SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

pietclausen I remember 1964 like yesterday, but it seems that I too have outgrown movies of this period. I had never seen this movie but know that it was loved by many. The opportunity arose for me to watch it in 2017 and I eagerly sat down to experience this missing link with the past.What a let down. Has the world changed that much that I consider this to be a complete disaster, let alone a comedy? Fair enough I have never been to Crete or Greece, but I do love Greek music. For this reason my rating is a notch higher then what I would otherwise have given it, but for the rest it was a big boring, non inspiring, wasteful, stretched out rumble on the island, devoid of any possible reality to life in those days.Perhaps I miss the point, but I certainly did not enjoy the movie at all.

Kirpianuscus the most simple word is to say than it is a masterpiece. or a memorable film. or expression of high art of Cacoyannis. or the happy meet between Quinn and Bates. or, maybe, the frame for a huge character - madame Hortense. or the magnificent adaptation of the novel of Kazantsakis. nothing wrong in this definitions. but "Zorba the Greek", for me, is one of the most portraits of the essence of life. its steps. its levels. its vulnerability and darkness and joy and answers to the challenges. a film about people. and about theirs limits, beauty and ugliness marks. this detail does it a great film. a fool in a house. a stranger in foreign country. a dance. and this is all.

tieman64 Nikos Kazantzakis, perhaps best known for writing the novel upon which Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" was based, wrote "Zorba the Greek" in 1946. The novel was adapted for the screen in 1964 by director Michael Cacoyannis.The plot? Alan Bates plays Basil, an English writer who has travelled to the Greek island of Crete to write a novel. Here he meets and befriends Zorba (Anthony Quinn), an old man who teaches the emotionally reserved Basil to joyously celebrate life. This is all mirrored to Basil's attempts to write a novel on the Buddha (though the issue of Buddhism goes unsaid in the film), in which he tries to convey the ascetic qualities of the theologian and philosopher.Much of the film clashes Basil's personality – genteel, mannered and well dressed – with the rugged charms of Zorba. Zorba, the passionate Dionysus to Basil's reflective and rational Appolo, says what's on his mind, is unrestrained and unconcerned about appearances. The way the film contrasts one ascetic and one sensual character, of course recalls "The Last Temptation of Christ". Indeed, Kazantzakis' novel, and to a lesser extent Cacoyannis' film, abounds with dualities: man vs God, God vs devil, man vs woman, freedom vs slavery, wrath vs forgiveness, drudgery vs miracles, reality vs dreams, madness vs sanity, searching vs finding etc. Basil is himself frequently admonished by Zorba for "missing the divine beauty all around him". Life is filled with a sacred awe, he says, as he tries to indoctrinate Basil into the religion of Zorba. To this end, Basil must essentially open up, rid himself of Buddha, esoteric philosophies and ground himself in the world of men and mud.Incidentally, Kazantzakis was himself a bookish, reflective person much like Basil. But he also admired men of energy and action. Like Nietzsche, he despised bourgeois civilisation, which he deemed tainted by technology, materialism and creature comforts, and was eager to see bourgeois society swept away by cleansing tides of violence. This led Kazantzakis to attach himself to every extremist political movement that came along, regardless of where on the political spectrum they lay. He hoped to restore a kind of pagan vitality, a kind of freedom over bourgeois values, in which men are free to embrace matter, vitality, flesh and instinct, over soul, contemplation, spirit and reason. Only in this way, he said, is matter truly "transformed into spirit".The film co-stars Irene Papas as a brooding, quietly passionate window who desires Basil. The rest of the film utilises actual Cretian inhabitants and actual Greek locations. Overlong and dull in places, and philosophically dumber than it realises, the film is enlivened by some strong black-and-white cinematography by John Lassally. He creates a craggy and inhospitable Crete. Kazantzakis's Homerian epic, "The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel", would be hailed as a masterpiece in 1958. He was considered for the Nobel prize in literature in 1957, but reportedly lost by one vote to Albert Camus.7.9/10 – Worth multiple viewings.

MartinHafer When folks think of "Zorba the Greek" they think of Anthony Quinn. Many actors get forever associated with one of their film roles but few more than Quinn in this movie. That's because the film is a good match for his acting talents and it gave him a chance to show off his stuff. And, as such the film is a great character study for him. However, while many consider it to be a classic, Quinn's performance cannot make up for weak writing--and, aside from his character, the film is quite difficult to love. First, the plot is meandering--too meandering. It strains a person's attention span since it is so slow and, at times, plot-less. Second, although Quinn's character as well as the French woman's (Lila Kedrova) were very good, the rest of the characters are pretty flat. The other Greeks seem more like window dressing than people. I am not Greek but I wonder if the film does them a disservice. Surely they are not all knife-wielding men and SHREIKING women--but in this film, apart from a few exceptions, that's all they seem to be. But the worst of them is the role given to the British man (Alan Bates), as he is almost zombie-like in the film. Sure, I understand that he was supposed to be repressed and stiff--but not to the point of rigor mortis! He had all the emotional range and intensity as Mr. Potatohead--and he SHOULD have been far more complex and interesting as a counterpart to Quinn's fun-loving Zorba.My advice is to see the film for Quinn's bravura performance but accept that it really isn't that great a film. A classic? Hardly. But a darn good part for an actor who, up until this point in his career, was seen as a supporting actor and not a major player.