Not the best of Cacoyannis; there is too much 'local colour', (that credit 'and the people of Crete' says a lot), and the wild, savage, ethnic peasantry is laid on with a trowel as are Zorba's philosophical musings about life which really are a bit much. And as Basil, the young, bookish Englishman who comes to Crete to open a lignite mine, Alan Bates is a priggish bore. And yet, there are great things in this film. The two women are magnificent. Irene Papas, with her strong angular beauty, is a force of nature as the young widow who gives herself to Bates and Lila Kedrova is extraordinary as the pathetic old courtesan Madame Hortense who loves Zorba.
Both women have great death scenes: Papas killed by the villagers for sleeping with Bates in a sequence of almost Old Testament ferocity and Kedrova, dying of consumption, her house ransacked by the old, black clad village women like so many carrion crows. Neither of them are on screen long enough but when they are the film feels like a masterpiece.
As Zorba, Anthony Quinn's performance is a tour-de-force but there's almost too much of him. The film can hardly contain him and after the shooting of the film ended Quinn never stopped playing Zorba. It was if he had found the ideal part and wouldn't let it go . The film remains hugely entertaining but it is something of a mess and lacks the spontaneity of Cacoyannis' earlier films like "Stella" and "A Girl in Black".
Both women have great death scenes: Papas killed by the villagers for sleeping with Bates in a sequence of almost Old Testament ferocity and Kedrova, dying of consumption, her house ransacked by the old, black clad village women like so many carrion crows. Neither of them are on screen long enough but when they are the film feels like a masterpiece.
As Zorba, Anthony Quinn's performance is a tour-de-force but there's almost too much of him. The film can hardly contain him and after the shooting of the film ended Quinn never stopped playing Zorba. It was if he had found the ideal part and wouldn't let it go . The film remains hugely entertaining but it is something of a mess and lacks the spontaneity of Cacoyannis' earlier films like "Stella" and "A Girl in Black".