Dark Blue World

Dark Blue World
Australian DVD Cover
Directed by	Jan Svěrák
Produced by	Eric Abraham
Written by	Zdeněk Svěrák
Starring	Ondřej Vetchý Tara FitzGerald Oldřich Kaiser Charles Dance Kryštof Hádek
Music by	Ondřej Soukup
Cinematography	Vladimír Smutný
Editing by	Alois Fišárek
Release date(s)	17 May 2001 (2001-05-17) (Czech Republic) November 13, 2001 (2001-11-13) (United Kingdom)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	Czech Republic United Kingdom
Language	Czech English German Slovak
Budget	€ 8 million
Box office	$258,771 (United States)

Dark Blue World (Czech: Tmavomodrý svět) is a 2001 film by Czech director Jan Svěrák about Czechoslovak pilots who fought for the British Royal Air Force during World War II. The screenplay was written by Zdeněk Svěrák, the father of the director.

The film stars Ondřej Vetchý as František (Franta) Sláma, Kryštof Hádek as Karel Vojtíšek and Tara FitzGerald as Susan. There is also an appearance from Charles Dance and Anna Massey.

Plot

About one third of the film takes place in 1950, after the war, when the returning Czechoslovak pilots were imprisoned by the new communist government for colluding with the capitalists. Most of these scenes are the interactions between Franta Sláma, and his fellow inmates in the prison hospital (an ex-SS doctor and a convicted burglar). The film switches back between the war and the prison.

The first scene in the film is in the workshop of the prison. Sláma is at a sewing machine when he collapses and is taken to the hospital.

The film proper begins in 1939, just days prior to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. After the invasion, the Czechoslovakian military is disbanded and the Czechoslovaks have to give up their aircraft. However, Franta and the younger Karel, among others, refuse to submit to their occupiers, and flee to the United Kingdom to join the RAF.

Once they arrive, the British force the Czechoslovaks to retrain from the basics, which infuriates them, especially Karel, who is both impatient to fight the Germans and humiliated to be retaught what he already knows. Karel also sees the compulsory English language lessons as a pointless waste of his time.

The RAF is in such a bad need of pilots during the Battle of Britain that eventually the Czech and Slovak airmen are allowed to fly, and after their first sortie they realise why the British were training them so intensely: a young Czechoslovak nicknamed Tom Tom is shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf-109.

In a different mission while attempting to shoot down a He-111 the rear gunner hits Karel's Spitfire. However he manages to bail out and find his way to a farm. At this farm he meets Susan, whom he falls in love with (though the feeling is not mutual; Susan thinks Karel is far too young). The next day, after returning to the aerodrome, Karel brings Franta to meet Susan. The latter begins to get on well with Susan, though Karel believes that he is still Susan's boyfriend.

A sort of love triangle develops, though it takes Karel quite some time to realise that Susan has feelings for his commander, and it is not until late in the film when he realises that they are in a relationship with each other.

Following a mission to France where the squadron attacks a train, Karel is shot down and Franta lands to rescue him, a move that shows that the two's friendship endures. But soon after the mission, Karel learns about the relationship between Franta and Susan, which leads to a quarrel.

A few missions later while escorting American bombers, Franta's airplane has a malfunction and is forced to ditch into the ocean. His inflatable life raft bursts as he tries to inflate it and Karel decides to help him by dropping his own raft. While attempting to eject the raft, Karel accidentally hits the ocean surface and kills himself. (Miraculously, the raft emerges from the water, so Franta will survive until he is rescued.)

Afterwards, when the war was over, Franta makes the drive to the home of Susan only to find her with her injured husband who had returned from fighting overseas. It is very clear to him that he has no future with Susan now that her husband has returned. However, he protects Susan's relationship with her husband by pretending to have lost his way and needing to ask directions to the next town. Disappointed by what has happened, Franta returns to Czechoslovakia and finds his old girlfriend has married the neighbourhood jobsworth, has given birth to a child, and has taken over Barcha, his dog. These various discoveries come as bitter disappointments to Franta, though all he can do is face the situation as stoically as he can, since there is absolutely nothing he can do to change it. The movie ends with Franta still in prison, daydreaming that he and Karel are talking while flying their Spitfires.

Cast

Actor	Role
Ondřej Vetchý	František Sláma
Kryštof Hádek	Karel Vojtíšek
Tara FitzGerald	Susan
Charles Dance	Wing Cmdr. Bentley
Oldřich Kaiser	Machatý
David Novotný	Bedřich Mrtvý
Linda Rybová	Hanička
Jaromír Dulava	Kaňka
Lukáš Kantor	Tom Tom
Radim Fiala	Sysel
Juraj Bernáth	Gregora
Miroslav Táborský	Houf
Hans-Jörg Assmann	Dr. Blaschke
Thure Riefenstein	Oberleutnant Hesse
Anna Massey	English Teacher

Production

The most expensive Czech movie produced, the budget totalled €8 million.^{[citation needed]} The train attack is the most expensive scene in Czech cinema history, costing more than the entire film Kolya. Dogfight footage from the 1969 film Battle of Britain was seamlessly integrated with contemporary film footage using computer imagery and mastering to create the aerial sequences. Brief shots from the 1990 film Memphis Belle were also used. The film's director Jan Svěrák, played a number of roles, including practically all the crew members of an allied B-25 Mitchell bomber in the escort of a damaged bomber scene.

Box office

The film was released in America on December 28, 2001 and has grossed $258,771.^[1]

See also

• František Fajtl
• Nebeští jezdci aka Sky Riders

References

1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=darkblueworld.htm

External links

• Dark Blue World at the Internet Movie Database
• Dark Blue World at AllRovi
• Dark Blue World at Box Office Mojo