Written by Linda
January 03, 2009
Two young pilots who are best friends volunteer to fight in World War II, only to fall in love with the same woman, inevitably leading to tragedy. Hmmm... does this sound familiar? No, it is not Pearl Harbor (thank god), but the latest film from Czech director Jan Sverák, who brought us the charming Oscar-winning film Kolya.
In this case, the pilots are Czech. Franta (Ondrej Vetchý) is a flying instructor, has a beautiful girlfriend, and a great dog (believe me the sweet pup DOES make an impression on the cooing audience). Karel (Krystof Hádek) is a baby-faced young man taking flying lessons and dreaming about girls. When news comes of Hitler's invasion of Poland, followed quickly by the occupation of other European countries including their own, a group of men from the flying school decide to go to England and volunteer for the Royal Air Force, where they can help fight the good fight. Franta and Karel become best friends, then, of course, rivals for the love of the same English woman (Tara Fitzgerald) who believes her husband to be dead in the war.
But Dark Blue World (which comes from the lyrics of Karel's favorite song) works where Pearl Harbor didn't. Though the love story is a bit weak, the friendship between the two men is believable. The RAF flight training scenes are really quite funny, as the pilots are made to practice their formations by riding bikes at each other across fields and making shooting noises. The film also doesn't gloss over the fact that these international volunteers in many cases had to be taught a crash-course (so to speak) in English, in order to simply communicate with the folks they were fighting with.
The air battle scenes, though lower-budget than Hollywood films, are more believable in their urgency with chaotic shaking cameras and planes of friends falling left and right. Combine that with the ground control constantly yelling at the pilots, "Speak English! Speak English! Tell us what is going on!", these make for some great nail-biting sequences.
But it is the charm of the main characters that make you care about the fate of these fellows. Ultimately, Dark Blue World packs an emotional resonance where Pearl Harbor simply crashed and burned.
