Zorba the Greek (1964)
Movie · 1964 · Drama · 2h 22m · NR · EL
Curator score: 6.6/10 (38K ratings)
Life. Lust. Love. Zorba.
Overview
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Ratings
- Curator score: 6.6/10
- IMDb: 7.6/10
- Letterboxd: 3.74/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
- TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Mihalis Kakogiannis
Production
20th Century Fox
Cast
Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, Sotiris Moustakas, Anna Kyriakou, Takis Emmanuel, Eleni Anousaki, George Foundas, George P. Cosmatos, Yorgo Voyagis
Curator Review
Verdict
A vivid, offbeat character study with a memorable central performance and a strong sense of place. It can feel uneven and morally harsh, but the film’s energy, melancholy, and final emotional release give it lasting appeal.
Best for
- viewers who like charismatic, larger-than-life characters
- fans of travel stories that turn philosophical
- people drawn to 1960s international dramas
- audiences who don’t mind a rough-edged, sometimes cynical tone
Skip if
- you want a tightly paced plot
- you’re sensitive to misogyny or cruelty in older films
- you prefer subtle, understated performances
- you dislike films that shift from breezy to bleak
Overview
Zorba the Greek works best as a clash of temperaments: the guarded intellectual and the exuberant force of nature who refuses to live cautiously. Anthony Quinn gives the film its pulse, turning Zorba into something more complicated than a simple life-affirming mascot. He is funny, reckless, persuasive, and sometimes deeply troubling, which keeps the movie from becoming a neat parable.
Worth noting
The film’s appeal is in its atmosphere as much as its story. Crete feels sunstruck and elemental, and the movie keeps returning to dance, music, labor, and ritual as ways of answering grief and failure. That said, the film can be abrasive in its treatment of women and in the violence of its village world, and some viewers will feel the runtime in the middle stretch.
Bottom line
Even so, it lands with real force. The ending has the kind of emotional and physical release that explains the film’s reputation: not a solution to life, just a way of meeting it head-on. It’s a classic of restless, imperfect humanism, and its contradictions are part of the point.
Top Letterboxd reviews
danielle ⚡ (1★) · 248 likes
men will literally watch you die and say they couldn't do anything about it
Sam (3★) · 134 likes
Alexis Zorba as a character is extremely entertaining and complex as he has a very big personality and the film highly presents itself as a deep study of him. You understand his descents and wrongdoings as he constantly reveals himself underneath his dramatic and dangerously charming aura. Anthony Quinn’s performance is loud but mysterious and exhibits perfect timing within nuanced conversations. Outside of his character, the film doesn’t didn't do much for me and would work better with 15 or 20 minutes shaved off.
Ella Kemp (3.5★) · 118 likes
Felt the length quite a bit but how nice it is to see a film in which an English person goes to a foreign country and that foreign country is not foreign because it is the English person who is the foreigner there. You know what I mean. But/and that final scene is absolutely glorious, you can almost taste the salty air. I miss it I miss it I miss it
Şevval (5★) · 95 likes
Geçen sene doğum günü hediyesi olarak çok sevdiğim bir insanla Zorba the Greek'in bale gösterisini izlemiştim. Kesinlikle harikaydı; hem o bale gösterisi hem de bu. En kısa zamanda kitabını da okumaya çalışacağım. Kesinlikle bale gösterisini izlemeniz tavsiyemdir. Ayrıca 6 senelik görüntülü konuşmanın ardından 2 hafta sonra Sofia ve Yannis’i Ankara’ya getiriyorum. Gönlüm sizi de buna götürmemi istese de…😭😭 Olur da savaş çıkarsa lütfen en kısa zamanda benimle iletişime geçin. Yunan, İranlı, İspanyol, Amerikalı ve Hintli çok derin bağlantılarım var.. 🤪🤪
Eirik (1.5★) · 91 likes
Mikis Theodorakis' great Zorba's Dance is still played 24/7 at every single restaurant in the Greek tourist traps. Biting irony as the movie makes you want to visit Greece as much as Deliverance makes you want to visit the state of Georgia. This is intended as a crowd-pleaser but depicts a vile, murderous, thieving village of the kind you usually don't see outside of horror movies. And when the despicable villagers are done with their murdering and thieving, the main… more Mikis Theodorakis' great Zorba's Dance is still played 24/7 at every single restaurant in the Greek tourist traps. Biting irony as the movie makes you want to visit Greece as much as Deliverance makes you want to visit the state of Georgia. This is intended as a crowd-pleaser but depicts a vile, murderous, thieving village of the kind you usually don't see outside of horror movies. And when the despicable villagers are done with their murdering and thieving, the main… more
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Topics
1960s drama, Greek cinema, character study, travel narrative, existential, melancholic, sun-drenched, folk music, cultural clash, humanist