The background of the film is based on Czech fighter pilots who went to England during the Second World War when their country was invaded by the Nazi's. In England they became part of the RAF (The Royal Air Force) and fought for the allies to help win the war. But when they returned home they didn't receive a hero's welcome. Instead, the Communists who had taken power, jailed them for fear that their western connections would result in anti-Communist sympathies.

From these real life events as a backdrop director Sverak begins his film with one of the film's heroes Frantisek Slama (Ondrej Vetchy) in a Czech work camp in the early 1950's. And then he flashes back to 1939 and begins to weave a tale about Slama and his best friend Karel (Krystof Hadek) who over the course of the war go through various trials and tribulations in their personal and professional lives. As soldiers they fly together in the skies protecting England and then come down in the evenings to drink beers in the locale pub. But their friendship is soon torn apart by the fact that they both fall in love with a local English woman (played by Tara Fitzgerald), who is waiting for the return of her husband from the battle lines.

Director Sverak has a good sense of pace and he neatly cross cuts between the past and present dramatics of the story. He also gets great performances from his Czech and English cast. Besides all this the film is also beautifully shot and scored and because of this the film is very easy to watch and enjoy at least on a superficial level.

The combination of earnest old-fashioned sensibilities with dark foreboding subject matter is well done. So well done in fact that if you're paying attention it's easy to see that the film's subject matter is a lot darker than Sverak lets on. He perhaps makes everything too clean and neat by keeping the heavy stuff at bay and choosing a nostalgic, romantic tone the whole way through. His first film, the Academy Award winner Kolya, also had a similar touch and it seems he cannot hide his penchant for a rather gentle handling of serious matters.

The best thing about the film, though, is the fighter pilot sections, which include a few good aerial action scenes using vintage Spitfire airplanes fighting German Messerschmidts. The Airplane fighter pilot (or Aviation) genre has far too few films. Unless you count Top Gun or Memphis Belle one has to go back to the 1960's for such films as 633 Squadron or Battle of Britain to get good films in this beleaguered genre. Dark Blue World is perhaps not as good as some of these great films but it is made with the same kind of respect for the genre.

Audio:
The DVD is presented in Dolby digital 5.1 and sounds excellent. The flying airplanes sound effectively real and the explosions sound robust and full. The dialogue comes across just fine and the light jazz music score adds a nice element of mood and tempo.

Video:
The film is presented an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the transfer is excellent. The details of the cinematography by Vladimir Smutny in each shot look very good and the colors are full and rich. Many shots have a misty foggy quality that nontheless are in focus and look good. There is no edge enhancement or compression that I could detect.

Extras:
There are as many or more extras on this DVD than on any recent foreign film release. First is a commentary track by Jan Sverak and producer producer Eric Abraham that is very informative and goes a lot into what it took to get the film made. It's very good because they talk the entire way through and have a lot to say about the vicissitudes of filmmaking. Then there is a 33 minute documentary The Making of Dark Blue World which has many interviews with the cast and overall is a fascinating look at the making of the film. It explains quite well how much work goes into making the magic of movies. There is also a six minute silent short titled Making of Visual Effects, which shows how the computer and matte work was used to heighten the war scenes. The extra features are rounded out by a four minute musical visual short titled Aerial Symphony and a Photo Montage that goes for nine minutes as well as two trailers.

Overall:
The Czechoslovakian film Dark Blue World is a fine Second World War aviation film that soars in every department. And even though it is a little bit old fashioned it still manages to entertain in ways that lesser films like Pearl Harbor were unable to. The film was overlooked when it was released in the theatres last December but the Columbia/Tristar DVD has given the film top drawer treatment and makes it clear that this is one of the better foreign films of last year.