Review of Zorba the Greek (1964) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012
Directed by Greek director Michael Cacoyannis (Stella (1955) and The Trojan Women (1971)) and adapted from the 1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, this is a drama with two great performances, but now, the film is a bit dated and overlong as well, as was the case of many films like this then, but it does have good moments in it, but it does drag.
It begins when Anglo-Greek writer Basil (Alan Bates) being sent to Greece on family business. His family were Greek, but he was raised in England, and has become stuffy and uptight. However, on a boat to Crete, he meets Alexis Zorba (Anthony Quinn), a gruff yet charismatic musician, and even though Zorba's behaviour appalls Basil at first, he soon falls for Zorba's charm.
Basil is off to Crete as his father owned some land there, and on the land is a old lignite mine, which Basil plans to reopen, but it's too unsafe, but Zorba has the brilliant idea of using the timbers from inside the mine to haul wood down from the forest to the sea.
Basil agrees, and they get the whole island behind them on the idea, meanwhile Zorba falls for Madame Hortense (Lila Kedrova), who runs the local hotel. It does build up to a climax like the sort of thing Werner Herzog does, but it takes it's sweet time in getting there.
It does have good moments too, as well as a few good performances, but they're all few and far between in this film. As stated, it's too long, and it could have benefited from being half an hour shorter.
This review of Zorba the Greek (1964) was written by Stuart K on 23 Apr 2012.
Zorba the Greek has generally received very positive reviews.
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