Tmavomodrý svet

Centres on Czech WW2 pilots – the older Frantisek, the boyish impulsive Karel and in the background the quiet piano-playing Honza. As the film opens, it is 1950, the war is over and Frantisek and Honza are imprisoned in a former monastery. In their now Soviet-controlled native country they are 'enemy of the people'. Honza is severely maltreated by his Communist countrymen and dies.

In 1939 many pilots manage to escape German-occupied Europe and make their way to England where they join the RAF. Notwithstanding their high motivation and experience they face RAF reluctance and British stiff upper lip. Finally they fight gallantly in the Battle of Britain. However, Frantisek and Karel find their friendship severely tested when they both fall for the same woman.

In terms of romantic sub-plot, this is very similar to the Hollywood production Pearl Harbour. However, given the context of the film and Frantisek's eventual fate, it is also possible to read the English woman's treatment of the two men as symbolic of British treatment of the Czech and Polish RAF pilots: conveniently forgetting them once the war is over.

In addition, the film is a lot less cliché than Pearl Harbour and the characters are more fully realised. Dark Blue World also scores in terms of its stunning aerial dogfights, which were seamlessly created using a mixture of models, actual live-action aerial filming and out-takes from the 1969 epic The Battle of Britain.

In short, Dark Blue World is a well-made, moving, thought-provoking and exciting drama that puts the likes of Pearl Harbour to shame. Highly recommended.

This is a gem - a charming step back in time and a testament to marrying the image to the period. You know you have been touched by a film when it resonates long after leaving your seat. A movie will be gone from your thoughts if it has no layers to its storytelling and this film still lingers in the mind and begs to be revisited. A fundamental error made by film-makers is not allowing the audience to participate in the film by insulting their ability to work things out for themselves. Dark Blue World is poetic, exciting and ultimately a most rewarding cinema experience. If only Pearl Harbor and its ilk could learn something of this art for their particular brand. I cannot wait for the follow-up to this special team. 8/10.

This is a brilliant, lavish Czech film from the Sverak father and son team, all about two Czech pilots who flee to England to help the RAF in the Battle of Britain but who also fall out over a woman (the beautiful Tara Fitzgerald). Features some excellent and incredibly realistic aerial combat scenes – probably the best ever and much better than Pearl Harbour or even the film Battle of Britain - and a number of interesting general themes such as love, war, romance, comradeship, loss and servitude. Also, the trials and tribulations of moving abroad and learning a foreign language (though made easier here with the great stalwart Anna Massey).

The film has some great little motifs such as the world famous RAF bullseye device, shown throughout and at one point nicely reflected in the black vinyl record, spinning around cutely (music is another theme of the film, of course). Plus, all of the traditional icons of English life: dimpled beer glasses (unlike the post-war straight glasses used in Pearl Harbour), tea in a nice china tea set in an English country garden (though shot in the Czech Republic?), the mascot dog, a vintage bottle of HP sauce, even a darts board!

Of course, the airfield and surrounding countryside is ridiculously unlike anywhere in the south of England, though the virtuouso aerial sequences make up for this, showing Eastbourne and the Seven Sisters, always synonomous with southern England and the Battle of Britain. But best of all is the sensational musical score from Ondrej Soukup, as good as anything from Hans Zimmer yet all in the tradition of the late, excellent Ron Goodwin who scored the original Battle of Britain film amongst other classic English war films. There's even a nice little cameo role for the – apparently – famous Czech musician and actor (and Kevin Kline lookalike) Oldrich Kaiser, who plays on the piano the title theme song, Dark Blue Sky. Excellent!

It's got a few smutty yet funny little Freudian devices too, such as always showing an inflated condom floating by the ceiling whenever Karel (the callow but brilliant Krystof Hadek) is stuck at the airfield while his love rival and fellow pilot Frantisek (Ondrej Vetchy) is with Susan.

Another great English actor in this film! Charles Dance is of course fine as Wing Commander Bentley.

Highly recommended and well worth watching/hiring – get the DVD with special features (stuff like how they created the dog fights and stuff). Probably the only film ever to combine subtitles with characters speaking English, German, French and Czech all at once.

In addition to being a drama, this film gives a rather nice account of the Czech struggle against both Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. Having read "The Big Show" by Pierre Clostermann, and having had an Polish acquaintance who escaped Poland after the Nazi onslaught and made it to England, I found the main story line to be reasonably in line historical fact. Thanks to a combination of computer imagery and some surviving Spitfires of the era, the flying scenes are very convincing. The detail in the Spitfire attack on the German train is consistent with real life events of the time.

The dramatic aspects of the story are entirely believable also. Lonely men far from home and facing death on a daily basis behave very much like the characters in this story. The turns of events also reflect a very believable story line. The directors do a creditable job of blending three different time periods so that there is enough continuity to make the drama of this story manageable.

This film held my interest from the start for several reasons: I'm a retired military flier; I'm a student of history, especially the history of WWII; I'm way past being tired of the trashy Hollywood versions of world events. This film is a top notch product in every respect.

What a movie! It is worth watching just for the images of Spitfires flying low over the verdant hills of England, but moreso for the marvellous story of a man who loses everything for his beliefs. From the outset you can identify with the characters as they live life to the full, love and laugh, and then watch it all taken away from them by the Nazi invasion of their homeland. Their frustrations as the British insist upon continued training while they feel they are ready for battle from the outset becomes obvious. When they finally do go into battle their numbers are gradually reduced and their relationships become strained, not only due to the pressures of war but also to jealousies that come to the fore over a woman that none of them can ever have. When the war is finally over the hero makes it home to find everything has changed forever. His friends have all been lost, his girl married and even his dog taken from him. The ironic theme of the movie is that it is told from the perspective of a political prisoner who has lost it all by simply doing what everyone thought was right. The way the Nazi doctor proclaims his righteousness to the downtrodden Czech is a classical piece of perverted hypocrisy. A must see movie, not only about flying and adventure, but also about the indomitable human spirit.