during the war. I regularly showed the video version to my high school history classes during my teaching career. Even though it was on the edge of being brutally hard to take when the Sullivan family learned of the death of all five of their sons, my students regarded the film as one which showed a great deal about the home front and about the sacrifices this generation made to the country.

I was a boy of 14 at boarding school in England when I saw this film on release. The memory of it is with me still at 75 so it must have had some merit emotionally if nothing else. The second world war was still on and we were all aware of the horrors daily being brought to notice. Fellow pupils were finding parent(s) and brothers/sisters lost in the conflict. The film I recall we who saw it went back a second time. Thomas Mitchell as the father was the dominant character in the film.I still think of him as a forerunner to characters played later by Ernest Borgnine who was in the same mould. Anne Baxter was not yet at her best but was a sympathetic player demanded by her sorely tested motherhood in this film.

War movies are typically shown on TV for Memorial Day, and this one about tops them all. On the one hand, it's old-Hollywood style so you have to know how to "watch" it--a woman carrying a big stuffed animal is pregnant, for example. On the other hand, there's minimal war footage and jingoism, uncommon for a wartime movie. It shows, rather than tells, which gives it much more power. Deeply moving after more than half a century.

This movie is a very tender, touching tale of a family's great loss during WWII. I believe it teaches not just the love a family should share, but also the horror of war. Too often we see people die in war and don't realize that they were once children with dreams, hopes and their whole lives ahead of them.

This movie (although the closing scene seems a bit silly now) is an excellent testament to the people who fought and died in war.