Hollywood doesn't often make films about World War I anymore. That's one reason Sam Mendes' '1917' is exceptional

Growing up in England, Sam Mendes always wondered why his grandfather Alfred seemed to be constantly washing his hands. One day he finally asked his father, "Why does Granddad do that silly thing with his hands?"

Mendes' dad explained that, having served as a young soldier in the First World War, Alfred could still vividly recall the terrible muck and mire of the trenches. Even after all those years, he still felt a compulsive need to try to get himself clean.

"I remember that shocking me then, that 70 years later, he would be unable to forget," Mendes, 54, said on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles. "And it still does in a way now."

Mendes' new film, the World War I epic "1917," is dedicated to his grandfather and the millions of men like him who