Best movie I've seen in years.

Gopod movie overall. Not a perfect piece, though, as I think the love story, while not bad, is a little clunky and somethimes unclear. The woman is a likable character, though, doing what she can to help victims. The degree to which the two pilots become jealous of each other is vague at best. Great flight sequences, accurate portrayels of USSR tortures, and the cinematography and great. Looks like memories of WWII are fresher than ever in the minds of europeans.… Expand

This film is not about the big battle. It is about a fantastically written story, that opens a very interesting era from our history. It shows what communists did... I must admit, that the real meaning of this film could understand just someone from the Czech rep. ... but also the others should see the atmosphere of our national proud, mostly before the WWII.

The Dog in Dark Blue World Jan Sverak's Dark Blue World is a bittersweet story of two Czech pilots who fly for the RAF during World War II and their love interests. [***SPOILERS***] Karel crashes in an attempt to save Franta. Franta goes home to his small Czech town in uniform and is saluted by the uniformed stationmaster. He finds his former girlfriend hanging up laundry and they sadly greet each other. She married stationmaster, thinking that Franta was dead. As Franta starts to leave, his dog, a blonde spaniel no longer young, emerges from under the laundry and greets him. The dog is female; I won’t use the word bitch, because it has acquired another connotation. Franta walks off with the dog following him. Now has his dog, but it is only for a moment. A little girl appears and says, “That is our dog.” Franta and the dog look at each other. They both know that there is no choice. It is as if the dog says, “I must stay with her.” Franta departs as the dog sits by the girl watching him walk away. I am so moved by this. It is a touching love scene between a man and a dog, one of the most touching scenes I have ever seen on film. It made me think of all the farewells in my life. Life is not easy for man, but the same can be said for animals. I had a dog as a boy; who was as much of a friend as a friend can be. And I needed such a friend at the time. His life came to a tragic end and I cannot forget that, nor can I stop blaming myself. Not a day has gone by when I did not think of him. I have thought about him more than I have thought about the women I loved. But getting back to Karel, he survived all the aerial dogfights to be thrown into a Stalinist prison for having fought in the RAF. The brave Czech pilots, like the veterans who fought for the Republican side in Spain, were guilty of some kind of crime in the Eastern Bloc. God knows what it could have been. If the Battle of Britain had been lost, the United States would not have been able to have a foothold in Europe, and the chances for victory for Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan would have been very good indeed. Thinking about man and beast, and man’s integrity and loyalty, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d take a dog anytime. Do you know what I mean?… Expand

They got all the emotions right. Completely believable story produced in an adult fashion.

I thought the movie told a remarkable sub-story within the battle of Britain. It reminded me in some ways of the 1988 Masterpiece Theatre Presentation entitled a "Piece of Cake". The love triangle I found a little tortured. Reminded me of the movie through the eye of the needle or yanks with a similar scene of the Brit wife left behind who finds comfort in the arms of an allied soldier. I think what was new and well done was the pilots adjustment to English. Their fervent desire to kill Nazis and the cruel twist of being imprisoned by communists. The scene of the solder coming home reminds me of the wolf phrase then when coming home you have changed and it has changed. I wonder aloud what the level of commits were at that time or whether contemporary movies impose the present cultural standards back in time. I suppose we would have to interview to 75-85 year olds to learn that answer. I would recommend the movie to anyone who enjoys a well thought out action packed movie.… Expand

One of the best movies i have ever watched if you are interesting in world war 2, you must watch... it is a war movie but it is also drama.

A fine story and a great film that will endure as a classic portrayal of love, friendship, courage and sacrifice in the face of extreme adversity. An "in memoriam" as subtle and moving as we are ever likely to see. Thank you to all those wonderful people who helped craft it. Cinema at its very best.

Lovely in appearance, complex in structure, acted with tenderness and honesty, deftly paced, spiritually serious. and historically apt, the film "Dark Blue World" stirs very strong feelings and sends the mind back into an anxious period of but a few months when the fate of the world quite literally hung in the balance. The film is also a brave attempt to right a terrible wrong, the disgraceful treatment of those Czech pilots and groundcrew who fought, at great cost, with the RAF in the Battle of Britain and beyond, and whose reward upon return to their homeland was physical and emotional incarceration which, more than half a century later, remains unappreciated and mostly unknown by Czechs much less the world community. Reading the range of commentary on the film, however, one scarcely knows whether to laugh or cry, so uninformed and unaware are the observations and judgements. As someone who has only recently visited the Hurricanes and Spitfires at the Imperial War Museum, "Dark Blue World" came as a series of emotional hammer blows. Not heavy sledges - because this is a Czech film in which pain is registered in more subtle, tragicomic ways - but those of the three -pound sort; sufficient to damage but not quite break. Off to the side of one hanger were the boards for a display of the Czech squadrons, apparently mounted recently. "Dark Blue World" helped this viewer register, vividly, the (relatively) large number of Czech pilots who fought and died in what Churchill judged, alongside Stalingrad, one of history's decisive conflicts. Only a few months earlier I had passed one of the side chapels in Prague's impressive St Vitus Cathedral, passed and then returned to a memorial book for the lost Czech pilots. "Dark Blue World" reminded this viewer of the wholly unwarranted punishment and often enough murder (not 'internment') by which the criminal Stalinist regime degraded and then expunged the Czech pilots' extraordinary heroism. ("He jests at scars that never felt a wound.") For those who have lost little or cared less about those losses, the succession of defeats suffered by the film's central chararacter will of course appear only a mawkish 'love story,' as though such conflicts between the loyalities due friendship and the demands of mature passion hardly existed in fact, nor were intensified by the special circumstances of World War II. One would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to the horrors of the 20th century, particularly the rise of Nazism and the unique role played by Czechoslovakia as both the 'heart of Europe' in a cultural and artistic sense and the sole democratic state in Europe between the two wars , failing to "read" the indignities and thefts visited upon Franta's person and the betrayal and dismemberment visited upon the Czech people by the so-called Western democracies and Nazi fascism. It is an index of the profound ahistoricity of what passes for cinematic - muchless cultural - criticism in the hundred or so American reviews of "Dark Blue World" that the simple framing device of the Gottwald forced labor camps remains unconnected to the very public awareness, now, of similiar brutality visited upon the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. "Dark Blue World" is more than simple-minded entertainment, it is instruction and edification ? for those who value such experiences. We in are the debt of its makers. … Expand

It was quite good movie. Not perfect, I must agree, but it wasn't a complete bore. See, it's not the movie about war, but rather about people's relationship, and yeah, it has beaten up theme about friends becoming enemies because of some woman. I had good time watching it, enjoying not so bad acting and listening to wonderful czech language (which is good, cause i havent had listening to anybody speaking it in AGES!) 8/10… Expand

How could anyone mention Pearl Harbour (the so called movie) in reference to this production. I'll have to check the reviews of the negative critic's here and see how they rated Pearl Harbour. My guess is they didn't even see the movie....

The western media does not appreciate this film in it's entirety. This is not 'Pearl Harbour with less special effects', it is a Czech film with significant cultural underpinnings. The fact that it has recieved some excellent english reviews is a testament to the cinematography and acting. However, rather ignored are the historical parallels and references, which go much deeper than the 'special effects'. People familiar with the 20th century history of eastern europe would definately get more out of it than the average movie-going public.… Expand

One of the most truthfull movies i have seen and an added bonus the flight scenes with the spitfireswere out of this world, there should be more movies about the mighty spitfires and there couragous pilots.

This movie was fabulous, it makes me so angry that these people even consider Pearl Harbour in this film, but then again it lacks any American involvement or propaganda in the film, therefore why would it be of any value to these critics?

A beautiful film. Not just entertaining, but a important lesson of history. The ignorance of some of the critics is alarming, however the ratings of others, especially a Dr George Abbott W. is relieving. They compare it to Pearl Harbour, why? Because it was a U.S. film? Because it was so popular, especially among those that knew little of history and failed to note the numerous and blatent mistakes? (The American flag does not have sixty stars ... tut, tut.) They insist on adhering to the niave of society, so be it. At least some of us appreciate a brilliant and fascinating film, such as 'Dark Blue World'.… Expand

Super film.