People are voting emotionally.

Memorable, crazy movie

Let's be realistic.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

If you knew that the manservant and master were supposed to swap places (the whole point of the movie) you will be extremely disappointed: This could have been done really well and it sounded like an interesting plot device. Seeing an IMDb score of 7.9 I was excited to watch this movie.However,rather than smoothly progressing from one state to the next, this movie dwells on each state for quite some time, so for example you see the state where the manservant and master are in their place, and then they presumably switch places in the last few minutes of the movie. It is unconvincing. Instead of the master being tricked, he is simply incapable of doing anything except breathing and drinking perhaps. The manservant is not crafty or anything, he is just there. Near the end he moans and complains 'you are so mean' so the master says 'I'm sorry' and the manservant says 'get me a beer then' so the master does. I can only assume this signifies they switched places because I didn't see any other clues and even after that you don't really see the manservant ordering the master around. Disappointing.Why is this movie 2 hours long, it could have been 1 hour and I wouldn't have missed anything.

It was almost impossible to conceive any mature idea about British cultural scene especially its cinema without mentioning the contribution of British playwright Harold Pinter in 1960s.His most successful partnership resulted in making of three iconic films with great director Joseph Losey.The Servant is one of those three films for which actor Dirk Bogarde was on the top form of his acting career.It is an honest indictment of depravity of British society which had scant respect for its employees earning their living as servants.Apart from supremacy games,Joseph Losey chose to truthfully depict numerous relationship games which revealed strengths and weaknesses of their protagonists.The breaking of rules in relationships and turning of tables was shown with absolute precision as it resulted in the victim becoming the victor and vice versa.Finally,this film showed its commitment to society by suggesting that everybody deserves to be treated with respect regardless of one's social standing.

Sixteenth feature film by American director Joseph Losey (1909-1984), an adaptation of a novel from 1948 by British novelist and playwright Robin Maugham (1916-1981), which was written by screenwriter and playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008), tells the story of Tony, a young and wealthy man who hires a man named Hugo Barrett to work for him as a servant at his house in London. Even though his girlfriend Susan acts with pointed prejudice towards Tony's newly hired servant and questions his character, Tony ignores this and continues his trusting friendship with the charming Hugo Barrett.This brilliantly written and directed British production, a character-driven, dialog-driven and rigorously structured study of character which portrays a fierce power struggle between a man from the upper-class and a man from the working-class, is a tense, intriguing and dramatic chamber-piece and a poignantly atmospheric Film-noir from the early 1960s with a underlining jazzy score by English Jazz composer John Dankworth (1927-2010). The noticeable black-and-white cinematography by British cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, the sarcastic humor, the pivotal use of light, the quick-witted dialog and the stellar acting performances by James Fox as the shallow and gullible Tony, Dirk Bogarde as the dutiful and articulate Hugo Barrett, Sarah Miles as the enigmatic and seductive Vera and Wendy Craig as Tony's loving and suspicious girlfriend Susan are crucial aspects which characterizes this interior thriller about the darkest sides of human nature.This BAFTA Award-winning film from the British New Wave is an internal psychological drama with an efficient shifting pace and artful milieu depictions which provides a detailed examination of the British class system. An ardent, acute and captivating masterpiece from the director who was blacklisted by Hollywood during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s for supposedly having attachments with the Communist party and exiled to England where he made most of his films.

The Servant is about an aristocrat, Tony, that returns to London and decides to hire himself a man servant to help him. He hires Hugo Barrett, who is not only good at his job, but very correct in his manners and confident in his abilities. Tony, however, doesn't have much personal strength, and often needs advice and leaves decisions about the house to Barrett. This gives Barrett power, so much that he supplants Tony as the true master of the house, leaving Tony in demise.The plot description opens up for very interesting possibilities. I envisioned a psychological power struggle between Tony and Barrett, a struggle that slowly shifted from Tony to Barrett. Unfortunately, the character Tony is far too weak compared to Barrett, and thus the shift is very quickly. And when it comes it goes very quickly. Instead focus is put on the introduction and the part leading up to the shift. That is very important if the power struggle is going to have any meaning, but in my opinion, is given too much time. The result was too much time waiting, and a feeling of everything being rushed when the struggle should take place. I'm not at all that impressed of the writing as many others seem to be, even though Harold Pinter is the man behind the pen. I had hoped for a much equal battle where the outcome is more unclear. Now Tony doesn't seem to realize he is in a battle at all.The acting is good, especially from Dirk Bogarde that plays Barrett, but this is not enough to carry the entire movie. Being somewhat of a classic with good ratings I had hoped for more, especially with Bogarde, Pinter and Lousey behind it. Good acting, some nice cinematic details but in all nothing to live up to the expectations.Unfortunately, the end did not much to salvage the movie either. I don't need a Hollywood ending, nor a happy one at all. But this just left too much hanging. Tony had clearly lost the battle, lost everything indeed, but it just didn't feel like it followed the story to the end. It felt like it ended mid sentence… 5/10