Zorba the Greek | | Cast : | Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates | | Director : | Michael Cacoyannis | | Studio : | Fox Home Entertainme | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | December 17, 1964 | | DVD Released Date : | August 03, 2004 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | How does this movie really feel about women? Or Greeks, for that matter? | Content
 | I was sorely disappointed by this movie. While Zorba himself is charming (enough to almost gain this review a 3-star rating on his own merits), the rest of the movie presents a blatantly racist, sexist and classist world view.
1)Racist: Except for Zorba himself, the Greeks in the movie are cruel, heartless, murderous, plundering fools with no human compassion. Additionally, Basil is a personification of the negative British stereotype: physically weak, weak-willed, uptight, and emotionally crippled.
2)Sexist: Women in this movie have three options. They can be a prostitute, a crone, or a murder victim. In each of these cases, they'll have their heart toyed with, be subjected to ridicule or worse for seeking joy and freedom in their life, and will likely meet a grizzly death.
3) Classist. The cruel, heartless, plunderous, murderous fools aren't just Greek, they're poor Greeks. With the exception of Zorba, the amount of compassion characters show is directly proportional to the amount of money they have. The penniless peasant women clean their newly deceased neighbors' house of all possessions in a matter of moments. The poor suitors play cruel tricks on the widow, drive a better-off suitor to his death with rumors, and then brutally murder a helpless woman. On the other hand, the widow who owns her own farm feeds and supports a local insane beggar, and Basil himself shows unexpected kindness to his workers and those around him.
Zorba himself is charming, despite his rather human character character flaws. His zest for life, his sometimes crazy schemes, his insistance on seeing everyone as an individual, all are endearing. In any other movie I would have adored him, but he just wasn't enough to save this one. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 24, 2005 | | Summary | People are awful and this movie is now too. | Content
| I saw Zorba 40 years ago in my 'Greek period' and loved the film.Now I feel nothing but revulsion.Revulsion against the Greek villagers who are medieval, evil,murderous and pillaging. -not very inviting for the tourist industry.Revulsion against the British coward for not defending his woman or at least shielding her.Revulsion against the Greek crook who dances his troubles away.Revulsion against a technical DVD fiasco which made my memories even more painful.Remaons the beautiful theme music and there was too little of it. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 06, 2005 | | Summary | I don't get it | Content
| Something may be wrong with me but I really didn't see anything special in this movie. Anthony Quinn played a good part as always but I found many of the other charachters grating, especially the french prostitute. The cinematography in black and white combined with a good performance from Anthony Quinn are my sole reasons for one star. The plot line was slow, and in my opinion not very good.I ended up turning this off after the first hour. I tried really hard to see what all the fuss was about but could not endure another hour. Maybe if I had watched this all the way through I may have seen it differently, but I will not be renting it again to find out. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2005 | | Summary | Outstanding film but package is lacking | Content
| I just purchased this DVD and watched it last night. I haven't examined it for the problems with aspect ratios and full screen being cropped at top and bottom to imitate widescreen, etc. The picture looks fine to me. What struck me was the mislabeling of the contents. On the back of the case, listed among the 'Features' are the following: 1) Commentary by Director Michael Cacoyannis; 2) Alternate Introduction; 3) "Anthony Quinn: Lust for Life" as seen on BIOGRAPHY on the A&E Network; 4) Movietone News Footage; 5) Theatrical Trailers; 6) Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery. After I watched the movie I checked out the Special Features and was surprised and dismayed to discover that it only contained the commentary from Michael Cacoyannis - no introduction, no A&E biography of Tony Quinn, not even a theatrical trailer, which is usually what appears on even bare bones DVDs. Obviously something went wrong between preparation and actual release of this DVD. I didn't see that any of the reviewers had commented on this omission so I just thought I would. Outstanding movie though. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 09, 2004 | | Summary | so-so movie, FANTASTIC QUINN | Content
| What can I say ..... I was disappointed with the movie ...... lucky me ended up with Anthony Quin for consolation.
Anthony Quinn is the star, and he is the ONLY reason to buy this movie, and a good one at that. He is THAT good, and you think he is of Greek heritage (but was born in Mexico in real life).
Movie overall is OK, and it does flow (pulled along by QUINN's acting as it were). It's a B/W life drama on a lonely Greek island, more of a character play than an action movie. Was disappointed the musical theme didn't recur enough times/for long enough periods. |
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