World War, social class - there will always be an England

It's absolutely amazing to me that British literarture and film still go back again and again to World War II (and even to the First World War) as inspiration and material - more than 70 years later. These events were so traumatic and formative for Britain that they still affect they way writers and directors and actors think, generations later. Why is that? Reminds of the time when the empire still stood? England's greatest moment of heroism? The trauma of so many deaths? The challenge, however temporary, to class structure? The postwar suffering and humiliation? All? Current example is "The Deep Blue Sea," set "around 1950," and tells a very simple love-hate story (spoilers follow): begins with attempted suicide of an aristocrats wife, Hester (the excellent Rachel Weisz), and over the next 90+ minutes we learn the back story: her husband is a stiff and conventional, she has an affair with an ex-airman, and, when her husband learns, moves in with airman into a shabby rental flat. Over 10 months and many spats, he loses interest and she tries to off herself - leading to a final, sorrowful breakup. Other than Weisz, the good things about the movie are the powerful scenes in which the airman (Freddy) vents his fury and Weisz gives it back to him and the monumentally uncomfortable scene when Weisz visits with her mother-in-law (though it's puzzling, in that the scene makes it seem as if they're just meeting, when in fact she's been married for some time). At first, the movie made the contrast between the two men too obvious: of course Weisz would leave her up-tight husband for this dashing guy. But gradually, we see that the husband, though a bit feckless, is kind of sweet and caring and Freddy is a dope and a cad. He's a former military guy who, like many in his generation, feels that nothing in civilian life will ever compare with his experience of war - so he turns to drink and other adventures. The relationship between him and Weisz is purely sexual (and her marriage was strikingly asexual); when he tires of her sexually (numbed by alcohol, probably), it's over - for him. Though Weisz is really good, the pacing of the movie doesn't help her. I know that was probably a stage play originally - but at times it feels way too staged - especially Freddy's final departure. Did the director have a contract to make a film of a certain length? There were longer pauses in this final bit of dialogue - Good-bye, Freddy. Good-bye, Hester - than any I can remember: I thought my Blu-Ray had frozen in place. Movie ends with an image of a bombed out London house - a little heavy-handed symbolism, but it does return us to the world outside of Hester's head and leaves us wondering: What will become of her?