42 Up

Biography, Documentary

Bruce Balden	Himself
Jacqueline Bassett	Herself
Symon Basterfield	Himself
Andrew Brackfield	Himself
John Brisby	Himself
Suzanne Dewey	Herself
Charles Furneaux	Himself
Nicholas Hitchon	Himself
Neil Hughes	Himself
Lynn Johnson	Herself
Paul Kligerman	Himself
Susan Sullivan	Herself
Tony Walker	Himself
Michael Apted	Narrator / Interviewer
Peter Davies	Himself

Director	Michael Apted
Producer	Michael Apted; Stephen Lambert

The premise behind the Up series is deceptively simple: take a cross-section of children at age 7, ask them about their hopes for the future, and then return every seven years to mark their progress. However, the results of these experiments, launched in 1963 by Britain's Granada Television, are anything but mundane, and their revelations about society, maturation, and the human condition were compiled into six extraordinary films, packaged together for the first time in this five-disc set. We meet the 14 children whose lives we will follow for the next 36 years in Seven Up, a episode of the television series The World in Action and directed by Paul Almond. What becomes evident almost immediately is that class and background will have an indelible effect on the kids for the rest of their lives; the upper-class boys and girls seem confident to the point of boorishness, while the middle- and working-class children seem resigned to a life of hard work or inevitable failure due to their backgrounds.

Fascinated by the footage, Almond's assistant, Michael Apted (later the director of The World Is Not Enough, among others, and president of the Directors' Guild), proposed to revisit the subjects every seven years, and in 1970, 7 Plus Seven was released, followed by 21 Up in '77, 28 Up in '84, 35 Up in '91, and the most recent entry, 42 Up, in '99 (Apted plans to continue the project). And the changes that occur to the original 14 (some of whom drop out of the project) are among the most fascinating and often tragic ever recorded on film. Success, failure, marriage and childbirth, poverty, illness--almost every possible element of the human experience passes before Apted's camera. And while each of the children's stories is riveting, the viewer will undoubtedly be gripped by that of Neil, a shy boy who endures incredible hardships. A one-of-a-kind series and sociological experiment, The Up Series is required viewing for not only documentary fans but any viewer with a curiosity about and concern for their fellow humans. The DVD set includes commentary by Apted on 42 Up. --Paul Gaita

"Give me the child until he is 7, and I will give you the man" is the Jesuit maxim that was the kicking-off point for the most fascinating sociological record ever put on film. In 1964 the producers of 7 Up interviewed 14 children from varying social backgrounds, and every seven years since then film director Michael Apted (a researcher on the initial program) has checked in with them as they grew up. 42 Up, the 1998 installment, is in many ways the most contemplative and satisfying of the series, even though three of the original group have opted out of this round.

On a superficial level it's a study of an inflexible class system and the compromises, shifting values, and changing priorities of the people growing up in it. Apted (who now has seven generations of footage at his disposal) enjoys cutting between youthful dreams and aspirations and adult realities, but what was ironic effect in earlier chapters now takes on a more thoughtful and contemplative perspective. At mid-life the subjects (most of them now husbands, wives, and parents) have a mature perspective and a philosophy rooted in a life lived, while Apted, who has literally grown up with these people, brings a sensitive appreciation to their experiences.

Followers of the series will enjoy revisiting some of the more colorful and personable characters and will find a gratifying sense of hope in the turnaround of social dropout Neil, but no previous viewing is necessary to enjoy this portrait. 42 Up finds the remarkable humanity and strength of these ordinary people and their everyday lives, and that's an accomplishment few films can boast. --Sean Axmaker