movies and visions

my dad's been on a ww2 war movie kick recently which has been an experience because theyre really interesting to Me specifically, for a specific reason. i like to use them (or they use me) as an opportunity to properly to think through what it would have really been like to live through and around these things, although thats a deceptively mild way to word the experience.

its almost like i'll feel suddenly very strongly like ive gotten a little window into the immediate mind of someone who lived through the same era; not even the events that play out in the movie, im not transported into the movie. for an example i was passively watching a bridge too far and all of a sudden i felt very strongly the touch/thought/memories of sitting in a bony airplane cockpit with the yoke in my hands feeling very slightly sick with fear i wasn't going to make it home. it was a very strange and startling experience but its also not exactly a unique one and i've had many but this one made me think about them again.

its an interesting form of empathy (?) and i rather wonder if anyone else has experienced anything similar.