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.
Review of Dark Blue World
