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Rating: 4 out of 5
For years, as I looked at my Academy Award winning list, I wondered what Zorba the Greek was going to finally cross my path. I searched at my school’s library and had no luck. I hoped it would be on Netflix, Hulu, or any of the other streaming services I have. Sadly, that didn’t happen. I started to give up when I decided to get a library card at my local library. I went online and searched for their movie collection, and it was like the angels singing from heaven. The library listed that they had it, and excitement filled my little heart. As I looked at the box cover, I wanted to tell you that you should listen to the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is precisely how you should look at this film. I thought it would be a comedy. It has some elements of a comedy, but Zorba the Greek is far from being a comedy. It is entertaining, but the drama will roll in this film.
Written, produced, edited, and directed by Greek Cypriot filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the Greek is a film where a pair of unlikely partners try to build a lignite mine through an impoverished Cretan village. Zorba the Greek introduces Basil (Bates), a middle-class, proper, and slightly boring Greek-British writer raised in the United Kingdom. Basil is pretty boring. Basil arrives at the Athens port of Piraeus, minding his own business and waiting to catch a ferry to Crete. As he waits, he meets a broke-ass, middle-aged peasant and musician named Zorba (Quinn). Zorba starts a conversation and learns that Basil is traveling to a Cretan village where he owns some land, hoping to make money by re-opening a lignite mine and finding a muse to cure his writer’s block. Seeing an opportunity, Zorba tells Basil that he has vast experience being a miner and takes it upon himself to name himself Basil’s foreman and factotum. The nerve of this guy. Basil and Zorba make their way to the Cretan village and are greeted like kings by the poor ass population. Once in the village, everything that can go wrong does go wrong in this drama-filled film. Will Basil accomplish what he wants, or will Zorba screw up everything?
As I said, Zorba the Greek is nowhere near being a comedy, as the cover suggests. Zorba seems to screw up time and time again, which gets Basil upset. Zorba states that Basil is the boss, but Zorba really does his own things. When the pair arrive, they meet an elderly French former cabaret dancer named Madame Hortense, who offers them rooms. Zorba presses Basil to spit game at Madame Hortense, but when he denies it, Zorba slides right up with his incredible charm and starts spitting game at her. Zorba might be broke but dude has game. Wait, Zorba isn’t as innocent as you might think. Dude’s past is awful as he had been found guilty of rape and murder as a soldier. When pressed, he stated that they were just Bulgarians and Turks. WTF?!?!?
Working on the lignite mine is an absolute shitshow. Basil and Zorba attempt to work on it, but it collapses. Zorba comes up with the idea to use the forest for lumber to make pit-props but the land is owned by the church. In his sly ways, Zorba tricks the monks into giving him the timber for free. Zorba designs a system in which a wire sends tree trunks down the mountain. Basil gives Zorba money for supplies, and Zorba goes wild. He goes over to the next town and gets wasted while buying champagne for them hoes. He even gets his hair done and blows the entire money. What does Basil do for revenge? He snitched and told Madame Hortense. Back to the system. There is a great celebration for the opening. The first log comes down like a missile. The second one destroys half of the system. That third log completely destroys everything and almost kills some people. What do Basil and Zorba do? They let those feet move and dance.
The drama of this film comes from the village and how they view a young and FOINE widowed woman. The woman is straight-up hated by the villagers for not getting remarried. That is messed up. One of the young local boys and the son of one of the higher-ups in the village is straight-up obsessed with her, but she doesn’t pay him any attention. Things start getting bad when Basil offers her his umbrella on a rainy day. Basil stops by the Widow’s house when he goes through some hard times. They spend the night together, which pisses off every man in the village. Shit hits the fan when the villagers attack the widow. The saddest but most vile part is when they straight-up murder her and protect the father who killed her. Yet, that is not even the least of it. When Zorba returns from his partying ways, he returns to Madame Hortense. She is dying, and people are literally in her house waiting for her to die to steal her stuff. Zorba tries to shoo them away. When she dies, the vultures come out, and this village steals EVERYTHING. They leave only the best she slept on and her body. It was crazy and sad, and these two scenes made you feel like there was no hope and the town was more evil than good, and yet the two main characters danced at the end of the film.
As far as performances go, Anthony Quinn was outstanding as Alexis Zorba. Even though he had issues and a messed-up past, he seemed to see the positive in things. Even though he messed up, he was straight-up loyal. He was with Madame Hortense until the end, and Quinn brought that out in this character. Something about Quinn’s smile and laugh is infectious, and he stole every scene he was in.
I want to give a major shout-out to Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense. She was brilliant in this role as a woman who fell for the wrong guy. Really? Zorba. Lila was great, showing the caring and eccentric ways of Madame Hortense. She won her Academy Award during the death scene where she saw the angel of death. I have to applaud this performance.
Zorba the Greek is one of those films where you really need to read the back cover. If you think it is a comedy, you are in a world of trouble. The story is interesting and dark once the main characters get to the village. Quinn and Kedrova were excellent in their roles with Kedrova winning the Oscar. Give this film a chance, but be warned that it is not a comedy.
