Quinn as Zorba is irrestible, great music and dance
Disadvantages:
a rather sedate storyline .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Zorba the Greek is not the greatest story in the history of cinema, its claim to fame lies in the impressive performances of Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates. Above all, it is memorable for its unforgettable score by Mykos Theodorakis and excellent black and white cinematography.
The plot is quite straightforward: Basil, a shy, rather introverted and mannered Englishman with Greek connections inherits a disused mine on the island of Crete. On the mainland he encounters Alexis Zorba, a larger than life Greek peasant with an infectious optimism and energy. During a stormy passage to Crete (wonderfully embellished by Theodorakis' bazuki score) Basil takes a shine to Zorba and takes him on as the hired help. The contrast between the reserved, inhibited Basil and Zorba's lust for living life to the full is one of the main themes of the movie.
The pair arrive on a Crete far removed from the developed island of the 21st century. This is a rather backward place of peasant culture and widows in black weeds, the kind of Greece you can only see nowadays if you stray far away from the usual tourist tracks. Zorba quickly pursues his love of life by his outrageous flirting with the aging ex -courtesan Madame Hortense. She, played by Lia Kedrova won one of the movie's Oscars for best supporting actress. Her's is an intensingly moving and poignant performance of a woman who time has passed by, desperate for love and a ready victim of Zorba's rustic charm. Meanwhile, Zorba awakens Basil's interest in the town's reclusive and brooding widow played with smouldering intensity by Irene Papas. His consumation of this affair is probably one of the most erotic scenes in the history of cinema. She is darkly beautiful, ripe and frustrated, he is inexperienced, handsome and ready.
Unfortunately the beautiful widow has another suitor, who on learning of the tryst between the Englishman and the object of his desire, commits suicide by drowning himself. The widow becomes the subject of a homicidal vendetta by other villagers in which Zorba's intervention is heroic and fruitless. The ensuing scene in which the widow is stoned and stabbed by the hyena like villagers is both harrowing and violent.
It becomes obvious that Madame Hotense is both old and fragile when she succumbs to a wasting disease, probably tuberculosis. Her death is desperate affair of black dressed crones who prey on her worldy goods like hyenas.
The rest of the story is about Zorba's failed attempt to get the mine working by the construction of a perilous mechanised system of resource retrieval.
Zorba culminates in a dance, the syrtaki which is the summation of his attitude to life. Basil's closing remark is 'Will you teach me to dance?'
And,in essence this is what this movie is about. A love of life, music, dance and movement. Zorba's dance!
More details
Soundtrack
Outstanding
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Outstanding
Value for Money
Excellent
What format are you reviewing?
Film only
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ZORBA THE GREEK
Basil, a young English writer of Greek ancestry, meets an older, free-spirited Greek
... more
peasant named Zorba (Anthony Quinn) on the island of Crete. While Zorba pursues a relationship with Madame Hortense, an aging French courtesan, the inhibited Basil sum...
