Review of Dark Blue World (2001) by Tony H — 26 May 2008

Dark blue world is one of the finest foreign films about WWII I've seen to date. Everyone involved really seemed to care about the project they were involved in and the result is a very entertaining and for the most part accurate depiction of a side of WWII we very rarely get to see.

What we have here is a story of two Czech pilots, Franta and Karel, who upon the occupation of their country decide to jump ship and head for England to enlist in the RAF. Just how they get to England at the end of 1939 remains a mystery, but it suffices to say that many Czechs, Poles and French crossed the Channel to England, in time for the Summer of 1940. The two pilots leave behind their families and loved ones, actually one of the most endearing scenes is where Franta has to leave his beloved dog behind, and are accepted into the foreign ranks of the RAF, where they undergo a series of training scenes, including a brilliant section on learning English and formation flying, on bicycles!

They have to contend with sitting around waiting to be called into the operational status after their training is complete as the RAF were very reluctant to let the Czechs and Poles get involved in "their finest hour". Only when things heated up, where the foreign contingent called in. This leads to the meat of the film, the superbly done battle sequences. This is where the films producers have outdone Hollywood easily. One can feel the cramped condition of the cockpit, the desperate nature of aerial combat and the horror of being shot down. When bullets and cannon fire strike a spitfire in this film you know it. For the most part the two combatants aircraft are represented well. Although the spitfires are mid-war and late-war models and the 109's are Spanish built buchons. But both are effective enough for the job. The computer animated heinkels are also very well done as are the out-takes from the 1969 film "Battle of Britain", cleaned up and inserted seamlessly into the finished movie.

It's during one of these "shooting down" sequences that one of our pilots, Karel, meets Susan played by Tara Fitzgerald. The obligatory love interest. Fitzgerald is a potential war widow, whose husband has been feared lost in the Atlantic, with the Navy. The pilot, the younger of the two, falls instantly for the older woman and becomes besotted by her. This is where the friendship of the two Czech pilot's is severely tested as later the older pilot, Franta, falls for Fitzgerald too who in turn falls in love with him. Complicated.......hmm?The love distraction doesn't really interfere with the run of the film too much and the action sequences more than make up for their lack of pace, but I'm I the only person whose sick of filmmakers dispersing petty love stories into war movies? They usually don't work very well.

There are flaws though. I would have liked to see more of the Battle of Britain section and the hardships endured by fighter command in the summer of 1940 and also, the later war years are inserted without any real knowledge of what period of the war we're in. Another technical flaw is the camouflage of the spitfires doesn't change throughout the war, they remain in the 1940 pattern of green and brown when they should have been painted green and gray after 1941. In addition, the flashback sequences of Franta, from a Soviet forced-labour camp after the war, is never really comfortable as a framing device, but it does introduce us to some interesting characters such as an SS doctor which Slava shares his prison with. The SS doctor is presented as a man and not the usual cardboard nazi monster of Hollywood movies. It's quite refreshing to see.

Another slight flaw at the beginning, is a scene where the Czech pilots talk about flying to Poland and helping them. However, I very much doubt that any Czechs would have flown North to Poland as antagonisms between Poland and Czechoslovakia were still very strong from the polish seizing of the Teschen region of Czechoslovakia in the late '30s.

But the flaws are small enough when placed into the film as a whole and only someone with an above average interest in World War II will notice them.

Overall, if you like war movies and especially war movies based on aircraft and air warfare, then you will like "Dark blue world". It certainly blows some recent war movies out of the water and is entertaining in its own right. The subject matter is one you will probably not see onscreen again soon and the 1940's atmosphere is presented perfectly, as are the difficulties in trying to blend foreign volunteers into a generally mono-ethnic combat force.