Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

In Zorba the Greek, it's the same old adage of foreigners who are uncouth, sloppy, dumb, violent, and ruled by lust. It's the familiar case of young, uptight person learning how to really live by an earthy, coarse mentor. Except it isn't. No matter how many times we've heard this story before, when we watch Zorba the Greek, somehow it's different.Alan Bates serves as the young, uptight person who doesn't really know how to live, and since he's so young and handsome, the audience has no problem putting themselves in his place-that's really the point in these types of stories, for the audience to learn the mentor's lessons, not the character. He goes to Greece and is somewhat enchanted, somewhat repelled by the different culture. There's a healthy amount of stereotypes present in the film that might come across as offensive, but somehow the black-and-white quaint, archaic quality of the movie unites all the elements and makes us think it's just a slice of the past, rather than a regular "foreign people are slobs" movie.Zorba is Anthony Quinn's most famous role, the tour-de-force everyone references and tries to emulate, even if they don't really know who Anthony Quinn is. The warmth, wisdom, freedom, love, acceptance, and of course, the dance, are all classic Anthony Quinn traits, and therefore Zorba traits. The Academy, in its infinite wisdom, awarded Tony Oscars for roles he never should have even been nominated for, and when he gave a tour-de-force performance, he was snubbed. Zorba the Greek was the only time he was nominated for Best Actor, but it's my sneaking suspicion that The Academy used Tony as their "token ethnic winner". They gave him two awards for supporting roles, letting him know his "place", and refused to give him an award for a leading role. Zorba the Greek is the type of movie you watch and say, "Of course he won the Oscar for this!" and in fact, some people think he did win for it. Beaten out by possibly the least deserving Oscar-winning performance of all time, Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, Anthony Quinn's quintessential performance is a favorite among fans and even non-fans. It's just impossible not to like him when you watch this movie. He's so full of love, life, and love of life.This highly successful film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and took home three, although for the life of me, I can't understand why Lila Kedrova was even nominated, let alone won. Ironically, the incredibly famous music, by Mikis Theodorakis, that's spoofed and repeated as often as the "Zorba dance" was not nominated for an Oscar. If you've never seen this classic, rent it this weekend. Pick out a nice bottle of wine and put together a little picnic of cheeses, meats, bread, and of course, olives. The movie was filmed on location, and you'll feel like you're really there!

Uptight writer Englishman Basil (Alan Bates) is waiting out a storm in Piraeus as he is approached by flamboyant Zorba (Anthony Quinn). Zorba wants Basil to take him on his trip to Crete where Basil's father left him some lands. Zorba was previously a miner and Basil tries to reopen the mine. The village is impoverished and the mine is too dangerous. They stay with the flighty older flirt Madame Hortense (Lila Kedrova). Zobra has an idea to log the mountain while Basil falls for the ostracized Widow (Irene Papas).That music is infectious. It pumps up the joy every time it's played. That's how I feel about Quinn's Zorba. He is a force of nature and full of life. He's also a very deep character and one of the great performances of all times. The widow's story is crazy scary and her climatic scene is so compelling. In fact, it's so fearful that I don't necessarily blame Basil. Everybody wants to be Zorba but sadly, most of us are more like Basil.

This movie is not for everyone. Many people may not understand it. I am from Greece and although I am very young and I have never experienced similar incidents, I have seen old Greek movies and I have listened many stories from my grandparents and parents.Yes that was the life in our villages years ago, when people were spontaneous, simple but also reckless and furious. Things changed, I don't know in a bad or in a good way because maybe now we are more ''civilized'' (if someone can define that word) but many things are lost.Anyway when this movie ended, I had a smile in my face and an optimism... It shows life as it is with ups and downs, with happiness and sadness. Even if there was a little madness, that's life and all we can do after all... is dance...

This movie came out when I was just 15. Although I heard and enjoyed the music many times in various places I always assumed that it might have been a boring flick about peasants dancing on a beach. Browsing about in IMDb one day I read the storyline, decided it might be worth seeing it and ordered the DVD version.Having read a number of glowing reviews I started watching it with anticipation. Zorba appears quite early on in the movie and straight away I found him irritating. Had I been Basil he'd have been given the brush-off pretty quickly. I've travelled quite a bit and I've come across many Zorba-like characters. Somewhat larger than life, full of grandiose gestures, familiar to the point almost of rudeness, oozing out lies and charm. A lovable rogue? Maybe, but how much of him is genuine and how much something he is capable of concocting in a moment? A man too, who admits he has raped and killed. You should be aware - and this movie actually illustrates it rather well - that associating with such characters will likely be your ruin.But, never mind, you can always dance! As of 2013 the Greeks are not dancing. Instead they are hurling stones and insults at their governing institutions, as the pack of cards they built up around them collapses. Perhaps in the past there have been too many Zorbas and not enough people who don't tell lies, won't steal your money or foist their crazy ideas upon you.So was it a boring movie about peasants dancing on a beach? Boring (with some notable exceptions, such as the truly horrific moment when the widow is brutally murdered), yes. But not peasants. Madmen. Quite, quite mad.