49 Up

I have recently watched all of the Up series, finishing with 49 Up this evening. While I have enjoyed the series and been fascinated by the people involved, I did agree with John somewhat that it's a bit like Big Brother or some other reality series.

Upon talking it over with my husband, however, I find that I have misjudged it. The series does have a lasting value that is not present in entertainment based reality TV shows. What does the series teach us? Tolerance and acceptance of our own fallible judgments. We see these people at 7 and we decide what they will be doing at 21 or 35. Inevitably we're wrong on some important level. What this shows us is that we can never truly know someone, especially someone we don't have an intimate family relationship with, because we never get more than a glimpse into their inner life.

At 7 I didn't like Tony. At 21 I didn't like Suzie. The only person I have admired from the beginning is Bruce. Now, at 49, I find them all interesting, individual people and I have a great deal of respect for each of them. They have made their lives something to be proud of. They bring value into the lives of their families and communities, but also to those of us who only see a tiny portion of their lives every 7 years.

This isn't reality TV. This is reality- this is life being lived by real people. I hope they will continue to do the program, despite the intrusion. I hope they will understand that they do bring something more into our lives than a couple hours entertainment.

In 1964, English filmmakers including director Michael Apted assembled a group of fourteen British children from various economic and social backgrounds, all age 7, and made a documentary about them called 7 Up. Every seven years afterward, Apted revisited the same children and made another documentary about them, chronicling their lives at the ages of 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now 49. The first installment that I watched, 28 Up, made me fall in love with these films. Much has been said about the series depicting the rigidity of the English class system, but as decades go by, the human element, the nature and personalities of the individuals being profiled, seems to be almost as important in affecting how their lives turned out. After seeing 28 Up and 35 Up, I remember feeling very bad for one kid who grew up coping with mental health problems and eventually wound up homeless, and thought leaving the theater that he wouldn't be alive for 42 Up. But by then he had moved to London and involved himself in local politics, a rewarding turn of events for him, and for the audience as well. The kids from the upper crust backgrounds have predictably had more affluent lives, and turned out to be the least forthcoming and most guarded on camera as adults, and less easy to warm up to. Some kids had deep seated feelings of shyness and insecurity that stayed with them as adults, and very publicly evaluating their failures and achievements every several years has been very difficult and uncomfortable for them. But even though some seem to resent the filmmakers' intrusion in their lives, they generally seem to understand the larger value of the series and twelve of the original fourteen kids continue to participate, even though they have misgivings or regrets about it. It's interesting to watch marriages and relationships suddenly begin and end, and usually people quickly remarry or find another relationship, often to someone more compatible and attractive. I identified most with the children who grew up to be teachers and academics, highly likable, intelligent people who realize that they aren't the most socially or economically successful but in many ways seem to be the most happy and fulfilled ones of the bunch. Despite their ambivalence, the participants deserve a big round of applause for letting us grow up and old along with them.

It is not quite a 50th Birthday invitation, but as most of the original cast of the landmark documentary 7 Up, approach the big 5-0, we are invited back into their lives to celebrate their most recent trials and tribulations in Michael Apted's 49 Up.

It was the Up series that launched Apted's career, and he now has some thirty titles under his belt, including James Bond: The World Is Not Enough and Gorilla's in the Midst.

The Up series began in 1964 as a sociological experiment. Apted, armed with a video camera, set out see if life was pre ordained for children by the class they were born into. To test this concept, 14 children of the same age, but born into varying social strata's were filmed interacting together at a zoo. The Up series is credited with paving the way for other historically important screen documentaries.

It is remarkable in itself that Apted has managed to keep track of the original, and willing Up participants. As her revisits them every 7 years, the footage from these lengthy interviews is what makes up the series. By 49 Up, the 'class outcomes' are put to bed.

Apted should be credited for moving beyond the class wars, and choosing to focus on journey and personal growth of his participants as the greatest mark of achievement. This was summed up beautifully by a UK movie buff: "in a real sense, all are successful, when we define success as finding fulfillment in where you are and in what you do."

The greatest success story and Apted's own personal favourite is the story of Neil. After learning of Neil's stints of homelessness, and battle with mental illness, fellow Up participant Bruce, threw him a life line 7 years ago by offering Neil a place to stay and then went about helping him get on his feet. Now, Neil lives independently with a fixed address and is running for town mayor.

Most participants have something inspiring and surprising in their stories. Even John Brisby, who features in 49 Up as a prominent lawyer, has lived his life very much like her predicted when he was a child. When we meet John at age 7, he was apparently reading the Financial Times, was most concerned about schools becoming free, fearing they would become 'terribly crowded.' He had aspirations of attending Cambridge and becoming a lawyer.

So in 49 Up it was a touch ironic that he had committed a large portion of his life to building free schools in Bulgaria and working to improve the medical system. His reasoning to appear in 49 Up was to 'raise awareness on a greater platform'.

The tearful admission of tough but lovable Lyn Johnson about her loosing fight to stabilize funding for her work she does with disabled children will touch all, and hopefully mobilize the relevant agencies to do something about it. What is also surprising is how media savvy both Lyn and John have become to use the series to further their own causes.

On a lighter note, little Tony, the knockabout kid from the east end who wanted to be a jockey, is now Tony the owner driver of a cab, grandfather and , has a villa in Spain as well as his home in London. He has done some acting work thanks to the Up series, and his honest and welcoming account of his last 7 years is a highlight. However, my favorite is still Bruce, for no prolific reason. You'll have a favourite by the end too.

49 Up intended to be a fly on the wall documentary, but you can't help to wonder if their lives are a product of the experiences presented to them, because of the Up documentaries. It is a phenomenal series, and its format has been copied in other countries and it is used as an education aid in VCE psychology classes, yet, after 42 years, they participants are still bewildered by our interest in their 'ordinary' lives. John offers us his insight about our fascination: " It's like watching Big brother except the viewer gets the added bonus of watching us all grow old and get fat."

For all the differences in their back grounds, the participants are seem to have a similar trait- optimism and resilience, and it is satisfying to watch. Yes the once wide eyed 7 year old are now plumper, greyer, and more precocious then ever, yet there is a little bit of all of them in us, and that is why we will eagerly await 56 Up in 2013.

"49 Up" (2005), co-produced and directed by Michael Apted, is the seventh episode of a unique venture in film-making. Apted began filming a group of children at age seven, and has followed and filmed their lives every seven years since then.

For us, as spectators, following the progress of the lives of these children has been fascinating. However, the children themselves, who are now well into middle age, don't appear to be very happy with themselves or with the project.

I have two questions about this. In the first place, why are these people so angry at Michael Apted? (We never see Apted, but the individuals confront him, and we hear his answers to their comments.) Naturally, it's hard to know what Apted puts into his films, and what he leaves out. However, as far as I can tell, he's fair and objective in what he shows us. The characters in the movies certainly don't like the films, and most of them don't like Apted. One person, while conceding that being in the film helped him raise money for his favorite charity, refers to the process as the poison pill that he swallows every seven years. The United Kingdom has a population of about 60 million people. That means that these people had roughly a two in a million chance to be chosen for the project. No one else in England--even the Queen--is scrutinized in quite this way. Why aren't they happy to leave a record of their lives?

The second question is, If they hate the project so much, why do they continue to participate? (I don't know if they are paid--that's never been made clear.) In any event, they certainly don't have any legal, moral, or ethical obligation to allow Apted to film them. They could just tell him that they're finished with the project. Why don't they? (Some have, but most return every seven years.)

I had a thought about this after seeing 49 Up. This time, I found the film pretty depressing. Naturally, some people were happier than others, but no one appeared to be really satisfied with his or her life. Could it be that something about being filmed every seven years has altered the trajectory of the lives of these people? Maybe they think they would have been happier if they had never heard about Apted's project. Maybe they're wrong, but maybe they're right.

The seventh film in the unique "Up Series" - documentaries made for Granada, the privately held British television corporation - that has followed a group of 14 ostensibly normal English subjects, of differing backgrounds, from age 7 to 49, issuing a follow-up film every 7 years. This latest installment is the best to date. It is well organized, presenting one person's life at a time rather than skipping around among them. Nearing age 50, these people have become highly thoughtful and articulate; they're all more interesting now than ever before. And the director, Michael Apted, has also vastly improved his skills at interviewing his subjects, which makes a great difference for the better. What impresses is how well nearly everyone has done in life.

The original thesis of the series is that kids grow up without much change from the way they were early on, a view put forward in the 16th Century Jesuit aphorism: "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man." But the life trajectories of a number of these individuals belie that view, suggesting instead that people often do change in response to life circumstances, a view supported in several 20th Century accounts of human development across the lifespan (e.g., the work of the Harvard psychologist Robert White and his contemporary, the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson).

The original thesis in the first film, "7 Up," also held that social class, or socioeconomic opportunity, had a controlling effect on development, a view that excludes the influence of both hereditary and learned aspects of individual psychological makeup and adaptation. Roger Ebert lists the "Up Series" among his top ten film productions of all time, and has said that the series represents "…an inspired, almost noble, use of the film medium." I heartily agree. My grades: 10/10 (A+) (Seen on 10/17/06)