User Reviews

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.

I'm Czech and soldiers (not only pilots) who escaped Czechoslovakia after Nazi's invasion in 1939 and fought against them abroad are true heroes and bravest men in our history for me. This movie from director of Academy Award winner "Kolya" (1996) is a tribute to these men. It's first big-screen movie about Czechoslovak WWII soldiers since "Nebesti jezdci" (1968). I think "Dark Blue World" is a good movie - good acting, good special effects, nice music etc. Movie is half in English and some actors are Britons. But greatest thing about this movie is it's pure existence. It's great chance to show people all around the world (and to many people in Czech Republic too...) that Czechoslovak role in WWII was not only as occupied country but as an active member of allied campaign.

Leading characters are older and wiser Frantisek and young Karel. They escaped together from Czechoslovakia, they are flying in the same squadron and they fell in love with the same woman... Maybe it's a cliché but fortunately this storyline is not so aggressive and is in good balance with other scenes (including great dogfights). I don't want to compare "Dark Blue World" with "Pearl Harbor", someone will like PH more and someone will like DBW. But if you like happy ends, DBW is not for you. So, I think it's very good movie for everyone who likes this type of stories and very good movie who wants to get to know something about this chapter of Czechoslovak history.

BTW, main theme "Dark Blue World" is from Czech 30's and 40's composer Jaroslav Jezek. He wrote this theme when he lost his eyes...

I missed it at the cinema and have rented it on DVD. If you get the chance I would recommend it as it´s better than nearly everything I´ve seen at the cinema or on DVd this year. That isn´t to say it´s one of the best films ever or anything, it´s just I´ve seen a lot of rubbish :)

Can´t really add to what´s already been said except 8/10

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.

In 1939 Nazi German troops marched into Czechoslovakia and the Czech armed forces were ordered not to resist. Thousands of Czech soldiers and airmen managed to escape and ended up joining French and British armies where they continued to fight for the allies. In 1948 the Communists took control of Czechoslovakia and the soldiers that had returned were rounded up and put in jail. This is a fascinating and dramatic piece of WW2 history of which I was unaware and to be honest, after watching Dark Blue World, still don't know much about. The film is told as a series of flashbacks from the point of view of Franta, one of the Czech pilots who fought with the RAF and ended up jailed without trial by the communists. The film begins with Franta deciding to leave for England with his junior officer Karel. I imagine that must have been an amazing journey. I'll have to just imagine it because the film doesn't even mention how they managed to get across to England. Once in England they do a bit of hanging around the RAF base and some magnificently choreographed fighting that looks good but lacks excitement – perhaps because, with the exception of one pilot who gets sick before every mission, no one seems bothered by the fact that they have good odds of being killed every time they go up. There is also an extremely tedious romantic triangle between Franta, Karel and local girl Susan that takes up way too much time. The cinematography, in the style of a romantic epic, is gorgeous and the actors are all good looking and charismatic but the script is so sickly sentimental that the film feels emotionally plastic and I ended up feeling uninvolved. The romantic plot isn't helped by the fact that Karel is an irritating little drama-queen. The film looks fantastic but these brave soldiers deserve a film with a bit more substance.

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 solid film, a decent way to spend a couple of hours, but I didn't feel it really lived up to its potential. The story of European pilots who came to fight with the RAF is a fascinating one and certainly needs to be told, but I came out feeling that this was an ultimately unsatisfying film that largely failed to tell a coherent story. And the military adviser slipped up a few times as well.

I've been a devoted IMDB visitor for a few years. This is the movie that finally compelled me to write in a review.

I caught this movie by chance (the opening credits happened to be scrolling past when I turned my TV on one morning). I thoroughly enjoyed the film for many reasons, all of which have been well covered by other reviewers -- the moodiness, the forgotten history of the Czech pilots, the subtle charm of the supporting characters, the fatalism of the main characters, and the first person view during the battle scenes.

But the element of "Dark Blue World" that really stood out was the lack of dramatic effects, especially during combat (and this is a good thing!). While the pilots were flying in battle no musical score accompanied them, no manipulative shots of worried spouses/girlfriends were interwoven, every little aerial maneuver did not elicit trite patriotic cheers, and viewers weren't asked to swallow unbelievable James Bond-esque pilot heroics. Instead the audience is allowed to feel the melancholy, fear and isolation of these single pilot fighters while they try to stay aloft during combat. As comrades are shot down we are spared tearful howls and the typical (but audience pleasing) revenge based heroics. Instead the other pilots sadly and quietly observe their fellow pilot's fate -- in reality they still need to remain intensely focused on their own safety and objectives at that very moment. We only briefly experience the pilot's breathing and the background roar of the engines as we, the audience, witness a friend spiral quietly down to his death. And then immediately 'we' need to jump back into combat mode and focus on survival.

Too often in Hollywood we're spoon-fed the emotions we're supposed to feel and no room is left for the viewer's imagination. "Dark Blue World" maintains a sparseness that captivates and involves the viewer, allowing us to invest in the movie and fill in the gaps and spaces using our own thoughts and feelings.

Excellent film, well worth seeing.

This film had all the ingredients of being a classic, but it isn't. The cast is excellent, the CGI is almost flawless, and so on, but it still it fails.

First, the classic trick inserting a retrospective part in a film, so loved by European film makers, slows it down and cuts it up, unless handled with expert care, which evidently is beyond director Jan Sverak, whose film Kolya I love. This time it really doesn't work!

Secondly, the pilots are all much too old to be realistic, except Karel, which makes him the sore thumb sticking out. A seasoned fighter pro in WWII was maybe 20, a Squadron Leader 22, while here the role of Squadron Leader is played by a guy about fourty, and the rest of the pilots seems to be about his age, except Karel. So to make it work, you have to use either an all old cast, or an all young cast, not pitch a 17 year old kid against an middle aged, if unmarried, man, who still has to sneak up to his loved one without her parents noticing anything - as believable as Steve McQueen at over 25 playing a 16 year old kid in the Blob!

Thirdly, a big part of the film is the shooting up a train, Karel's crash landing in enemy territory and the subsquent rescue by his Squadron Leader, who is also (later in the story) his rival in an amorous affair with a married woman.

For a Squadron Leader - normally the only guy trained and equipped for navigation in a squadron and very hard to replace - to risk an expensive plane and himself to pick up a crashed fellow pilot, no matter how close a friend he is, in the face of oncoming enemy troops, is hard to believe, especially when they both have to share a cramped Spitfire cockpit - two into a Skyraider, OK, but a Spit?! Come on, this part of the film is a Biggles adventure, not fitting a film that one is supposed to take seriously!

For the drama between the woman and the two men is very serious indeed and sad in many ways, and treated seriously in the story, and so is the grim fate that befell these heroes when they returned to Czechoslovakia, being treated no better than many of those who had cooperated with the Nazis.

I seriously think that if the film was re-edited, with the long scene mentioned above cut out (which Jan gleefully admitted cost as much as the entire Kolya film, to shoot, not to mention the CGI work involved), and the story line revised, so that we begin with the two friends at home in a Free Czechoslovakia and end with the prison life in Communist Czechoslovakia I am sure it would be a better film!

Sadly, again it has happened that a good director has been unable to kill his darlings, or in this case his father's darling (the blowing up of the train) - as daddy, as usual, wrote the script!

They could learn a lot from Steven Spielberg and his Saving Private Ryan, which is so much better, just by being concise and straight!

The DVD was good, the extra material OK, but not great in any way - but it did disclose that Jan had wanted to skip the train scene, but daddy had insisted, or he wouldn't talk to his son no more - end of story!

The CGI was next to perfect, the acting likewise (Tara Fitzgerald amazing as the woman), the flying scenes superb, but the whole less than satisfying - as with the film Enigma capable in every way, but not one I will voluntarily see again soon! Sad to say: 6/10!

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.

I was "turned on" to this movie by my flight instructor and now I wonder how the heck it was out there for nearly five years before I finally discovered it. If you have any love of flying at all, especially an attachment to the planes of WWII, this is an absolute must see, vastly superior to the pathetic "Pearl Harbor" and up there in rivalry with the famed "Battle of Britain" filmed more than thirty years ago. There are moments when you feel as if you are flying wingman, literally dodging the shell casings of your leader as you roll in on a Me 109 or He 111.

As an historian this film deeply touched me as well for it is about the plight endured by tens of thousands of gallant Poles, Hungarians, Slovaks and Czechs who in 1939-1940 fled their homelands, made it to England, fought with utmost bravery for the survival of western civilization, and then were so callously abandoned by "us" after the war when they were arrested by the communists upon their return to their native lands. I have stood atop Monte Cassino in Italy and was moved to tears by the cemetery for the Polish troops that stormed that mountain that British and Americans could not take. I have traveled as well to Prague (the most beautiful of cities) and studied their history. Their story of abandonment, I believe, should be a lesson to us even today about obligations to gallant allies.

But back to the film. If you love flying, see this. If you are interested in the aircraft of WWII most definitely see it. Without doubt the most brutal, direct, and frightfully swift air combat scenes ever replicated for film. And yes, if you even are seeking a touching romance, there is that as well in heartbreaking detail.

Bill Forstchen Professor of History Co-owner of a WWII replica "warbird" P-51 Mustang "Gloria Ann"

I am glad I have found this DVD in a street market. The story is interesting and accurate, the air battles are very well done, the acting is very good and the photography is excellent. Krystof Hádek is a pleasure to watch; he was only 19 then. He has performed in 77 films by now at the age of 38. I am not happy with the script, the are some things missing that I don't wish to mention now in order not to spoil the viewing of this nice Check movie.

I saw this film in Cambridge on the night of its release. I'd seen various excellent reviews, marvelled at the online trailer and walked past many posters and a stall at the recent Duxford airshow: consequently my expectations were high.

It wasn't a bad film but it was no where near as good as the reviews imply. I'd hoped for a film about WW2 flying that had a minor love story component and regrettably encountered the reverse. I'm not adverse to love storys and emotional content (I enjoyed 'Titanic', 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'Cyrano De Bergerac' amongst many others) but this seemed bolted on as a plot device.

The much vaunted flying sequences comprise a tiny fraction of the whole and are largely in the trailer. They are also not that impressive, much to my surprise. I had a real problem with the so called English airbase; surrounded by mountains and fir-trees. OK, so the crew had to film in Europe but they could have found somewhere a bit more realistic surely?! There's an implausibly lucky escape from a crashing Spitfire too: a bit of plot worthy of Neighbours not Tolstoy!

The real problem with 'Dark Blue World' is lack of emotional intensity. It tries hard to give an air of brooding menace and betrayal but achieves neither. I never felt engaged with the characters and was totally ambivalent when cast members were shot down.

This would have made a reasonable ITV drama production and that about sums up the production values and impact. A shame because I'd wished for more.

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.

I liked this movie. I can't say it was bad but the Czech has produced a lot better movies. But this is the first "Hollywood movie" produced in the Czech Republic, where the only factor is the earned money. If you have liked Titanic or Pearl Harbor watch it - you might love it - otherwise pick a better movie!

It seems that no matter how many films are made on the subject, there is no shortage of stories that emerge from the Second World War. It stands to reason that a conflict on such a scale as global warfare would capture the imagination of filmmakers everywhere and provide them with ample material on which to base a story. Heading in a different direction than most mainstream movies about the war is Dark Blue World, a film that does not deal with the traditional major battles of the war, does not tell the story of many of its major figures, and does not even focus on soldiers of any of the major allied or axis powers. Dark Blue World instead ventures into the world of refugee soldiers fighting in exile for their occupied nations.

The film does a marvelous job of portraying the challenges faced by Czech pilots flying under the British Royal Air Force, expressing the frustration that they felt both at the language barrier between them and the other fliers, but also at being restrained from achieving vengeance against the Germans until being re-trained.

Dark Blue World also works quite well outside the arena of the war film as being a story about human relationships. A love triangle develops between the two main characters and an English woman that complicates the teacher-mentor relationship of the two exiled soldiers. This relationship is extremely well acted throughout, developing into almost a father and son relationship at many points.

The aerial combat in the film is among some of the best and is also very interesting in exploring the cultural challenges mentioned above as the men struggle to fly their machines, fight the enemy, and relay commands and replies in an unfamiliar language. The tension and struggle of these scenes continues the tension between the men on the ground, just as the tension on the ground continues that felt in the air.

This may not be a film for everyone. The hardcore war film buff may find its exploration of relationships a bit off-putting, but it is on the whole an excellent film regardless of the bellicose element or not.

If you want to see the true, vile nature of Communism, watch the movie DARK BLUE WORLD. (Tvamomodrý Svet) It recounts how the brave Czech pilots who refused to surrender fled to England to join the fight against the Nazis. After the war, the Communists feared they had picked up dangerous Western ideas about freedom. So, they had these heroic Czech pilots thrown into a nightmarish prison, where some of the guards were the same Nazis they risked their lives to defeat.

If Hollywood wants to understand why so many of their movies fall flat, they should compare the character drama portions of "Pearl Harbor" with this movie. In Dark Blue World, you really make a connection to all the characters. In Pearl Harbor, everyone is like some slick cartoon version of a real person.

There are innumerable instances of brilliant writing in this movie. One funny scene that sticks in my mind is when the character Karel is being taught English by a rather formal Englishwoman. When he can't pronounce a word, he ridicules the lesson. In typical stoic English fashion, the teacher calmly but forcefully confronts Karel, and shames him into behaving.

The aerial battle sequences in this movie are amazing, and they help to keep the movie lively. I read that it cost $11,000 an hour to rent the planes, but it was worth every penny.

Ladies, you are expected to cry at sad movies, but guys.... beware! This movie would make General Patton weep. And if you are a dog lover, you'll use up half a box of Kleenex. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Instead of watching the recycled history of "Pearl Harbor" with nothing new to reveal except for a couple of real events involving a few individuals thrown in so the makers of the film could say they contributed to the spread of history, along with nothing but CGI explosions filling in for a sappy romantic triangle. One should go see Dark Blue World.

This film takes place during the historic time in WWII which the Czech pilots left their homeland and went to fight for the RAF instead of laying down their arms and giving in to the Nazis. It was a part of history that should at least be told once to the outside world. A love triangle takes place between the main characters, but one of them does not die off conveniently like in Pearl Harbor, but through sacrifice for true friendship. The movie is tragedy after tragedy, with not even a bittersweet ending, with our hero not enjoying glory of taking his country back, the return of love by his current lover, the return of love by his reunited lover, or even the return of unconditional love by his life long pet. He is utterly heartbroken and feels no worse off in the Russian labor camp. This kind of ending is something that Hollywood would probably change if it was their script.

The movie does play on the sentimental sometimes, but it also shows the humanity of people. Overall, a worthwhile movie.

This is a beautifully-made film, finely balancing the fragile human stories (both before and after 1945) and the indiscriminating combat of war. The use of outtakes from Battle of Britain (a film that does not nearly so well portray the 1940s!) enhances, rather than detracts from the whole. A deeply impressive work, this lived in my memory for the 2 years since I saw it, and I have just bought it to explore the making-of extras.

I highly recommend this film (movie). Like "Aces High", it alternates between viscerally exciting (or scary) air combat sequences, where the viewer might experience actual loss of characters they'd come to care about, but also unpredictable interactions on the ground, where skillful writers and real-life experiences inform some involving and moving events. This also underlines the fact that for many people, 1945 marked not just the end of one conflict but the beginning of another, and even today we still don't recognise the loss, bravery and sacrifice of so many nameless heroes, or even worse we venerate them from a distance without allowing them to be human beings with all the emotional weaknesses that entails - making their sacrifices all the more valiant.

Watching this movie is an experience which will take you from the heights of friendship to the depths of jealousy, and back to love that endures even beyond death. If all war films were like this, we'd never have to fight again.

Did I mention it's worth watching? ;-)

10/10

I find DARK BLUE WORLD explains very well the story of the Czech pilots role in the II World War. It is well packed in a love story à la "Pearl Harbor" which is by far better than DBW. It is perhaps very pretty seen for its low budget. On the other side I missed the real emotions which fail by the poor performance of the actors and characters involved in this romantic war movie. The air battles could have been developed with more suspense but they were realistic at least. The best thing I liked was the very fine picture. PEARL HARBOR is much more spectacular. 6/10.

Since growing up in Czechoslovakia I was following history of RAF pilots and crews in WWII Great Britain, their stories and tragic ending either in the combat or in communist prisons and camps. This is without any doubt more than dark chapter in our history, although the fact that those brave men we're able to go through all this and recover afterward is amazing. To all people who want to see great movie...this is the one! During recent visit of Czech Republic I saw this movie three times in three days (they we're just playing it for three days...otherwise I will go to see it even few more times!!! It's worth of it!) I hope you will enjoy it, although it requires a little more thinking and knowledge of background information behind the story, pretty much same way that the movie "Kolya" was. It's not a simple movie because of it's deep story, and the way its told will most likely make you crying...it did to me three times in row... Zdenek Sverak did as always a great script, his son Jan made a great movie and the cast? Without doubt all of them did great job, I was amazed by Ondrej Vetchy, by great role played by Oldrich Kaiser and all other actors which made this movie simply GREAT!!! If this is not an Oscar nomination I think that I will be on strike in Holywood.

After the excellent Band of Brothers this movie just doesn't stand a chance. The characters are thin, and their emotions simplified. They don't grow or evolve. Ok, so what about the flying sequences? The minimal amount of the film that actually involves flying is meaningless. Where is the ongoing air war? There are no objectives at all. People just fly around and run into some messerschmitts. Long dogfights are cut into few seconds so that even the director himself couldn't figure out who shot whom. Dark Blue World is neither an adequate love story nor a good war movie. Go watch Titanic and Das Boot instead.

Unbelievably naive screenplay and boring action scenes. All the actors were excellent but due to a weak plot the result is a disillusion.

There are several absurd situations (eg. a Corporal sleeping in one room with a Squadron Leader, screening of a past mission on a projector, just to find that "Vojtisek saved Slama's life" - in reality there were only low quality photos with dark silhouettes of the airplanes).

I looked forward to beautiful filmshots of Spitfires but there were none. And the everywhere-mentioned expensive scenes with an attack on a train or an airfield bombing? I do not think the result is worth the money spent by the producers.

On the other hand, the character of a German doctor in the prison was interesting, as well as all the dialogues between the doctor and the two prisoners.

I rated two films (Skrivanci na niti and Vesnicko ma strediskova) based on a screenplay by Zdenek Sverak both 10/10 and I gave 10/10 to Obecna skola, the first film made by Zdenek & Jan Sverak. So I do not think my vote of 5/10 to Dark Blue World is biased :-(