42 Up

One of the most important ongoing social and cultural projects of our time, this series of films has documented the lives of a number of people from the age of seven up. Currently the participants are in their mid-forties, now in a position to reflect on the past as well as to speculate about their future from a reasonably well-informed perspective. It is truly fascinating to get even this brief glimpse of how these people have progressed through their lives, from the fresh enthusiasm of early childhood through the angst and pain of the teen years, then coping with the various ups and downs of adulthood. Many have children of their own; some have lost parents along the way. Most have remained in their native England, where social class is more of an issue than here in the States. Class struggle is a topic of discussion in the film, though touched upon rather briefly.

This reviewer has been watching Michael Apted's project for the past fourteen years and is approximately the same age as the participants, a fact which makes the film that much more involving. One feels a connection with these people. Reviewing these people's lives is much like looking back at one's own, which strengthens the feelings of warmth and familiarity that this film evokes.

Mr. Apted has done an excellent job with these films and the reviewer wishes to express appreciation to him as well as to the interviewees.

I cannot say enough good things about this series. Each one seems to interest me more as I follow the lives of the kids I first saw in '7UP'. '42UP' continues to show us how they have evolved as people and how the British class system still has control over their lives. As an American I find it somewhat hard to understand that the class you are born into largely determines your educational choices and therefore part of the outcome of your life. I strongly suggest seeing as many of the series as you can, (7UP, 14UP, 21UP, 28UP, 35UP) before your see 42UP. But as a stand alone documentary it is still excellent.

The original idea was to see these kids of England in the year 2000. Director Michael Apted returns to see these kids, and I wonder what he sees of his charges. I think the social studies aspect is now mostly gone. They're not simply a rich child, or a poor child. These are individual characters each deserving of our attention.

We are now finding these people have surprising drama. The biggest stories are Tony had an affair, Simon returns to the series, and Bruce helps out Neil. Simon missed 35 Up and got divorced. He's remarried now and happier and more willing to do the series. On the other hand, John was never happy with the series and skip this one. Charles continues to skip the series and Peter is gone now also. The kids of the kids are growing up now, and the world keeps moving on.

This film and its predecessors are the most fascinating documentaries released cinematically, not because of their breathtaking cinematography, whiz-bang special effects or even revelation of secret or unknown information. What it does offer is a look straight into the personal lives of a group of people with nothing much in common except this series of extraordinary films which every 7 years throw their experiences open to the world. For the most part they are ordinary lives but they are engrossing as only reality can be. There is no gloss applied, no smoothing over of rough edges. Apted has become a friend to many of his 'subjects' and the warmth of their relationship with him comes into the film. In this program, even the effect of the film series on the people in it is examined, so in some ways it is a film about itself. Like a classic serial cliffhanger, at the end one is impatient to see the next instalment, but it will be seven years in production...

I can't say enough about this series. I just watched 28 up, 35 up and 42 up all in about a week's time, so there are a lot of things to talk about within the entire series, rather than just in this one particular film. But I'll do my best to focus on 42, since that is the film I am commenting on.

As a film on its' own, 42 up is probably the most interesting of the series as far as watching the people change physically over the years goes. Each subject filmed at the six different stages appears (except for those that had dropped out of the program) and you get to see how they have transformed over the years. 42 is also great because you also get to see how film techniques (& stock) have evolved over the years along with the people. In the present time, the film looks beautiful and rich in color while each successive film appears murkier and murkier over time until you get the original black and white of 1964. The problem with 42 Up, if you were going to watch just this one film, is that because there are so many flashbacks of people at various stages, this leaves little room for getting to know them better (during a 2 hour time frame). I have talked to people who say, "I am just going to watch 42 up because they give you all the background stuff anyway.." I say NO!.....

For a richer experience, and this is what I did so you can take it for what it's worth, watch 28, 35, and 42 up at least so you can get to know these people fully at each stage. There are crucial things that happen to these people in 35 for instance which does not show up in 42.(Neil!!John!!) I cannot even view each film as seperate, because they all seem sewn together somehow. Taken as a whole, they are amazing to watch..and the suspense in wondering what happened to each over the next seven years is truly there if you start early in the series. So watch some of the others before you watch 42 to get the full effect.

On to the characters..who are real people. Their stories are so beautiful to watch unfold over time it is truly amazing they were captured at each stage as they grew up. And you can even get the feeling by the end how large their lives really are and that they extend way beyond the borders of the film which the filmmakers obviously knew and luckily never once tried to pretend that they could completely capture the essence of a person on film. You just get tiny snippets of who these people are yet by the end you can't stop thinking about them, they become a part of you. I cannot think of any movie or series of movies where the characters were so richly drawn as these were, especially over the course of time. A beautiful, wonderful series that everybody should own.

Questions (if anyone can answer them for me) 1) Whatever happened to John???? why don't they even mention him (like they do some of the others who dropped out) in 35 & 42? He disappears after 28! What happened to him??? 2) Are there any other projects going on like this in America or on a global scale? I think it would be a brilliant idea to do this similarly Globally to investigate and compare cultures all over the world! 3)Will there be a 49 Up or was that the end of the series?