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.

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).

This film is 99% historically accurate unlike the many obvious misreprentations in Pearl Harbor. DBW makes use of real aircraft filmed for the purpose plus some bits from the film Battle Of Britain. The flying sequences are far superior to anything in Pearl Harbor.Unlike Pearl Harbor there are no dyslexic or stammering pilots. The love interest is central to the plot and Tara Fitzgerald is very convincing in her role.My only gripe is that the officers and sergeants share the same mess hall. This is something that could easily have been avoided by making both of the main characters officers which would not have affected the sory line in any way.In short, if you like comic strip type stuff you will prefer Pearl Harbor but for quality and accuracy, Dark Blue World wins hands down.

I enjoyed Dark Blue World but felt there was a lot more we could have learned from this film. It's well acted and beautifully filmed. The air combat scenes are quite good. (Note: I am almost certain that a number of the large scale air combat scenes and some of the single aircraft scenes were cut straight from "The Battle of Britain.") I found the love story to be rather unconvincing. I think there was a lot more that could have been done to give you a better picture of what these guys went through. I mean, one minute two guys are riding a motorcycle down a road to flee from the German occupation. Then they immediately shift to England. It would have been a good part of the story to show what they went through to get there. (Spoiler)It also would have been very interesting to see how the transition to home, Soviet occupation, and ultimately prison camp worked out.So, this movie is very much worth seeing. But you may no learn as much about the experiences of the Czech fliers as you might want to.