The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

As someone who has recently entered early middle age there has been no doubt in my mind who has been the most consistent actor in my lifetime - John Hurt . He's not an actor who'd probably qualify as "Film Star" but has appeared in film , theatre and television and had always given a great performance where he steals every scene . When an actor dies I'm not the sort of person who seeks out the departed's resume by in the case of Hurt I have made an exception and watched his breakthrough role in THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT as way of tribute This is based on Quentin Crisp's autobiography . Now no matter your opinion of Crisp or homosexuality the ethos of the narrative is how a cruel , conformist society treats the outsider . As someone who was born in to an Edinburgh housing estate I grew up on a small Scottish Island . An urban lower working class prole growing up in a class conscious crushing environment . Society scorns "You're not one of us" and you're supposed to put up with that until your autopsy . Anyone who considers themselves to be an outsider can either sit there and take it or stick two fingers up at the world and declare "I am who I am" . It says a lot about Hurt that he elicits so much empathy or even sympathy from the audience It should be remembered that THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT was produced in 1975 . In those days THE BLACK AND WHY MINSTREL SHOW and LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR were massive television hits so homosexuality was treated as a subject of insensitive humour in much the same way as race relations were . In other words the homosexuality portrayed in 70s television is one of grotesque black comedy and one can see an Islington dinner party in 2017 being outraged by the portrayal of homosexuality seen here . There is nothing to be offended about and the only possible sin seen here is one of self parody , but it's done with such a sense of tongue in cheek fun it's impossible not to be carried along by it . This is mainly down to the lead actor , an actor whose greatest tour de force as an outsider would be in THE ELEPHANT MAN in 1980 and a role that was predated five years earlier by the one seen here . .RIP John Hurt and thanks for all the great performances down the decades

Certainly you've all heard how great this movie is, how it's ahead of its time and that it's one of John Hurt's greatest performances. I wholeheartedly agree, and I don't think I can say anything that hasn't been said already. This movie came to me as a kind of surprise, and I'm glad it did. I'd just discovered who John Hurt was (Oh my God, he was the chestburster guy in Alien!) and was doing research into his work. When I stumbled upon this film, after reading the synopsis, I was fairly certain I would at least like it a little. A movie about a real homosexual man's life, trying to make his way through it, at the mercy of the world, sounded interesting to me. This movie gave me so much more than I'd anticipated, thank goodness. First of all what drew me in was that it was based on the life of a real figure, Quentin Crisp. "Oh, that's pretty cool." After that, the sight of Hurt in long red hair and walking with a feminine gait really grabbed hold of me. Sure I found it kind of funny, and of course great, but my major thought was, "How brave must an actor be to display himself in this way to thousands of people, and make them believe it's real!" And of course, the silent-film style text slides on the screen provided several laughs: "Some roughs are really queer, and some queers are really rough". Taken in fully now, I paid close attention to his performance through the rest of the film. It was a phenomenal performance! I am constantly recommending this movie to friends and I love going back and seeing it again. I am all for equality, and this movie deals with it in an amazing way, from the standpoint of a person who never knew that his was a widespread mental state. His directness and bravery reminded me of how I wish I was: willing to stand up for anything I believe in and "tell it like it is"! Highly recommend it; just don't be afraid to shed a few tears. ;)

The scene in the court is truly wonderfully done. John Hurt's dialog in court is brilliant and unlike anything you might expect. John Hurt won the British Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as Quentin Crisp. Crisp was a brave free spirit and John Hurt brings this out very clearly. This movie is drawn from Quentin Crisp's own book and that fact makes the story very exciting and pleasing. The cast is obviously sympathetic to the brave Crisp's travails and it all adds up to a great film. This film is one not to be missed and is available for purchase on line. I especially liked the friends he had who showed up in court to speak on his behalf. They simply said that he, Quentin Crisp, was a nice person and a great friend that they were proud to know him. He is a good honest man and had the courage to face the world with the truth. In spite of the ostracism and violence visited upon himself he remained the same, a witty non-violent good human being. This is a good movie about a good man.

John Hurt is one of England's finest actors, and in his long career there are two performances that stand out: "The Elephant Man" which earned him an Oscar nomination, and "The Naked Civil Servant", which as a TV dramatisation could not. Hurt plays the enigmatic Quentin Crisp to a tee. Unlike the vast majority of today's Western homosexuals, Crisp knew what he was and made no attempt either to fit in or to embrace the so-called gay culture. He realised the futility of the effeminate homosexual's search for what he called his great dark man, and in the end abandoned it. He died at the age of 90 after being celibate for half a century.He was also a natural exhibitionist, so his accidental choice of career was fitting. It remains to be seen how much licence has been taken either by Crisp himself – whose autobiography is called "The Naked Civil Servant" - or by the film makers, but certainly being an out homosexual in London from the 1920s to the 1950s was a different proposition from today, and there is no doubt he would have been queer-bashed from time to time.Something else that has changed is the public perception of the police, a perception that on occasion finds its way to the bench. That being said, the court scene was the high point of this dramatisation.