in the war, while escorting American bombers, Franta's Spitfire malfunctions and he is forced to ditch into the ocean. His life raft bursts as he tries to inflate it, so Karel tries to drop his own raft, but he flies too low and fatally crashes. The raft emerges from the water, allowing Franta to survive. Afterward, when the war is over, Franta drives to Susan's home, only to find her with her injured husband recently returned from fighting overseas. Knowing he has no future with Susan and wanting to preserve her honour, he pretends to have lost his way and asks directions to the next town. Franta returns to Czechoslovakia and finds his old girlfriend has married the neighbourhood jobsworth, has given birth to a child, and has taken over Barča, his dog. All the disappointed Franta can do is endure the situation as stoically as he can. In prison, he only has his memories of his friendship with Karel to sustain him. Cast Production Principal photography for the film involved a large number of locations: Hradcany Airport, Czech Republic, Dover, England, Germany and South Africa. 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 due to the prohibitively expensive cost ($10,000 per hour) of renting a real Spitfire. The scene of a train being attacked was the most expensive scene in Czech cinema history, costing more than the entire film Kolya. Brief scenes from the 1990 film Memphis Belle were also incorporated. Director Jan Svěrák played a number of roles, including practically all the crew members of an Allied North American B-25 Mitchell bomber in the scene where a damaged bomber is escorted. Reception Dark Blue World opened in both the U.S. and Europe at major international film festivals in London and Toronto, to generally positive reviews, making it one of the most popular aviation war films made. Rex Reed described the film in The New York Observer as an "epic that blends action, romance and tragedy. Brilliantly directed and sublimely acted." Animator Hayao Miyazaki said that this is his favourite film, as it shows the speed and fragility of aircraft and the historic tragedy of the Czech pilots after the war. However, other reviewers were not as enthused. Leonard Maltin commented that the love triangle provided a "more novel and interesting"