[...] despite the prevailing eagerness to please, the expansive tale about a pair of fighter pilot pals and the woman who drives a mighty wedge between them makes several spiritually uplifting attempts but never really takes off emotionally. With the right campaign, distributor Sony Pictures Classics could well see some bright green among the dark blue. Flash back to March 1939, when those days of relative peace are numbered and Lt. Slama is assigned to train fresh-faced rookie Karel Vojtisek (Krystof Hadek).

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