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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

James Fox played the boy who raced against Tom Courtenay in Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner. He was good in that. I dont think there is much difference between Barrett and Tony. Tony was making believe he was rich and Barrett made believe he was a servant. occasionally they told the truth or rather the truth slipped out. Just lonely people being unable to find love. Its a movie you dont want to see often.

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.

The book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has been a useful companion to me and helped me find hundreds of films I otherwise would not have heard or cared about necessarily, this film was naturally one I had never heard of, but I was keen to see what it was about. Basically young wealthy aristocrat Tony (James Fox) has moved to London, and recently he has hired manservant Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) for all his services at home, and his employee seems reliable, loyal and competent. Tony's girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig) does not like Barrett being in the house and wants him to be sent away, and it only gets worse when the servant's sister Vera (Sarah Miles) comes to live and work as the house, and Tony has a secret affair with her. Tony and Susan leave the house in the care of Barrett and his sister while they go to stay with some friends outside of the city, and when they return they find that the siblings are in fact, therefore they are fired, and Susan breaks up with her boyfriend due to his infidelity. Later Tony decides he does still need a hand in the house, so secretly in a pub he and Barrett talk and he rehires him, and this ignites the real intentions for the servant, he plans to slowly manipulate his employer so that he will insist on needing him and break down until their roles are reversed, so he will be the master. Also starring Catherine Lacey as Lady Mounset, Richard Vernon as Lord Mounset, Ann Firbank as Society Woman, Doris Knox as Older Woman, Patrick Magee as Bishop and Harold Pinter (also writing) as Society Man. Bogarde is obviously the big reason to see this film with his pretty chilling performance as the butler-type playing mind games on his master to rule the roost, I will confess I didn't understand everything in terms of how the villain tricks the boss to go mad and collapse, but I did like how nasty he was in the right moments, it is an interesting enough psychological drama. Good!

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