IS 'DARK BLUE WORLD' THE BRAND-NEW 'PEARL HARBOR'?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

To dub ``Dark Blue World'' the Czech ``Pearl Harbor'' is a little unfair to the foreign film. Accurate, though.

In some ways, a more thoughtful, wistful and politically cogent World War II aviation melodrama, Jan Sverak's film shares both an unfortunate romantic triangle subplot and a general feeling of superficiality with Michael Bay's bonehead blockbuster. Modestly scaled by comparison but possessing its own kind of visual richness, ``Blue World'' gets some extra resonance out of its by-the-book, wartime sentimentality and adds a bracing bit of political irony to the mix.

But it never really takes off.

Bouncing between a grim, communist forced-labor factory in 1950 and events of the two preceding decades, the movie is made from the melancholy memories of one Franta Slama (Ondrej Vetchy). He's a 40-ish former RAF pilot now considered an enemy of his own people - or, at least, Czechoslovakia's Soviet overlords.

Back in 1939, he was a hotshot pilot with the Czech air force. But when the Germans rolled into their country unopposed, Franta and his best young protege, Karel Vojtisek (Krystof Hadek), headed over the Polish border. By the time the Luftwaffe was bombing London, they were in England as part of a free Czech auxiliary to the Royal Air Force - although the British were pretty reluctant to turn over any precious Spitfires to the wild-and-crazy Slavs.

So, to pass the time until they were permitted to fly, the Czechs set their sights on the local lasses. Karel winds up spending the night with a possible war widow, Susan (Tara Fitzgerald), whom he is surprised to discover, the morning after, has a houseful of children who were evacuated out of the cities. Crazy in love for the first time, Karel doesn't count on Susan and Franta hitting it off much better - and, not wanting to hurt the younger man, keeping their affair from him until he learns about it in the worst possible way.

And at the worst time, too, now that the British are allowing the Czechs to fly missions. Will the resentful Karel protect his longtime buddy when the Messerschmidts attack? Will Franta's feelings of guilt be tragically multiplied by the end of the war? Will Ben Affleck suddenly return from the dead? ...

Oops, sorry, wrong movie. But you get the idea; this is the kind of war movie where you can tell the longevity odds of each squadron member according to the degree of vulnerability their speech impediment, artistic talent or interpreted name (one guy's actually translates to ``Deadman'') implies.

Although the aerial footage, much of which involved vintage planes, is often well done, the 1950 sequences are the film's most interesting. Franta recounts his story in a squalid prison clinic, to a fellow inmate/informer and an enslaved doctor, the latter of whom turns out to have been an SS medic. The German, who ironically never harmed a soul, brings an unusual perspective to the moral implications of Franta's adventures. He actually helps enlighten the airman as to why he was foolish (or self-punishing) enough to return to his occupied homeland after the war.

But such psychological complexity is an afterthought. ``Dark Blue World'' primarily traffics in nostalgic cliches, and they clip its wings at every turn.

``DARK BLUE WORLD''

(Rated R: violence, nudity, sex, language)

The stars: Ondrej Vetchy, Tara Fitzgerald, Krystof Hadek, Charles Dance.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Jan Sverak. Written by Zdenek Sverak. Produced by Eric Abraham and Jan Sverak. Released by Sony Pictures Classics.

Running time: One hour, 59 minutes.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

Our rating: Two and one half