Zorba The Greek

“Zorba the Greek – a philophical ideal of humanity” When we first watch the movie about this eccentric Greek, named Zorba, we are encourage to think about the ideal of liberty, of how it is needed and sought by all men. Even being different in each character this liberty is unified by the antimoralism and the emocional liberty that involves a free and easy plot. Zorba is an hedonist man, or in other words, he does not care about what the other persons will think of him, he just do in his own way what he likes and wants to do. Like in a scene when Basil gives to him some money to buy the necessary material for work in the idle mine, but Zorba ends with a gorgeous woman wasting the money with presents. The women, who are for him sublime creatures, are also a manner to reach happiness and to surpass time, like if everyone became younger when realize that are in love. Differently from Zorba, but still his best friend, Basil is a British writer who fights with his internal liberty of his own imagination and a moralist society. He feels free only when he’s writing, nevertheless he ends up learning with the lifestyle of Zorba, releasing himself to live like in the poetry world from his books. Another character who, by the way, has no name and it is called “the widow” through all the movie, also helps our writer, but in a different way. “The widow” is a symbol of liberty against the traditional vows. She fights in a hypocrite society to be an independent woman, but that search impels people to think that she has a lover, wich is not allowed for a widow. Meanwhile, the men judge her just because they find themselves very much attracted to her beauty and youth and that is why they feel jealousy of her independence. When she and Basil meet there is a correspondence of desire to be free. They fall in love for each other but this passion will decree her death. This union symbolizes that the freedom that they have lived can surpass time an even death. It is almost an ideal to be fought for. So, we can say that time is also a sub theme witch establish with more vehemence the real theme of this movie: the liberty.

A prostitute named Madame Hortence is through all her old age trying to back in time. She misses her lovers, her youth but only one person can make her feel better: Zorba, and just because he makes her imagine she’s still young and beautiful like in old times. The liberty of imagination and the believe in his true love is all she needs to be happy. This focus on the theme explains why the movie ends with a dance. Since the classical times the dance is a symbol of men’s freedom, it is a traditional way to release yourself from your feelings. Zorba and Basil explored this unknown world of liberty, of this philophical ideal that helped to construct the humanity thought. All the characters contributed to build a unity of subject and this subject is enhanced through the entire movie. That is why “Zorba, the Greek” is not just a humble movie, it is a movie about a human condition.