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Dark Blue World | Year: 2001 Classification: Foreign Film - Other Directed: - Jan Sverák Actors/Actresses: - Ondrej Vetchý - Krystof Hádek - Ondrej Vetchy - Krystof Hadek Explores Little Known History Long before The United States formally entered the war, pilots from many countries including the USA flew for the air forces of other countries including England. In this film pilots from Czechoslovakia are flying for England. This movie will appeal to those who enjoy historical films about World War II, but will probably not satisfy, for the film also veers off in to a love story, that again may leave that facet of the audience less than satisfied as well. The movie has two good components that tend to interfere with each other. The special effects with only an exception or two are very well done. A German attack on an English airbase is extremely well done, and some of the air-to-air combat is also quite realistic. There was one sequence involving a crippled bomber that looked poor, but it was the exception and not the rule. The film also deals with the treatment of any military personnel that had the bad fortune to find themselves behind the iron curtain after the war's close. Stalin's paranoia about anyone who may have had a taste of the west, led to his imprisoning countless men and women who had fought valiantly in the war, and deserved praise not concentration like imprisonment. Taken in its entirety the film has a fairly good balance. There is enough about the war that is offset against the love a few fortunate people are able to find, to keep the film from being too grim, while it remains realistic. A nice tribute to those who fought against invaders with anyone who would provide them the means to resist. A pleasantly schmaltzy WWII period piece When DARK BLUE WORLD begins in 1950, we find Czech citizen Frantisek Slama imprisoned by his country's Communist regime for having fought with the Royal Air Force during World War II. Slama becomes seriously ill and is transferred to the prison's hospital ward, where he comes under the care of the resident physician, also a prisoner, who's formerly of the Nazi SS. Though Frantisek spent the war fighting Germans, the two men develop a relationship based on a respect of sorts, and Slama relates his war experiences. The film, co-produced by the Germans and Czechs, is essentially a sequence of long flashbacks in which Frantisek, a Czech air force officer in 1939 when the Germans occupied his country, tells how he and a student pilot, his friend Karel Vojtisek, flee to England to campaign on with the RAF. While there, and between aerial dogfights with the enemy, our heroes' friendship is tested by a local Englishwoman, Susan, whose husband with the Royal Navy has conveniently gone missing for a year. (I mean, isn't it always some dame that complicates a good friendship! When was the last time you saw on the silver screen two Real Men fight over a prized hunting dog, a lovingly restored '57 Chevy, or what beer to drink while watching the Big Game?) The general theme of DARK BLUE WORLD (2 square-jawed male pals, lots of planes and explosions, and one Babe) reminds one of PEARL HARBOR, though the epic stage of the latter rendered the love story almost irritating for its presence. (Wasn't the whole purpose of the attack on PH to bomb the threesome into oblivion? Even the Japanese were apparently annoyed.) On the other hand, DARK BLUE WORLD brings all the elements of the story - the combat, the male bonding, and the boy-girl mushy stuff - down to a smaller, more manageable, and therefore more acceptable scale. The principal actors of the film (Ondrej Vetchý as Frantisek, Krystof Hádek as Karel, Tara Fitzgerald as Susan) all create sympathetic characters that should be attractive to the audience. The air combat scenes are well done with aircraft models and several lovingly preserved Spitfires. Above all, DARK BLUE WORLD perhaps captures more than just a little of the flavor of the Battle of Britain and the camaraderie of military men, whether they were Czechs, Poles or Frenchman, who fought from foreign soil to liberate their Nazi-occupied homelands. Great film If this film has nothing else, it has possibly the most realistic flight sequences I have seen...beautiful camera work. The storyline could be considered a bit predictable but somehow, the ending managed to slip by my 'Got this one figured out' radar (don't know how that happened really...must have gotten distracted by the subtitles) Overall, It makes my top 5 WWII movie list Buy Dark Blue World at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Dark Blue World Search with the Priority Search Engine on Dark Blue World This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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