What makes a period film worthy of your time and attention span? The abilities of the actors to convince us they are of that time. The abilities of the directors and cinematographer to convince us that the time is real. The extent to which the costumes and setting, along with the acting and directing transport us to the time. If one fails, in my mind, the movie fails.

Frank Miller’s 300 directed by Zack Snyder is a visually stunning, beautifully directed, perfectly acted, operatic cinematic event. I was skeptical about watching such a hyped film though I was very much looking forward to it. Frank Miller’s Sin City directed by Miller himself and Robert Rodriguez was as visually stunning, but not as jaw-dropping. 300 feels like an epic without feeling too long and overly dramatic. Of course the story of 300 Spartans fighting the Persian army of thousands is itself drama, but the acting, cinematography and art direction is never campy or even unbelievable. Well, perhaps Xerxes’ giant stature is a bit unbelievable, but the tallest man in the world now is almost 8 feet, right?

300 is opera, theater, cinema. It raises the bar for all action films, dramas and next-generation visual effects. Unlike say, Julie Taymor’s Titus, the operatic aspects of 300 are not grandiose and elaborate in the Broadway sense. They are more highlights, bringing focus to rather than overshadowing certain aspects of the plot, certain physical aspects of the scenery, and so forth. The characters’ make-up, the juxtaposition of Xerxes and King Leonidas, the costumes reveals a foreign-nesss, a strangeness, an elusive something about the times. It seems like most epic films from ancient Grecian times don’t stand out because the idea of the opulence of the time gets in the way of the plot or perhaps the truth of depicting a time we can only read about and which we cannot experience first hand. Troy is a prime example. Everything grand, not a lick of substance. Everything was extreme, the landscape, the horrid acting (save for Eric Bana’s performance), the plot, etc. The Gladiator did a better job, but was still a self-conscious film, boasting grandness in visuals, in dress, in acting, in a bloated and predictable plot.

What makes 300 stand out? Eye candy! Eye candy! Eye Candy! First, the men were simply beautiful. The first film I think I’ve seen in years, or perhaps ever where there are many, many, many straight men who outshine the hand full of women. And they were all so ripped. Damn! The make-up outlining the abs were perfect and if you didn’t look too long, you could swear these men were physical perfection. Second, every shot seemed like it was perfectly staged to look like a piece of art. It wasn’t ala Taymor or ala Peter Greenaway. It was what cinema and theater could be, should be and is now that 300’s been made. The perfect marriage of motion picture, visual viability, drama driving the plot rather than vice versa. Greenaway and Tamor films feel like theater and take away from the film experience. Snyder’s 300, does not. Third, the sets are all so unique. I’m so used to seeing ancient Greece and the surrounding areas in a certain way, you know, amphitheaters, coliseums, endless open sandy spaces, people in togas and so forth. 300 is set in an ancient time more interesting and still familiar, so unique and still palatable. A Greece we thought we knew. A Greece you can’t know. A Greece that should be eluded to and imagined, not assumed. Somehow the art director, director and writers captured the strangeness of ancient times instead of the so-called glory. The cinematography was more subdued than you would find in any film set in the same time. It’s mystical without being whimsical. It’s HBO quality, Rome-esque (as in HBO’s Rome) and better. I would love to crawl into the mind of the set director, artist, and writers.

300 is a film experience, it is an event. Watching 300 at the Grand Lake Theater, a 1920s art deco style, old-fashioned movie theater, red velvet curtains and all, enhanced the film experience. It’s what I expect, though I shouldn’t, every time I see a movie there or anywhere. I shouldn’t expect it, but I do. Sometimes I just hope, which is safer. I hope for satisfaction like eating a peanut butter sandwich mid afternoon for pep, or eggs and sardines with wheat toast in the morning to start out your day or a big bowl of oatmeal with raw sugar and cinnamon at any time on a cold fall or winter day. A candy bar, eggs and bacon, and chicken soup are good and tried, but satisfying, not so much. 300, satisfies so much!