Dark Blue World

Time Richard Schickel

One thinks of the great opening line of that great novel The Good Soldier: "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." Like many such tales, this one is worth taking to your aching heart.

Variety Derek Elley

Sverak's sheer technical finesse, and ability to spin on a dime between comedy and tragedy, the personal and the historical, makes Dark Blue World succeed where other similarly themed movies, from "Battle of Britain" to "The Blue Max," seem heavy-handed by comparison.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The last word you'd expect for it is "sweet," yet it is exactly the right one. That may come as no surprise to some, since the director is Jan Sverak, who brought sweetness to his breakthrough film "Koyla," but it caught me by total surprise.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

A crackerjack combination of live action, special effects and recycled footage.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Dark Blue World's warm story and beautiful photography almost hits the mark, and it has a great ending.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Dark Blue World is "Pearl Harbor" without the product placements, without the Hollywood bombast, and certainly without the $100-million-plus budget.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The film mixes unashamed kitsch, thrilling airfight scenes and dark historical drama. But what gives it a special charge is its portrait of the Czech RAF group: what happened to them before, during and after the war.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A bittersweet world, and it's frankly one to which we've been before, but seldom do we see it rendered with such exquisite, if pained, craftsmanship.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This is a sensitive and at times gently humorous love-and-war story; the flight scenes are exciting and exquisitely crafted, the characters lovingly drawn.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Whatever Dark Blue World lacks in pyrotechnics it makes up for with richly drawn characters, high drama and pointed historical ironies.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's a mixed blessing.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Has some terrific aerial sequences and exciting dogfights. But the clichés in the script by Zdenek Sverak (the director's father) keep the film firmly grounded when the action's not aloft.

Film Threat Rich Cline

It's hardly a foreign film; this is our common history, and it's a film well worth looking out for.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

As it stands, Dark Blue World -- for all the considerable skills of the Sveraks and their colleagues on both sides of the camera -- occupies that treacherous territory between art film and popular epic.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The widescreen photography is, however, quite beautiful, and the scenes of aerial combat thrillingly staged.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie's ambitions (to pay tribute to the Czech pilots who fought for their country only to be interned later) are not matched by the actual story.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

"Kolya" was as emotionally authentic and original as Dark Blue World is derivative and not compelling.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's the banal romantic triangle that inspired Sverak ("Kolya"), who obviously didn't see "Pearl Harbor" in time to stop himself.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Dark Blue World and Sverak's previous "Kolya" were each written by the director's father, Zdenek, and both films betray a weakness for the symmetrical and sentimental.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The aerial-dogfight scenes, which are beautiful and shot through with jittery panic, are notable for not being staged for videogame kicks.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The film is more of an old-school wartime yarn, crackling with the expected camaraderie among the hardscrabble volunteers.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

This could be called an art house version of "Pearl Harbor," except that sounds vaguely nutritious, like fat- free yogurt or a historical episode of A&E's "Biography." But Dark Blue World is all empty carbs, like malted milk balls.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

The uneasy meeting of cultures is mirrored all too well in the stiff and clumsy direction.