neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Dark Blue World
	Jan Sverak Ondrej Vetchy, Krystof Hadek, Tara Fitzgerald 2001 Widescreen; closed caption; Czech/English audio tracks; English subtitles; commentary by director and producer; photo montage; making-of documentary; making-of visual effects; aerial symphony featurette.		From Czech director Jan Sverak comes a different kind of World War II movie. In the bleakness of a Communist labor camp, Czech veteran Franka (Ondrej Vetchy) reflects on his experiences as an aviator fighting the Germans. A few years earlier, he and a fellow pilot, the younger, headstrong Karel (Krystof Hadek), escaped from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and went to England where they hooked up with a special Czech unit of the Royal Air Force. During combat training, they encountered a kind, attractive British woman (Tara Fitzgerald of "Brassed Off") whose husband was a missing-in-action soldier. Soon, loneliness, longing and thwarted passion tore at the two expatriates and the despairing wife. While not as visually spectacular as the battle scenes in "Pearl Harbor" or HBO's "Band of Brothers," the dogfights and bombing raids in "Dark Blue World" are admirable. And the latter's concern with the changing relationship between Franka and Karel makes for a more personal, resonant experience.