Known for his epic film resume (Memento, The Dark Knight,  Interstellar and more) Christopher Nolan creates a masterpiece of a war movie with Dunkirk.

Released on July 21st, Dunkirk tells the story of allied soldiers attempting to evacuate the French island, while German Nazis make their move to invade Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

The film turns back time to the year of 1940 during the age of World War II. Over 400,000 troops of British Expeditionary Force and the British Army were cornered on the French port of Dunkirk by the Germans.

There, the British waited hopelessly to be rescued or slaughtered.

As a rescue mission was put into action, nearby civilians prepared their ‘little ships’ to cross the sea to Dunkirk in hopes to save their soldiers before it was too late.

A hue of grey tents the film, portraying a theme of the unknown, and what’s to come. While the theme is ongoing, Dunkirk isn’t just a sry of one single soldier.

Nolan elegantly splits the story line into groups of three: from the air, ground, and ocean.

With an all star cast: newcomer Fionn Whitehead, previous One Direction singer Harry Styles, recognizable from the Peaky Blinders, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, and many more provide heart wrenching, epic performances — bringing history to life and leaving the audience speechless.

The film, with its incredible cinematic quality, provided moments where you felt like you were right there with them as they sat in isolation, wondering if God was ignoring them, or playing a cruel game of cat and mouse.

Typically in war films you expect blood, guts, gore etc, but this one was different.

Nolan provided the intensity you’d expect from these types of films, but with a more artistic, minimalist point of view that showed a new definition of war.

Woven in a mournful soundtrack, composer Hans Zimmer gave the film movement and emotion as you await the next scene, unknowing what to expect.

Anticipation and anxiety, turn into a need to escape. While you never truly see the villain of the film — you know they’re watching.

Dunkirk is a film that will break your heart, but put it back together again as it escalates in fear, thrill, risk and hope.

It is incomparable,  and defines courage in a way that no director has given a war film before.

He gave a real life event purpose, and justice to those that lived through it.

It was a film that proved that we as human beings can define all odds.

By the end of it, you walk away wanting to make this world a better place.