Weird how events change you. When I first saw 1917 back when it came out it hit me in the feels, sure, but I watched it last night and the end teared me up (I honestly can’t remember when last that happened).

I now realise the difference is I hadn’t been through a Big Thing Effecting Everyone And Killing People situation on the first viewing. Until 2020 very few of us still living had.
The movie 1917 is about ordinary humans dealing with a Big Thing, a very bad Big Thing, and you get to see all the craziness and muted emotions and shock and, yes, kindness of that place and time.

When COVID first hit I was working in a hotel with only NHS workers and necessary workers staying there and I’d hear their stories and they always put a brave face on it. There was no complainers; the complainers had vanished with the regular guests. Everyone was there to do a job.

I’m not trying to say I’m like a Somme veteran, really I’m not, I’m saying every one of us went through a big shared thing only recently and we stumbled through it confused and frighted but hyper-aware of other people’s welfare. I’m saying that 1917 is well worth watching again now that we have.