New Testament (of Youth) - the movie verion

Being among the few who've actually read the book, we embarked on watching the move Testament of Youth, based faithfully (to the best of my memory) on Vera Brittain's war memoir of the same title. Brittain's memoir, at least the first half of it describing her service as a nurse to the troops in the First World War, was very powerful and presented a view of the war that, for once, seemed fresh and original (the 2nd half was about her early struggles as a writer and her advocacy of pacifism and feminism, valid and valuable pursuits but not as gripping a tale). The movie hits the same high marks: it's grand, epic, and gives us a different view of the war, which you might think by this time is impossible. The British obsession w/ both world wars as topics for books and films continues to amaze me, and in my mind I can't help but blend this account w/FM Ford and, I think, Grave, and others, in fact the 2 wars tend to blend - am I going nuts are am I just super-saturated? In any event, this movie has those high production values that we expect from British film - the acting, the settings (interior and landscape), the re-created war hospitals at home and in the field - and the story is full of drama and sorrow w/out ever being maudlin or wanly predictable. Vera's first struggle is to get parental approval to go to college (Oxford) - they expect a young lady to stay home and play piano and marry well. Just as her life is blooming and as she falls in love with a young man her equal in intellect and talent, he and her brother and their coterie of school "chums" head off to what they think will be a short and glorious war. Vera gives up her studies and volunteers to nurse. Though you've seen it before, it is painful to watch what she sees and endures - and the battlefields as seen from the medical camp are in a way more gruesome and frightening than those seen from the trenches. It's a powerful film, not over the top in any way, and stronger still for being based closely on a woman's life story.