The content of war films (specifically WW2)

I feel like I need to further research my topic and content of my film. Using my grandad's words and stories has been amazingly helpful so far but I am struggling with the way to present the story of the film in a way that will keep the audiences attention.

Personally, the most important aspect of the film for me is to tell the crew's story in a way that will leave a lasting impression on people who watched it. Their story should be heard, becase the lasting impact of what they went through was something they suffered with for the rest of their lives. I saw and heard first hand what my grandad suffered with in terms of PTSD and terrible dreams that haunted him for the rest of his live. People's unique stories from war must be heard and I hope to do this with my film.

So in order to tell their story in the best way I possibly can, I think I need to watched, review and analysis the way that war has been presented over the past couple of decades. To be completely honest, it is usually a genre of film I stay away from, as I don't enjoy watching films that are graphic or violent. That being said, my film doesn'y involve either of those things and doesn't show the typical things of war related media, but I think getting a greater understanding of the genre of war films could only be helpful during this phase of the year.

Films I have already watched and plan to rewatch and review will probably be;

- Saving Private Ryan

- Dunkirk

- War Horse

Films I plan on watching;

- Spitfire

- Fury

- Dambusters (I have watched a couple of documentaries on this but there is a film from 1955)

- Mission of Honour

- Midway (new film)