Dark Blue World (2001)

Excellent but underrated film

Brilliant and touching

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I bought this DVD after merely glancing at its cover -- I love Spitfires -- and expected it to be a black-and-white British flag waver with everyone showing a stiff upper lip and much stock newsreel footage. Maybe there would be good-natured competition over some succulent beauty, as in "A Yank in the RAF" or "The Immortal Sergeant." But, no. It's not that at all.It's a modern Czech movie finely photographed in color. There are combat scenes, to be sure, but the RAF seems to lose as many planes as it shoots down -- and without any facile justification. The acting is good and the characters not stereotyped. Although there are two Czech pilots wooing the same supernal babe, the rivalry is hardly good natured, and in the end they both lose her. Friends die, of course, but when they do, the sentiment is not laid on with a trowel. I even like the title -- "Dark Blue World." Dark blue, as in an RAF uniform, or under the surface of the English channel or ten thousand feet in the air at sunrise. Excuse me if I have trouble with the names. Some of them seem to be all consonants and no vowels. I hope my Czech grandmother forgives me. Anyway, the story centers around two pilots -- the baby-faced and naive Karyl and the less emotional senior officer Frantisek. Both fliers manage to escape from Czechoslovakia after the Germans take over. The Germans, by the way, are for the most part treated reasonably. One officer smirks and is and insulting; the German doctor is generous and fatalistic. When they reach an England desperate for pilots, there are some comic scenes of their having to learn English -- the difference, for instance, between "borrow" and "lend." Then there are the scenes of aerial combat. Back to the Spitfires. Everybody in the movie flies Spitfires -- beautiful, nimble, graceful airplanes. Nobody flies Hurricanes. We don't even see any other airplanes, except a B-25 and a couple of anachronistic Bf-109 models cribbed from "The Battle of Britain." (One shot is an exact duplicate.) The visual and sound effects are much improved over "The Battle of Britain".The neotenic Karyl is shot down somewhere in England and spends the night at a farmhouse. He's young, horny, and blunt, and the woman is married to someone who has gone missing in the Navy. She sleeps with him partly out of hunger and partly out of pity for his childish need. Her allegiance later switches to Franisek and it gets complicated, but it's all handled delicately, even Karyl's thinking he's deeply in love while swimming in endorphins.Structurally, there are some flash forwards and you have to look out for them at first otherwise you'll find them confusing, but you adapt after you realize what's going on.The ending, when Franisek returns to Czechoslovakia and his early love, isn't a particularly happy one. The Allies have won, of course, and Czechoslovakia is once again free for a few years, but, as in real life, the cost has been monumental on everyone's part.

Absolutely one of the best aviation movies of all times on so many levels. Hardware junkies will drool over the largest single massing of flyable Spitfires outside of a Battle of Britain reenactment. No less than eight flying Spits are on hand for very accurate ground and air sequences.Those that marvel over the lore of flying and get misty-eyed reciting High Flight will identify with the central characters' reverence for the freedom of being fast, free and high in their Dark Blue World. Be warned: romantics and even dog lovers are treated to a very emotional ride in this movie. The core message is one that is shared by many war vets, in that their finest hours, their period of life when they felt most alive, was in fact during the war when everything else is sad and gray.The plot concerns Czech pilots who escape from their country when the Nazis invade and join the RAF Free Czech Squadron. There are a few subplots, all of which are worth careful attention. This is just a plain old excellent movie that even the most ardent anti-hardware romantic will love (keep the Kleenex on hand). Beautiful photography, first-rate acting, accurate details of RAF life during the Battle Of Britain. Easily a candidate for any aviation enthusiast's personal DVD collection.

A nicely paced romantic war story that should have got more exposure. The Czech pilot who played piano gives a mellow touch to the story. The flying footage may not have been enough for aviation buffs like myself, but then again, this really isn't an action movie. Though it does not have anything in common with the James Salter novel "The Hunters" that became the movie about Korean War F86 Sabre pilots, Dark Blue World had a similar feel but with more of a romantic element to it. Better in some ways than Battle of Britain in that it doesn't rely on big name actors. Suggest viewing this movie with some Czech beer and some Czech dumplings called kneldniky(sp).

I absolutely loved this movie. Great, realistic looking combat footage for one thing and a touching, genuine story also. The calm, understated manner of the lead character, Franta, makes him very likable. The human relationships in the story seemed so very typical and possible of what you could expect in war time. The bond between Franta and Carel shows the loyalty wartime comrades can have for each other and that is often described in books and interviews with veterans. The subtitles do not detract from the story at all and actually serve to underline the problems the Czech pilots had in the RAF. The postwar storyline is a great reminder that for many the suffering of WW2 did not end in 1945, especially in Russian occupied countries. The cinematography was also very good. Wish I could have seen it on the big screen.