LONDON - Family histories loom large in 1917, the latest movie from director Sam Mendes, which tells the story of two young British soldiers dispatched on a crucial mission during World War I.
Mendes' grandfather, the late Alfred H. Mendes, served as a lance corporal messenger during the bloody conflict and it was his tales from the Western Front - a military frontier to the west of Germany - that inspired the director's decision to make the film.
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