49 Up 2006
A film review by Timothy Voon Copyright 2006 Timothy Voon
4 out of 5
Directed by Michael Apted
I shudder to think how quickly 7 years of my life has passed since I last viewed '42 up' in 1999. Like many of the real life characters of this reality documentary, this movies digs up issues from the past - some memorable, some cherished and some you would rather forget ever happened. I can understand why some of the characters are physically moved, even upset by being interviewed - yet again for the 7th time.
For those of you who are not familiar with the '7 up series', this was the first kind of reality TV to hit our screens back in the 60's before the likes of 'Big Brother' emerged in the 90's. It is by far one of the most ambitious projects that comes to mind. The study of human life, from birth to death every 7 years, of a cross section of children that were chosen across London society in the sixties.
The scrutiny must sometimes be unbearable, as whatever you say, whatever has happened, is forever captured on celluloid, never to be erased, for the whole world to see and judge you by. As 'Jackie' rightly says to the interviewer 'what right do you have to pick and choose how you depict me on screen, you have already decided in your mind what I am like'. Although I am sure that Michael Apted has intended this documentary to be as true a depiction of the historical record of someone's life - you can hardly 'sum' someone's life up in 15 minutes of interview where a lot of the conversation has to be edited to fit the time frames of the movies. 7 years in 15 mins does not accurately depict all your ups and downs, your successes and failures - after all it is sometimes the small, unseen day to day successes in your life that are the most rewarding. I can understand 'Jackie's' frustration; she is after all depicted as a single mom, suffering from rheumatoid arthiritis who is in the midst of re-evaluating her life by wanting to further her education.
The slogan for '7 up series' is 'Give me the boy at 7 and I will show you the man'. A bold statement! And one that you will have to decide for yourself if it carries any weight at all.
I did note that the children who came from a wealthier upper social back ground - John, Andrew and Suzy have ended up financially secure and in apparently stable relationships after 49 years. I was particular amazed to hear John and Andrew talk about their futures when they were just seven - that they would become lawyers and enter parliament ... and so they did. One became a solicitor, and the other a QC who married the daughter of the UK Bulgarian ambassador. Andrew is quite guarded during his interviews, where saying less is best, understandably. John has lost a lot of his hair, and campaigns passionately for a Bulgarian charity fund, as part of his heritage is Bulgarian. Suzy will most likely not reappear in the next installment of '56 up' as she says that she has reached her half century, and hints at probably preferring to age gracefully off screen. I can see in her manner and eyes that she is just tired of being interviewed for this series.
At the middle lower class end of the spectrum we have - Neil who was once so confused and tormented by his emotions and thoughts, and probably bordering on psychosis has stabilized into a politician, hanging up is vagabond hat and cape. Bruce has settled nicely into cosy home life enjoying his Sunday afternoon cricket and starting a family later in his life; he has opted for the financially secure and intellectually rewarding teach job at a private boy's school. Nick has had his fusion funding fall through and suffered a divorce, but has met a new love in his life. Then there is Paul and Symon. Both were raised at the same orphanage and their reunion 49 years later is touching. Much has happened in this time. Paul having moved to sunny Melbourne, has suffered the affects of depression probably related with his past. Symon remarried, is helping foster children. Tony has moved from horse jockey, to actor then to cabbie has built a house for himself in Spain. Lynn is still fighting passionately for educational funding for libraries which is sadly drying up and Sue has finally found love in the form of a childhood friend.
There are 2 people who have dropped out of the cast of the original twelve. This is pure speculation, but have you noticed that in our group of remaining 10 children there isn't anyone who is gay?
When all is said and done, this is reality TV in its finer form. Fortunately, it isn't overly confronting, explicit or rude - it is after all British. But it does generate a lot of discussion and debate with your friends and family about the way we live, how we relate too each other and how much of our past affects our future. There hasn't been a class reunion for these 12 children since they were seen all together in a playground when they were just seven years old. It would be nice to see them interact together again, but I don't think this is going to happen until they are probably eighty, and unfortunately by that time a few more cast members would have dropped out of the series.
Timothy Voon
Email - winklebeck@hotmail.com Web - http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Tim+Voon
-- rec-arts-movies-reviews@robomod.net mailing list http://www.robomod.net/mailman/listinfo/rec-arts-movies-reviews
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews