Zorba the Greek (1964)
Grade: 61
It shouldn't be that way, but expectations can change the way one perceives a film. If not much is expected, such as with "High Velocity" (1977), but the film turns out to be relatively good, one is pleased. On the other hand, if expectations are high, one is disappointed even if the film is still marginally good.
This was my reaction to "Zorba the Greek". The great, relevatory entertainment never arrived.
Anthony Quinn stars as Zorba, an impetuous, aging journeyman capable of noble action and impulsive sentiment. He takes a liking to distant, well-dressed Englishman Alan Bates, who takes Quinn with him to remote area of Greece to work an abandoned mine. While Bates struggles to make his fortune, Quinn is busily trying to teach him hedonistic and extroverted ways.
Quinn gives an excellent performance in a difficult role. The trouble is, his supporting characters aren't very interesting. Bates is ever out of place, dependent upon alter ego Quinn for all social and business interaction. Pathetic landlady Lila Kedrova is boring and often unintelligible. She did win Best Supporting Actress, however.
Spoilers follow, but are necessary for further picking apart this over-rated classic:
A beautiful widow is hated by the men in the town, primarily because she won't marry any of them. She ends up terrorized and brutally killed, in a public, extended, unpleasant, and unnecessary sequence.
The village folk are portrayed very badly. Besides committing the aforementioned pointless murder, they rush to plunder Kedrova's estate even as she is on her deathbed (her death happens rather suddenly, her cold kills her in a few minutes). They are cowardly workers, fleeing in terror at the first sign of trouble. As monks, they drop everything to gorge themselves on wine. They are depicted without any sympathy to their poverty or lack of education or opportunity.
To be fair, there are moments of drama and entertainment. Quinn surely deserves his Best Actor nomination. Unlike the vast majority of Hollywood's output, it is not formulaic or manipulative. But it is not the great movie that was hoped for.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews